Can you believe we are already into the month of November? I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by! You know as we look at November, historically in our culture, it’s a month of thanks – and social media is one example. We can look and see all these posts of people counting down the days of November, and each day they’re sharing something that they are thankful for. This is all in an attempt at trying to stir up that attitude of gratitude in our hearts and our minds, but when you look around our culture, it seems so counter to what we experience day-in and day-out at the grocery store, or in traffic, or at the mall doing our Christmas shopping. As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, it seems like we are not a people of thankfulness. We are not always living as grateful people. We don’t have those attitudes of gratitude perhaps because we are in a constant state of hurry. We’re rushed. We’re angry. We’re agitated. We’re frustrated and stressed out and I think part of makes it worse is that this is an election year.
Well, the Apostle Paul would have something very important for us to read in the book of 2 Timothy, especially chapter 3 as he talks about the last days. Paul gives a detailed description of the people who will be in the world at that time. What’s interesting with these verses is how Paul is not worried so much about the world in the last days, but rather the people.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
Paul begins by telling us to “understand this.” In other words, “be certain of this” that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. We can look around our world today and see difficulty in our culture, economy, politics, and families. There is no doubt it is very stressful today in 2024; however, instead of focusing on the happenings in the world, what about the people in the world? What do we see in human character? What actions do we see of people today? How does this describe our morality? We might think the people in the world are wicked and evil today, but the Apostle Paul is telling us in these verses that it’s going to get a lot worse!
Paul begins in verse 2 by saying the people will be “lovers of self.” Oh my goodness. Do we not see this today? Media and commercialism is all about self-love, all about “me time,” all about the selfie. We even have a phone called the iPhone! So, it certainly describes us today in 2024. Can I tell you a secret? We do not need to be told to love ourselves, because naturally we love ourselves. That’s part of our sin nature. We are inherently selfish people who put ourselves first and God last. That’s not something to be celebrated. That’s shameful. That’s horrible. It’s sinful behavior to be a lover of yourself, to glorify yourself, to idolize yourself, to put yourself upon an altar and praise yourself and exalt yourself. That’s horrible, but that’s what people are told to do today in our world. And in the last days, it’s going to be taken to a whole other level.
What does God’s Word say? How are we supposed to regard ourselves?
Romans 12:3 says, “For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” Newsflash: The world isn’t all about me and you. God is the Creator of the world and He is the One who is at the center. He hung the sun, moon and stars and He is the One keeping everything in motion. We can’t do anything without Him. He gives us the next breath!
What’s interesting in the passage above from 2 Timothy, is that it begins in verse 2 with “lovers of self” and then everything else that is wicked and evil follows from there. When we begin to love ourselves more than we love God, we will then be lovers of money, greedy, prideful, boastful, blasphemous, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, slanderous, uncontrolled, troublemakers, and haters of good. We will love everything else above God and it all begins by being a “lover of self.” I bet you won’t hear that message on the television!
The world stands in direct opposition to the Word of God. The Bible says to “crucify your flesh” (Galatians 5:24). Even if we were to go back to the very first sin recorded in the Bible, in the Garden of Eden, we can find the following: selfishness, pride, disbelief, and dishonesty.
The description Paul gives us in 2 Timothy 3:2-5 includes characteristics that saturate our culture, but verse 5 also gives us a key to remember: “avoid such people.” How can we avoid “such people” if they’re everywhere? It seems hard to avoid them when they’re all in the world. It seems like everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there’s all these sins that we just read. How do you be in the world, but not of it? One way is by avoiding being too tightly connected with the people of the world. Don’t create close friendships with people who act in the ways described in verses 2-5. Don’t date people or confide in people that fit the description of those verses.
Proverbs 13:20 tells us, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”
And 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character. ‘” We need to be obedient to follow God’s Word.
It’s not just our personal affiliation with “such people”, but also what we give our time and attention to. For example, the entertainment industry tries hard to promote the actions and behaviors or lifestyles of “such people” that Paul describes. We see this on television shows, movies, songs on the radio, books or blogposts we read, or even podcasts we listen to. What is being celebrated and promoted by the world? Those things Paul describes in verses 2-5. We can obey those verses and “avoid such people”, but it also includes “such people” in the media and entertainment sectors. We can try and manage our own thoughts and our words and our actions, but we must not forget the power of influence. It matters what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear because it will affect our hearts and minds.
It’s hard sometimes to take a stand because we don’t want to be opposed or despised. We don’t want to be attacked. We want everybody to like us. We want to be on good terms with others. We want to have a good reputation. Therefore, many times we do the opposite of verse 5 and instead of avoiding “such people”, we entertain the evil company, or we watch it on the tv or in the movie theater, or listen to it through whatever outlet we can because everybody else is doing it. We try to compromise with God’s Word and justify disobedience, but we fail to acknowledge the consequences and results of our choices. God doesn’t set boundaries to hurt us. He gives us boundaries to protect us because He loves us! When we surrender our lives to the Lord, He does not take away from our lives and make our lives worse. He knows the desires of our hearts.
Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there’s fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
The “pleasures forevermore” come from God and that’s more fulfilling than anything on this earth we could ever want. When you live for God, when you surrender your life to Him, when you allow Him to be the authority in your life, He’s going to give you many pleasures. It’s not going to look like the world or the world’s form; it’s going to look different from what the world has packaged and thrown together for us.
As we read these words of Apostle Paul, words written about a time that is coming, we may wonder why the people will act like that? Ultimately, it’s because they won’t know the Lord. They will be people who do not have a relationship with the Lord. That’s why Paul is so adamant about protecting ourselves and avoiding “such people.” We must turn away from them and their ways. We must not let them taint our mindset and our faith, and our beliefs. How sad that there will be a multitude of people living in the way that these verses describe. We see it today, but it will still be prevalent in the “last days” and it’s going to get worse between now and then. That’s why it’s so important to share the Gospel! The Apostle Paul said, “In the last days will come…” They haven’t come yet. The end is not here yet. We may be approaching the “last days” or beginning them, but Jesus has not returned. The church has not been raptured. The end has not come; there is still time! You and I should be so busy sharing the Gospel and getting the Word of God out so that the people that are described in these verses can have the opportunity to experience a change in their life and ultimately a change in the destination of their eternity.
We should be burdened with evangelization as we read these verses. We should be encouraged to go out and share the Gospel with those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? Because being good is not going to get you to heaven. Being charitable or hospitable is not going to get you to heaven. Paul even alludes to this in verse 5 when he says, “they hold a form of godliness, but reject its power.” What is the power of godliness? Well, the true power of godliness is the Gospel. That power that comes from God is the power that rose Jesus from the dead, and that’s the only power that can save you. It’s the only power that can redeem you and deliver you from all of these sins and allow you to have a heart of true gratitude. So we want to encourage you, if you have not placed your faith in Christ, we pray that you do it today. We pray you make the decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life. We pray you believe that Christ died to forgive you of your sins, which means you have to first confess that you’re a sinner. You have to know first and foremost that you are a sinner and that’s why we need a Savior. That’s the whole reason Christ came and died for us, because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The bible says we had to have a perfect sacrifice to forgive our sins, and that perfect sacrifice was the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ. He gave His life on the cross and He did it for you and He did it for me. He did it for all of us – all who are willing to receive it. For whosoever will come… For whosoever will place their faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”