Avoid such people as these
By John Earp
2 Timothy 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.
In the above passage, the inspired apostle Paul prophetically describes the kinds of spiritual declension and depravity that will occur in the last days. The New Testament reveals elsewhere that the last days began with Christ’s first coming (see Hebrews 1:2), what Paul says here could describe the entirety of time between Christ’s birth and His second coming, but the fact that he says “will come,” would seem to indicate that even though he was then living in the last days, and even though mankind’s voluntary moral depravity was not a new thing (see Genesis 6 for instance, as well as Romans 1:18-32) a much worse moral situation would eventually come to pass. We are surely in that time even now. Jesus, in speaking of the time prior to His return, said that because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, and that only those who endure to the end shall be saved.
Let’s look at a few of these negative indicators of the last days to see if this is an accurate depiction of the days we now live in. First, he says they shall be lovers of self. To be sure, there is a healthy and good love of self that is implied in the 2nd Greatest Commandment that Jesus noted: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But the lovers of self which Paul describes in our passage may best be described as supremely loving oneself.
Indeed, all sin can be resolved down into the category of pure selfishness, where oneself is on the throne of one’s heart, and one worships self to the exclusion of all others. What is needed is not to hate oneself, of course, but rather to have a proper love for God and others as the rule by which one lives. “Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between,” as one old Sunday school song used to put it, is the Christian way to live.
“…lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.” All the rest flow from supreme love of self. A person loves money when they love themselves supremely, as acquiring more and more money as an idol gives one a strong sense of security regardless of God, in whom the only genuine security can be found.
Boastful, arrogant… With the winter and soon-to-be spring sports seasons in full swing, it is always remarkable to me how boastful athletes (and fans!) get. I have never understood why a player or a team should start boasting before they actually prove their skill on the field or on the court. All such boasting before a game is simply foolish. I always say to myself, “We’ll see.” To be sure, boasting after a win is likewise foolish, for what skills do we have that God didn’t give us in the first place? Sure, we can improve our skill through practice and discipline, but even that improvement is only possible with the help of God.
Paul says the kinds of people he is talking about in this passage have only a form of godliness, and outward religiosity that in reality denies the power of God. He adds, “avoid such people.”