BiblicalMastery Buddy's bible blog

Lesson 5

Where Are We Headed?

2 Timothy 3:1-9

 

I sit here heavy of heart. The reason is much of what is in these verses I see being played out right before my eyes. If my life is any example I can almost see how we as the body of Christ got to where we are. From my earliest memories that was no emphasis of God’s word in my family. It was not until high school that I even remember owning a Bible. Once when I was living in North Carolina I was asked to recite Psalm 100 for some kind of citywide program. I had to actually borrow a Bible from my minister in order to learn it. If I was a fairly normal kid, I was lacking in the very truths I needed to know for direction in life. Nothing really changed through my high school years even though there were a couple of dedicated teachers who tried to instill God’s word into our lives. I attended church so something must have rubbed off on me. If you were to look at me at that point I probably would have been seen as a liberal without much knowledge. In spite of my circumstances I know that God has had His hand on my life. Somehow He has brought me to the point of loving and having a deep desire to teach His word. I could not have planned this even if I had tried. What little I know is from Him and for that I am truly thankful.

 

It was not until the 1970’s that God really begin to draw me to the study and having a true passion for it. I have discovered that no one can truly love what God has to say to us and remain a liberal who denies the accuracy and validity of the Bible. To read it and study it is to point us to a life that is changed. The change in one’s life occurs as the Holy Spirit teaches us all things pertaining to God and His Son.

 

As I said in the first sentence, I am saddened by the fact that more and more people who call themselves Christian do not spend time in the Bible and are drifting further and further from its truths. As a consequence each generation grows more apostate in their relationship with God. My hope is to continue to have a greater passion for all that is in its pages that I may continue to grow to be more like Christ.

 

Someone told me many years ago that they had been searching in the metropolitan area for a conservative Bible believing church and found it difficult to find one. This week we have seen again the drift into apostasy of which Paul spoke in Timothy. The Presbyterian Church – USA has just announced that it will begin performing same sex marriages.   This is a blatant violation of what the Bible teaches. God pronounced at the beginning that marriage was to be the union between one man and one woman. This is but one example of the way that the church and society in general has rejected the teaching of God’s word. Paul will be dealing with the individual attitudes and behavior when lawlessness begins to reign in the early years of the church and in the final days of our history.

 

2 Timothy 3:1

For all that Paul had taught Timothy there was a reality that might face him greater than the persecution of the Romans, for which he needed to be prepared. The words of Paul may not fully come to fruition in the lifetime of his son in Christ but would eventually take place sometime in the future. Many of that day believed that Jesus was going to return in their lifetime.

 

Like all Jews Paul believed that all of history was divided into two time periods, the present age and the golden age of God. In between those was the Day of the Lord when God would Himself intervene in history to destroy and judge evil and establish a new world order. It was the period of time prior to the Day of the Lord of which Paul was speaking when the forces of evil will make one last ditch effort to defeat God’s people by every kind of oppression and violence conceivable to man.

 

1. Why did Paul feel it was important to tell Timothy about the events that would occur at the end of the age? (Many believed that it would occur very soon.)
2. How did the Jews view history? (The Day of the Lord would divide the time prior to the joyous time to follow the destruction and judgment that would occur.)
3. How do you deal with the thoughts of what is to take place in the future?
4. How are you preparing for any thing that might happen?

 

2 Timothy 3:2-4

Having laid out to Timothy the fact that there is going to be a final consummation to the world, as man knows it. He went on to talk about the godless condition of man at that period of time. Man’s attitudes and behavior will be the last piece of the puzzle that will bring on the judgment of God. Paul said that they would be:

• Lovers of themselves. Another way to describe them is people who are self-centered. This attitude will destroy all other relationships including the exclusion of God from one’s life.
• Lovers of money. This would definitely include greed, covetousness, jealously and selfishness. Here again it would destroy relationships because such a person would not tolerate anyone from getting in their way as they strive to achieve their personal goals.
• It is a man who makes claims about things that he does not possess. It is certainly a lack of character to pretend to be other than a person truly is. A good example in our world today would be someone who makes claims about their educational achievements or service rendered in the armed forces on their resumes that are just not accurate. Churches can even get caught up in it by stating that they actually have more members than who actually attend on a consistent basis.
• The Greek word for arrogance is blasphemia from which comes the word blasphemy. The arrogant man is one has no regard for either God or man. He is one who is full of pride and looks at all others as inferior to himself.
• Those who use abusive and insulting language towards other. They have no problem hurting others with their sharp and demeaning words. It is both ugly and unforgivable because it is intentional.
• Disobedient to parents. William Barclay put it powerfully when he wrote, “It is a sign of an extremely decadent civilization when youth loses all respect for age and fails to recognize the unpayable debt and basic duty to those who gave it life.” (page 187 of The Daily Bible Study Series on 2 Timothy) This one attitude can only lead to the breakdown of the family and society when not even the basic qualities of the family structure no longer exist.
• They refuse to acknowledge that they owe a debt to either God or man. Ingratitude would be another word to describe the heart of such a person.
• In the minds and lives of such individual they view nothing as sacred. He will not do those things that are decent but act out of his own desires.
• This is one of the great downfalls of man that he lacks genuine affection for anyone or anything. The Greek word for this type of love is Storge. It means the kind of love found in families. Without it the family structure is destroyed and society will fail.
• They do not have the ability to ever forgive and injustice real or imagined that has occurred in their lives. The hatred they have for others will never end.
• Malicious gossips. A gossip has no problem destroying another person’s reputation by slandering their name. One of the greatest weapons the devil has is the use of half-truths.
• Without self-control. Driven by passions and addictions people will no longer live restrained lives but give into what ever the heart desires.
• People who are without conscience in the way they treat others. They are worse than animals because there is absolute no remorse in the doing of violence.
• Haters of good. This is seen in the attitudes of atheists towards Christians. They only see Christianity as a threat to wellbeing of society and something to be avoided. It is like a person who standing in front of a beautiful painting or a scene in nature and is totally unmoved by what is before him.
• The Greek work is prodotes, which means traitor. This person is one who will turn his back on family and friends and inform on them even it means their death. This has occurred throughout history. Paul saw this coming not only in his day but when family would be betrayed. Judas was a perfect example of this kind of man.
• To plunge headlong into an action without giving thought to the consequences of his decision. They do not stop and think before doing or saying something that might bring harm to themselves or others. How many times has the statement, “If I had only” been heard. Sadly, all too often it is too late to change the circumstances. Today there is a term that fits these kinds of reckless individuals. It is “extreme.”
• The phrase that I have used many times to describe one who is conceited is “they think they are good.” They are also thought of those with a swelled head who has a very high opinion of themselves. Paul included those in the fallen nature of a person found at the end of time. They are the one’s who will believe their own press. Jesus was just the opposite.
• Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Like Demus and others name in Timothy they loved the accolades and trappings of this world.

