2 Timothy 3
Read 2 Timothy 3.
Wickedness Will Increase
Paul describes how our job of handling the Word of God correctly and admonishing others gently will become difficult. The difficulty stems from the fact that there will be many professing to be a part of the church who will be living in open sin. It’s noteworthy that not all of the sins listed are the gross type of immorality that we might expect.
I think it’s interesting that the first thing he lists as characteristic of the terrible way people will be acting is that they will be “lovers of self”. In our day and age of social media, I cannot think of a better description for our culture. I have even seen the teaching of Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself” be twisted by people to say “you need to love yourself more.”
We cannot be men who are wrapped up in ourselves. Instead we need to be looking to God for a good perspective of ourselves (as sinners in need of repentance and rebirth). We also need to be looking out for the needs of others as ones whom God loves.
Question 1 Are you too focused on yourself and what you like or what you want to do? Who are you reaching out to?
Question 2 We talked about how people will be “lovers of self”. Pick another sin listed in verses 2-5 and describe how we see it in our culture today and how we should live instead.
Just like he told the Corinthians, Paul tells us to avoid such people who are professing to be Christians. These corrupt ones don’t just stay to themselves, but they look to draw others away as well. Their “creeping into houses” reminds me of all the various “teachers” you might find on YouTube today. These ones come in to your house, have a nice bit of cinematography but they are teaching lies. They distort God’s Word and confuse people. They aren’t telling the truth, just like Jannes and Jambres. These men are not named in the Old Testament, but Jewish tradition tells us that they are the magicians who opposed Moses in Egypt. Just like they were ultimately proved to be wrong, so will the false teachers of today.
Paul’s Example
In contrast to the false teachers described above, Paul tells Timothy to remember how he behaved. Specifically he urges him to remember his:
- Teaching - Paul knew the Scriptures and taught them faithfully.
- Conduct - He lived his life in a godly way, in line with his teaching.
- Aim in life - He knew his purpose and lived it. He told the Ephesian elders “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” More generally, he told the Corinthians that “we make it our aim to please him.”
- Faith - He trusted God even in the face of difficulty.
- Patience - When Paul was being held as a prisoner, there was a long time where not much happened. Instead of growing impatient and complaining about the injustice and inefficiencies of the system, he simply continued to faithfully share the gospel.
- Love - He worked night and day, giving up his rights to bring the gospel to people and when he had to leave, he left with tears.
- Steadfastness - He never gave up the faith.
- Persecutions - As his specific example of sufferings, Paul lists what happened to him at Lystra (Acts 14:19-23) where he was stoned to death before God brought him back to life.
While we can learn from Paul’s example in all of these areas, I particularly want to focus on following his example in having an “aim in life”. Paul always had as his aim to please the Father (2 Corinthians 5:9).
Question 3 What is your “aim in life”? That is, what is your purpose or what drives you? Do you consciously think about what is motivating you day-to-day or do you drift along from one day to the next? Would it help to more regularly reflect on what is your motivation?
Paul urges us, regardless of any troubles we face to continue in the faith we have learned from faithful men and women who have taught us the Scriptures.
Question 4 What does it mean that “all Scripture is breathed out by God”? What does this imply about the reliability and inerrancy of the Bible?