2 Timothy 3
McGeeCHAPTER 3THEME: The coming apostasy and the authority of ScriptureIn this chapter Paul warns of the apostasy that will come in the last days. He also gives us the antidote for that apostasy, which is the Word of God. That is why this chapter is so important and meaningful for us today.
2 Timothy 3:1
APOSTASY IN THE LAST DAYS"This knows also." Paul is telling Timothy something very important that he wants him to know. He is telling him what to expect and what is to be the future of the churchit is not a very bright future for the organized church. “The last days” is a technical term used in several places in the New Testament; it speaks of the last days of the church, immediately preceding the rapture of the church. The last days of the church are not the same as the last days of the nation Israel, which is mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the last days are called the “end of the age” or “the time of the end,” which is the Great Tribulation period. That is quite different from the last days of the church, which precede the rapture of the church. The apostasy that began in the church in Paul’s day will continue. Paul warned the church at Ephesus that false leaders would enter the church after his decease. He told them in Act_20:29-30: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” They won’t give out the Word of God but will fleece the congregations. Believe me, false teachers shear the sheep pretty close! “Perilous times shall come,” which means grievous or desperate times are coming. That doesn’t look like the conversion of the world, does it? It doesn’t appear that the church is going to bring in the Millennium or is going to convert the world. The Bible doesn’t teach that it will. That is the pipe dream of a great many idealists and a great many folk who have lived with their heads ostrich-like in the sand and have never faced reality. Instead, notice what will be coming in the last days. We have nineteen different descriptions given in the next few verses. It is an ugly brood, but we want to look at them because they present the best scriptural picture of what is happening today. We are, I believe, moving into the last days of the church. My reason for saying this is that the things mentioned in these verses have appeared today. If you look back in the history of the church, you could certainly find some of these things in evidence, but I don’t think you could ever find a period in which all of them are so manifested as they are today. I believe we are now in these “perilous” days which are described in this section. I don’t know how much longer it will last, but I’m sure it’s going to get worse, not better.
2 Timothy 3:2
There are nineteen words or phrases used to describe the last days.
- “Lovers of their own selves"self-lovers. This is very much in evidence in our culture today. An article by a newspaper correspondent who had covered Washington, D.C., for many years, noted that the one thing which has characterized Washington for the past twenty years is that those who are in position want the reporters to praise them. In fact, they insist upon it. That is not confined to Washington. Hollywood is probably one of the greatest places for scratching each other’s backs.
One actor will publicly say something nice about another, then the other one will return the favor. You find this in every walk of life. Even schools have self-love. If a man boosts a school, then the school boosts him by giving him an honorary degree. Also, you can find this in the churches. Paul goes on to say, in chapter 4, verse 2Ti_4:3, that congregations will follow teachers “having itching ears.” These teachers want their ears scratchedthey want to be complimented.
