Chapter 3
A description of the last days. It must surely have seemed to Timothy that he was already in difficult times. Paul is in prison, scheduled for execution, and he does not consider that evidence of the last days. He sees Nero's intensifying persecution, and doesn't see that as end times. End times will be much worse.
There is a long list of characteristic behaviors that identify the last days. Every one of them is present today. Seems to me they were present the day Paul wrote this letter. So in the last days, these things must be pervasive. Ubiquitous. (2021 - Or "the last days" is being used in the sense of the time from Jesus' resurrection until the end of the Age of the Gentiles. So these things would and do characterize our present day as much as they did Paul's day because all of us - and all of them - are living in this version of the last days.) It must be that in the last days, it will be difficult to find someone who does NOT have these characteristics. But I think these verses are about people within the church. The church will be indistinguishable from the world. Maybe that is what Paul means about the last days? That even in the church, people will act like the world. MSB....well sort of talks about similar ideas, but really exposits each verse rather than looking at the overall point. The MSB notes certainly say that there will be false teachers in the church, leading it astray. It does NOT clearly say that the world and the church will look the same.
2021-2, This verse, at the end of the long list:
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. [2Ti 3:5 ESV]. I am interested in that last phrase. Avoid such people. This does not fit well with "the whole have no need of a physician." Is this instruction only to Timothy at that time, and by extension only to preachers today? If we all avoid these, then to whom will we witness, since pretty much all lost people fit a good part of this description. MSB does not even mention that last phrase, but focuses on how these people have an outward appearance of godliness - like the Pharisees did, and many of the false teachers did. They come under false pretenses, in disguise if you will. Wolves in sheep's clothing. This is who Timothy is to avoid. People who have these characteristics of unsaved people but who look for all intents and purposes like good Christian people. These hypocrites, these who are one thing but look like another, are the ones to be avoided. Don't confront them? Don't debate them? To do so only gives them credibility. Deny their false teachings loudly, but avoid them directly. That's how John MacArthur handles Joel Osteen and others. He calls them out publicly but he does not go to their churches and stand up and yell at them. This is what this means.
2024 - I can't help but think of our modern "liberalism", which turned out to be something very different in the church than I thought. Liberalism seeks to make all things Biblical have a naturalistic explanation. There were no real miracles for instance. The red dirt in the Nile looked like blood, made the fish die, and the flies multiplied because there were so many dead fish. The Red Sea didn't part according to a miracle there was just this big strong wind - w here the Red Sea is shallow, not where the Bible indicates it parted - that dried out that whole area. There was no "rolling back the water to make high walls on both sides of the passage". Today, many many churches are infused with this thinking, led by those who embrace this teaching. Not all, but a lot. There are still orthodox, miracle believing, supernatural embracing preachers and teachers out there in churches. It is these we are to hear, and it is those others we are to avoid. I think this is a different strategy than Satan employed in Paul's day. Even the false teachers believed in miracles back then.
2021-2, This verse:
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. [2Ti 3:8 ESV] I think the implication here is that Jannes and Jambres knew, they were certain, that the signs of Moses were legitimate, supernatural, from God, and they were not magician's tricks. Even so, rather than switch sides, or tell Pharoah that these things were real, and therefore the Hebrew God was real, their goal was to maintain their positions, and remain subject to unreal gods, because in such a system it was not the false gods that had the power, but the priests and magicians who represented those gods. They were false teachers, and the knew they were. Then there is the promise that those who behave this way in the church will be found out, that all will see.
2024 - Or maybe I had this wrong...see the previous 2024 note. Jannes and Jambres probably thought Moses and Aaron were doing tricks, at least initially. They did not believe there was a God, they did not believe in the supernatural. They believed in their own chemistry and their spell books, and their library. But after a time, when Moses and Aaron began to do things they couldn't even dream about doing, they told Pharoah the truth, and recommended that he concede before something really bad happened. At first, they were liberals, but they were found out, just like our false teachers today who deny the power of God will be exposed for all to see.
This verse:
12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [2Ti 3:12 ESV]
Does this mean that if we are not being thrown into prison for our faith, we don't really desire to live a godly life? Is this a criteria for examining our own salvation? Our own commitment? If we are not persecuted, it is because we are not aggressive enough in our proclamation of the gospel? So many questions arise from this verse...MSB doesn't make such a big deal of it...
2025-It connects to Bonhoeffer's cross. If it's easy to be Christian you're doing it wrong. Combine these verses with a good Bonhoeffer quote on FB
These verses, with a fundamental truth:
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [2Ti 3:16-17 ESV]
There is much about these verses in "Scripture Alone". If we accept the premise in 16 that all scripture is Scripture, that it is the very words OF God, directly FROM God, then we rest on verse 17, which says Scripture has every single thing necessary for a man to be complete - that is to know everything a Christian ever needs to know - and sufficient. We do not need the pope to tells us what the word says, nor the books of Islam and Mormon to give us still more information than what is in the scriptures. We have all that we need to have in the Bible as it stands.