Continue in the Gospel: 2 Timothy 3 (Urbana 67)
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We open our Bibles again at the second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter 3. We entitled chapter 1 "The Charge to Guard the Gospel," and chapter 2 "The Charge to Suffer for the Gospel. We shall entitle chapter 3 "The Charge to Continue in the Gospel."
Introduction
Let me read you the first verse and following: "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be ..." (RSV).
Now there are three introductory points to notice about this verse which sets the context for us. First: they have to do with what are called "the last days." I want to assert that the last days are these days, the days in which we are living. It may seem natural, when you first look at this verse, to apply the phrase to a future epoch, to the days immediately preceding the end when Christ will come again. The biblical usage, however, will not allow us to do this. It is the conviction of the New Testament writers that the new age which was promised by the Old Testament arrived with Jesus Christ, and that with his coming the old age had begun to pass away and the last days had come. For example, the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost quoted a prophecy of Joel which said that in the last days (the same expression) God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh. And Peter went on to apply that prophecy to his own day. This, he says, is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel. So, in the conviction of the Apostle Peter, the last days to which the prophecy of Joel referred had come. They had come with Jesus. In Hebrews 1:1 we're told that God who spoke in times past through the prophets to the fathers, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.
So the last days are these days. We living in the last days. The last days are period that extends from the first coming to the
second coming of Christ - the inter-Advent period, the interim period in which you and I are living between the two comings of Jesus. What follows, therefore, in 2 Timothy 3 is a description of the present and not of the future. It is a description of the whole period elapsing between the comings of Christ. Now this period may get worse as the days pass, as he goes on to say, but already in Timothy's day the last days had come. That's the first point: the last days are these days.
Second, these last days are to include perilous times - grievous times, times of stress. What we ought to know and understand about the last days is not that they are to be uniformly and consistently perilous, but that they include perilous seasons. Church history has amply confirmed that truth. As the vessel of the Christian church first put out to sea in the early days, it did not expect a smooth and untroubled passage, but,, rather, storm and tempest and hurricane. Let me delay for a few moments on the Greek word that is used for perilous times. The Greek word is chalepos, "hard" or "difficult" in one of two senses - either hard to bear, and in this sense it is used of any kind of pain, physical or mental, that is hard to endure, or it can mean hard to deal with and, therefore, dangerous or menacing. It is used of the raging sea. It is used of wild animals that are perilous or dangerous. The only other New Testament occurrence of the word chalepos is with regard to the two Gadarene demoniacs who, like wild beasts, we are told, were so fierce that no one could pass that way. And so the Christian church in these last days in which we live is to expect seasons or periods that are both painful and perilous. Why?
That brings me to the third introductory point, the beginning of verse 2: Because "men will be . ." (RSV). It's very important to grasp that it is men who are responsible for the menacing seasons which the church has to endure. They are fallen men, evil men, men whose nature is perverted, men who are self-centered and godless, men whose minds are hostile to God and to his laws, and men who spread evil, heresy, dead religion, and persecution in the church.
Now let's recap what we have learned in first verse. First, we are living in the last days; Christ ushered them in. Second, these last days are to include perilous times. Third, these perilous times are the result of the activities of evil men. Paul said to Timothy: You are to understand this. You are to know this quite clearly, and, therefore, to be prepared for it when it comes.
Man in the Last Days
Now the rest of the first paragraph (vv. 2-9) is devoted to a portrayal of these bad men who are responsible for the perilous seasons through which the church has to pass. The Apostle Paul described (a) their conduct, (b) their religion--for these bad men are religious, and (c) their beliefs.
a. Their Moral Conduct
In the three verses that immediately follow (vv. 2-4), nineteen expressions are used. I think it would be exceedingly tedious if I were to attempt to analyze each of them separately. I want rather to pick out various things in the catalog and, in particular, to ask you to notice the first and the last of these nineteen expressions.
The first, in verse 2, says that men will be lovers of self, and the last, at the end of verse 4, says that they will not be lovers of God. That, in a few words, describes the conduct of these men. They are lovers of self instead of lovers of God. Indeed, four out of the nineteen expressions are compounded with love, suggesting that what is fundamentally wrong with these men is that their love is misdirected. They're lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, when what they ought to be is lovers of God. In between these expressions come fifteen others which are almost entirely descriptive of a breakdown of men's relationships with each other. The men who are lovers of self and lovers of money are proud and arrogant. As a result of their pride and arrogance, they are abusive of other people. For the higher our opinion is of ourselves, the more shall we be contemptuous and abusive of other people.
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