To be complimented, you have to compliment. So the teachers compliment their congregations and their boards of officers. They don’t tell the people that they are sinners and need a Savior; they tell them how wonderful they are. It is interesting that the love of self characterizes our contemporary society. Probably there has never been a time when it has been so common. 2. “Covetous” means lovers of money. This follows self-love, because lovers of self become lovers of money. This old nature likes to have a lot of money spent on it. Remember that Paul said in 1Ti_6:10, “…the love of money is the root of all evil….” Money itself is not bad. The problems come in our attitude toward our money. Covetousness reveals itself not only in the acquisition of wealth but also in the use of it. 3. “Boasters.” That word has in it the idea of swaggerers. You can sometimes tell a proud man by the way he walks. He walks like a peacock; he swaggers. 4. “Proud” means haughty. 5. “Blasphemers” is better translated railers. I remember the story of a fellow whose wife said to him, “Everyone in town is talking about the Smiths’ quarrel. Some of them are taking her part and some are taking his part.” He chimed in, “Well, I suppose a few eccentric individuals are minding their own business.” Well, railers include those who are always poking their noses into somebody else’s business. 6. “Disobedient to parents.” Certainly this is self-evident. Oh, the thousands of boys and girls and teenagers who are in complete rebellion against their parents! 7. “Unthankful.” Many people receive kindnesses from others without even thinking of thanking them. And they accept everything from God without ever returning thanks to Him. 8. “Unholy” is profane. They are actually against God in their conversation and in their manner of life. 9. “Without natural affection” means having abnormal relationships. We are living in a day when homosexuality is being accepted as normal conduct. Yet in Rom_1:24 Paul clearly states, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.” Humanity sinks to its lowest level when it accepts homosexuality. 10. “Trucebreakers” are people who are impossible to get along with. They are irreconcilablethey won’t let you get along with them. I recall seeing a little sign in a restaurant out in West Texas which read, “We can’t please everybody, but we try.” Well, you can’t please everybody; there are folk who are impossible to please. 11. “False accusers” certainly abound today! 12. “Incontinent” means without self-control. That, again, characterizes a large segment of our contemporary society. 13. “Fierce” means savage. In our day the city streets have become asphalt jungles. Many of them are unsafe even in the daytime. 14. “Despisers of those that are good” is better translated haters of the good. We see evidence of that abroad! 15. “Traitors” are betrayers. There are some folk whom you don’t dare trust. 16. “Heady” means reckless. 17. “Highminded” means blinded by pride or drunk with pride. 18. “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” This actually characterizes mankind in our day. Never has there been a time when so much money has been spent in order to provide pleasure. Look at the athletic and entertainment events today. These are the things that are attracting millions of people. That is exactly the route Rome took when it went down. The mob was provided with grain and circuses, and then Rome fell.
That same thing is happening today. I have always loved to participate in athletics, but I could never understand this type of athletics that just sits and beholds. I never thought that it was very exciting to go out to the coliseum and sit with 85,000 people to watch twenty-two men working for $25,000 (or more) apiece. Of course I would like to be out there myself, but I am not interested in watching them as much as I would be in watching a ditchdigger because he is not as money hungry. I don’t blame any man for making as much money as he can, but the point is that billions of dollars are being spent for entertainment because men are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
2 Timothy 3:5
- “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” They go through the rituals of religion but lack life and reality. “From such turn away” means that the believer is to avoid them. Let me ask you a question: If you are in a dead, cold, liberal church, and you are a true believer, what are you doing there when the Word of God says to avoid those things? All across this country there are wonderful pastors who are faithfully preaching the Word of God. Why aren’t you supporting and standing with these fine men?
2 Timothy 3:6
“Silly women” means silly women of both sexes. There are some people who have attended Bible conferences for years, but they don’t know any more about the Word of God now than they did when they began. They have never matured. Their lives are not changed. Friend, if you find yourself in that category today, get down on your knees and ask God to forgive you!
2 Timothy 3:8
“Jannes and Jambres” apparently were the names of the two magicians called in by Pharaoh when Moses began the miracles and the plagues came upon Egypt. We would never have known the names of these magicians if Paul hadn’t given them to us. Of course, that opens a great reservoir of speculation as to where Paul got those names. The simple answer is that the names were revealed to him by the Spirit of God. I don’t think that the specific names add much information to the account, but it does reveal that Paul knew their names and that the magicians were real individuals who did withstand Moses. You can read about them in the seventh chapter of Exodus. The account in Exodus reveals that Satan has power, supernatural power, and also that he is a great little imitatorhe imitates the things that God does. Jannes and Jambres were able to perform miracles by the power of Satan. Moses did them by the power of God. This is, I believe, the reason reference is made to them here. We need to understand in our day that Satan can imitate the power of God. John warns us in 1Jn_4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Satan can imitate the power of God. In our day I’m afraid that in many places a manifestation of power is misunderstood as coming from God when it really comes from Satan. “Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” Paul is saying that men on the contemporary scene, like Jannes and Jambres, have corrupt or depraved minds. “Reprobate concerning the faith” means that they have discarded the faithrejected it totally. We have had a classic example of this within the past few years. There was a bishop of the Episcopal church out here on the West Coast, a man apparently of tremendous ability, but he and his family were delving into that which was spiritualistic, bordering on the supernatural. As nearly as I can tell, this man rejected the great truths of Scripture, and he made a trip to Palestine in an attempt to disprove some of the great truths of the Word of God. Well, rather than disproving any of them, he certainly proved some of themand this is one of them. A very strange thing happened out there in a wilderness area for the man to die as he did.