1. What evidence do you see that these conditions are either in existence or beginning to become visible in the church?
2. What does your answer say to you?
3. Which of them bother you the most?
4. What do you need to do to make sure you are not falling into the traps that these represent?
5. Why is it so easy for Christians to be caught up in such practices?
6. How do you keep others from becoming apostate?

 

2 Timothy 3:5

Paul ended the condemnation of such men with the stinging words that their belief in not God was not genuine. It was all a façade to build themselves up in the eyes of the church. In the end times there will be an effort to bring about a one-world church. A great deal of compromise will have to take place to reach that point but it will happen because of the apostate condition of the church at that point. Even today man can fake his commitment to the church while all the while what he believes in empty and hollow.

Paul said to avoid those types of men.

 

1. In what ways is it possible to spot men and women who are playing games with Christianity?
2. How do we know when a person is a genuine follower of Christ? (One way is to look at the way they serve. It is to get the attention of men or to please God without any desire of earthly rewards.)
3. What will happen to a church full of those who are only Christians on the outside?
4. How can we keep that from happening?
5. What does Paul mean by avoiding them? (Do not get embroiled in their activities?
6. How are we to view them? (Lost in need of a Savior.)
7. What can be done to change their way of thinking?

 

2 Timothy 3:6-7

This example was probably specific to the church in Ephesus. The women about whom Paul spoke were those who were vulnerable because of their new found freedom in Christ from the oppressive male dominated society in which they lived. All one has to do is look at the way Muslim women are treated today to see the conditions under which they lived. They had no rights, were not educated and were for having children. Like the Muslim women they were not allowed to go out alone or socialize with mixed groups. Because of all that had taken place they were anxious to learn. Into the lives of those women came the false teachers who convinced them that their gnostic teaching was correct. Sadly, the very knowledge that they sought would never be theirs. The women were misled by unscrupulous men, who used their position to take advantage of them. This would have led to the possibility of all kinds of immoral behavior taking place.

 

1. Why did Paul use the situation in Ephesus as the example of what those who pretended to be righteous misuse their religion?
2. Why was easy for the women of that day to fall prey to such men?
3. At the end of the day what would be the spiritual condition of the women? (They were no better off than if they had remained as pagans.)
4. What were they really doing? (Turning the women away from God for their own selfish motives.)
5. How had Paul warned Timothy about those kinds of men before? (Not to get caught up in their teachings and practices by fleeing youthful lust?
6. What is the danger for church leaders today? (Counseling a female alone can lead to immoral behavior.)

 

2 Timothy 3:8

The Jannes and Jambres mentioned were probably Egyptian magicians who tried to use their magic tricks to oppose the work of God. Paul said they were opposed to the truth as they tried to maintain their position as God was judging the gods of Egypt before the Exodus. Not only will such men be rejected by God for their lack of faith but, their evil works will also be exposed and short lived. The false teachings of such men will be exposed when laid beside the truth of God’s word.

 

1. Why did Paul go all the way back to the Old Testament to select examples of the godless men about whom he had been writing? (The nature of men who oppose God has never changed.)
2. What will happen to such men? (They will be rejected by God because of their lack of faith.)
3. In what ways can we expose the folly of such men? (Compare their teachings with the Word of God.)
4. How can we be caught up in their folly? (By not understanding what God has to say about different matters in life.)
5. What are we to do with such men? (Expose their teachings.)

 

• Search your heart according to the things in these verses to see if they describe your attitudes and actions.
• Use them as tools to search God’s word to see how He wants to overcome such tendencies.
• Continue to meditate on God’s word to hide it in your heart knowing that the days about which Paul spoke are headed our way.
• Stay alert.
• Remain sober and clearheaded so that the world cannot overcome you.

 

All we have to do is read the paper or watch TV to see many of the things that Paul wrote about taking place all around us. Every day there is a new disturbing story of man’s inhumanity to man. Much of this has occurred because the church was sat on its hands and let the world push us into a corner. We do not even have to view the media to know that things are not heading in a godly direction. All we have to do is go into a public place and hear profane and abusive language of all ages to know that there is something desperately wrong. Hopefully, Christians have not become so apathetic to the behavior of the general public that we do not see the need to do something about it. If nothing else we can pray fervently for the condition of our world at every level.   There is other preparation that needs to occur. There needs to be a concerted effort to be ready with the truths of God’s word to confront a lost and dying world. It is not enough to look a passage like the one we are studying today and say these things are inevitable what can I do. Every life that is changed through our sharing of the gospel is one less person over whom satan can claim victory. Our church may be the only lighthouse in the community if it comes to that point but let us make sure that we keep the light penetrating a dark world.