February 13, 2023

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (HCSB)
Difficult Times Ahead
3 But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people! 6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions, 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind, worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also.

Nathan Putty
Tell us how you really feel, Paul. I can only imagine Paul could sense his time was almost at an end. There seems to be a sense of urgency in the way he crafts this letter warning Timothy about what he should avoid. Verse 5 was particularly thought-provoking. Is he writing about those who say they are Christians but don’t necessarily act like it? Or is he speaking about people who say they believe but really don’t? And then in verse 7-we can learn from the finest teachings our society and culture have to offer, but if you’re not soaking up truth from the source of knowledge itself, you won’t receive the wisdom you could have. Paul also mentions Jannes and Jambres the magicians who challenged Moses by turning their rods into serpents, mimicking what Moses had done. All of these insights feed into the central point of this passage. Again, it’s a warning to steer clear of darkness and follow the light of Christ.