I don’t propose to offer any explanation, other than he is a noteworthy example of one who once professed to believe the Word of God but became, as the Scripture says, a reprobate, a castaway. He discarded the faith.
2 Timothy 3:9
The experience of that Episcopal bishop should be a tremendous warning to Christians. You can dabble in spiritism if you want to, but you are toying with something that is dangerous. There is a manifestation of satanic power about us in our day. It is an anomaly that our crassly materialistic age, which had rejected the supernatural altogether, is discovering the reality of the supernatural, although much of it is satanic, of course.
2 Timothy 3:10
AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURES IN THE LAST DAYSTimothy knew Paul, knew him well. Paul’s life was an open book, as every Christian’s life ought to be.
2 Timothy 3:11
Timothy knew well Paul’s suffering which he had endured in his journeys. Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, and Lystra were all places in the Galatian country where Paul had gone on his first, second, and third missionary journeys. When Paul was at Lystra, he was stoned and left for deadI think he was dead and God raised him up from the dead. Paul said that God intervened in his behalf: “But out of them all the Lord delivered me.” Timothy knew of these things because he and his family were from that area.
2 Timothy 3:12
I believe that we are beginning to move into a time in this country when it will cost you something to be a Christian. Melvin Laird, long before he was Secretary of Defense, made a statement in San Francisco at a Republican convention. I do not know the circumstances which prompted the statement, but he said, “In this world it is becoming more and more unpopular to be a Christian. Soon it may become dangerous.” We are seeing the accuracy of this statement. Real Christianity and real Christians are becoming very unpopular. I am not really moved today when the press cries that there is no freedom of press. The bleeding-heart press has played that theme for all it’s worth, but have they said anything about the fact that real Christianity is stifled by the press? When was the last time you read a sympathetic article on the biblical position? The media stifles news that presents real Christianity. If a fundamental preacher gets any publicity, it will be distorted and misrepresented. Of course, if a preacher gets on the wrong side of the law he will make the front page; but if he saves a group of people from going to hell he is ignored. Friend, we are moving into an orbit when Christians may have to pay a price to stand for the faith.
2 Timothy 3:13
“Seducers” are sorcerers or imposterseither one. “Deceiving, and being deceived"leading astray, then in turn led astray themselves. Such is the picture of the last days before the rapture of the church. Now what can a child of God do in days like these?
2 Timothy 3:14
ANTIDOTE FOR APOSTASYThe only antidote against a world of apostasy is the Word of God. The only resource and recourse for the child of God is the Word of God. Paul tells Timothy to continue in the things he has learned. He had learned the Holy Scriptures because his grandmother and mother were Jewish women and had seen to it that Timothy grew up on the Word of God. “Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” What kind of salvation is he talking about? After all, Timothy was already saved. Well, salvation occurs in three tenses. There is the past tense: I have been saved from sin. The present tense is: I am being saved from sin. The third tense is future: I shall be saved from sin.
Let me elaborate. In the past tense, we have been saved. Christ bore a judgment death for us. When we believe on Him, we pass from death to life, and we are no longer under condemnation"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus …” (Rom_8:1). We are also being saved. He is working out a salvation in us, and we won’t even have that perfected in this life.
But as we look into the future we know a day is coming when “…it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him …” (1Jn_3:2). Paul is saying that the Scriptures not only give us the modus operandi of being saved (that is, passing from death to life and having eternal life and becoming a child of God), but save us in this present evil worldenable us to grow and give us deliverance down here. It is my contention that the constant study of the Word of God is the only help that any of us has. It is able to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And I think it makes us wise in knowing how to live down here.
2 Timothy 3:16
When Paul says “all scripture,” he means all of it, from Genesis to Revelation. Somebody will say, “But don’t you know that Revelation hadn’t been written at the time 2 Timothy was written?” Yes, I know that. But the important thing to know is that Revelation became Scripture, so it is covered by this word all. The word inspiration means “God-breathed.” The writers of Scripture were not just pens that the Lord picked up and wrote with. The marvel is that God used these men’s personalities, expressed things in their own thought patterns, yet got through exactly what He wanted to say. Through these men God has given us His Word. He has nothing more to say to us today. If He spoke out of heaven today, He wouldn’t add anything to what He has already said. “Is profitable for doctrine.” Scripture is good “for doctrine,” that is, for teaching. That’s why we teach it. It is good “for reproof,” which means conviction. Studying the Bible should bring conviction to us. In fact, that is the way you can test whether the Word of God is moving in your life. If you read this Book like any other book, then the Spirit of God is not moving in your life. But if it convicts you, then you know the Holy Spirit is at work within you. It is “for correction,” that is, setting things right in your lifecorrection of error. It is “for instruction,” which means discipline, thinking and acting in accordance with God’s will.
2 Timothy 3:17
“Perfect” doesn’t mean that you and I will reach the kind of perfection where absolutely everything we do is right. Rather, it means we will attain full maturation. (There are a lot of baby Christians around today.) We’ll be complete, full-grown people. “Thoroughly furnished” is thoroughly furnished. That is, the Word of God can fit you out for life for every good work. My friend, I am against these little programs and systems that purport to bring you to Christian maturity in a few easy lessons. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and all of it is to be used in order to meet your needs. As we come to the conclusion of chapter 3, let me remind you that Paul has talked to Timothy in a very personal way. Timothy had been taught the Word of God, and now he is to declare the Word of God. Paul has emphasized that in the days of apostasy our resource, our recourse, is to the Word of God, and it will adequately meet our need. This is exactly what the Word of God is doing in the lives of multitudes of folk who write to me in response to my Bible-teaching radio program. We have seen that all Scripture is given by inspiration of Godit is God-breathed. It says what God wants said, and it has said everything He wants to say. For this reason it meets the needs of the human heart. Let me share one letter with you that bears testimony to this fact. It came from Nashville, Tennessee: I do not intend to make this lengthy. In my mind I have composed page after page to tell you what your teaching of the Word has meant to me and my husband. We were in the same boat, floating along without a navigator. Some day I hope to be able to tell you how joy has been brought into our lives at a time of many family problems and unanswerable questions, how in our middle years we know more love and hope and zest for living than in our younger years, how our Father used sorrow and you and the “Thru the Bible” ministry to be a great part in bringing this about. I want to point out three things that neither of us (reared by believing parents, and ourselves lifelong church-goers) knew until two years ago when we started tuning you in. We don’t know why we didn’t see for ourselves.
We had teachers who tried to tell us, and we read the Bible. I think the Lord was preparing us. I’m able to see His providence now. But we knew nothing of our sin nature or of the Holy Spirit except as mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed. We knew the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and we believed this. But we didn’t know that the Holy Spirit was within us.
Nor did we know of the resurrected life. We were fighting the losing battle of trying to be good and had just about given up on it when we started listening to “Thru the Bible.” We then realized that indeed we did have to give up and that God would start us in the right direction through His grace manifested by Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The reason I have quoted this letter is to show you that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. God says that His Word is profitable, and this couple in Nashville has certainly proven that it is. When it gets into your life it does something that no other Book can do because it is the very Word of God.