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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapter 3 and4 ch. 3:1-9 ch. 3:10 - 4:19 ch. 4:19-22 Previous Section - Chapters 1 and 2 Godlessness
In The Last Days
(ch. 3:1 - 9) Paul opens chapter 3 by the words, “now mark
this”. This may suggest that
if Timothy had problems with some inside of the church now, “mark
this”, get ready, things will get worse.
Paul says that “there will be terrible times in the last days”.
In light of the terrible times that Paul already is going through,
including his imprisonment as he wrote these words, I wonder just how
terrible he was thinking about. In context from the last chapter, Paul might not just
be thinking in terms of the world getting worse as time goes on, but the
church as well. If you read
about the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and if you believe the
Laodicean church represents that final apostate church, you will certainly
understand how things can and will get worse in the church as time goes
on. Paul gives a list of examples of how terrible things
will be. He says “people
will be lovers of themselves”. Whether
we are actually in the last days as I write these words can’t be known,
but it is certainly true that we have an exceloration of self love in our
day, both within and without the church. We
have all sorts of self help books, videos, and groups. The New Age
movement is really all about self as I see it.
Paul also says that “people will be lovers of
money”, which is also evident in our materialistic world. We always want
more of what money can buy us. The
economics of our society is driven by our consumer behaviour.
When we don't spend, the economy goes into a slide.
When we spend too much, we go into a slide. It is hard to win when
it comes to money. To this Paul adds being “boastful, proud and
abusive” to the list. These
characteristics have been around since the beginning of time, but will be
even more ramped in the last days. “Disobedient to parents” is also part of Paul’s
list. I think we can safely
say as time goes on that children in general are becoming more disobedient
to their parents. Of course
this is not the case with all children, but I don’t think we need
statistical proof showing us that disobedience to parents and authority is
a problem today. Paul continues by saying that people will become even
more “ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, conceited, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God”.
This doesn’t paint a very good picture of the last days.
For those who believe that things will only get better from here on
out because of the churches perfection before Christ returns should
rethink their doctrine in light of this verse. In verse 5 Paul says that many “will have the form
of godliness”, but it is only a form, not the real thing.
It may look Christian from without but there is no presence of the
Holy Spirit and the true gospel of Jesus.
Paul says “to have nothing to do with” these people.
This is very evident in our day.
Churches across our land look like churches to the casual observer,
but they are far from the true Men who lead these so-called churches “worm their
way into homes with weak-willed women.”
The use of the word “worm” is interesting in light of its new
meaning in our computer based society.
When speaking of worms in emails, they are small programs that
attach themselves to emails. Once
the email is opened by the recipient it “worms” its way through the
computer, infecting it with a virus, resulting in all sorts of problems.
This is how these so-called church leaders operate. They “worm”
their way into a family and destroy it with all sorts of evil, from
immorality to the teaching of false doctrine, which destroys the family,
and the destruction of the family is one of our biggest problems today.
All sorts of secondary issues arise when the family is broken
apart. In verse 7 Paul speaks of these “weak-willed
women” as those who “always learning, but never able to acknowledge
the truth”. Things have not
changed over the centuries. People
are always learning more about everything, yet pure knowledge does not
bring us closer to finding the universal truth that is found in Jesus.
Our knowledge of all is increasing at a faster pace than ever, but
the moral and character quality of our lives tend to be sliding downward.
Simply knowing does not necessarily bring us to the truth or change
our behaviour. This can be
seen in youth pregnancies for example. Our youth are the most educated
youth in history when it comes to sexual risks and birth control, but this
has not stopped young girls from getting pregnant.
The same with drinking and driving.
We are very educated in the fact that we should not drink and
drive, yet people are still being killed because of drunk drivers. When it comes to the increase of knowledge, they say,
now in the year 2010, that knowledge is increasing every two years, and
that is expediential increase. That
means knowledge will increase even faster than every two years.
Paul says some very strong words concerning these
false teachers. As he often
does, he holds nothing back. He
says that “they oppose the truth”.
They have “depraved minds”, and as far as the truth is
concerned, are rejected”. They
do not merely oppose the truth, but the truth opposes and rejects them.
Yet even though these men are making a big splash with their false
teaching, Paul says that “these men will not get very far … their
folly will be clear to everyone”. If
there is one thing that Paul hates, it is teaching that is in direct
opposition to the truth that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is evident here as well as in other letters.
Paul’s
Charge To Timothy (ch. 3:10 – 4:8) Moving on from the false prophets Paul says, “you
however, know all about my
teaching and my life”. The
false teachers knew little about Paul, but not so with Timothy.
He knew Paul’s teaching and his life. He knew all about what Paul
went through while preaching the gospel.
Timothy also knew all about Paul’s “purpose, faith, endurance,
persecutions, sufferings, …” All
these things showed clearly the sincerity of Paul.
He was a man worth following. The
false teachers had no moral or spiritual character that would support
anyone following them. Yet through all of these hard times “the Lord
rescued” Paul “from all of them”.
That simply means that he survived the hard times.
He didn't die. We do
know that Paul eventually did die at the hands of those who opposed him.
In verse 12 Paul makes an interesting statement.
He says, “all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution”. This was
obvious in Paul’s day. All
true Christians suffered persecution, some worse than others, but all
suffered for their faith. We
today (as in Why don’t North American Christians in the 20th
and 21st century suffer a lot for their faith?
Partly this is a result of the impact that Christianity has made on
our society in the past. Christianity
has been so influential in the western world that society has been kind to
us. Yet as we move away from
this Christian influence to a more secular society, this kindness towards
Christians will change. Tolerance
towards Christians is fast becoming a thing of the past.
There is another reason why we have not suffered at
least some minor persecution and that is many of us do not share our faith
in Jesus as Paul did. Thus
many don’t even know that we are Christian. On
an individual level, if we really shared our faith, we would receive some
negative feedback, because it is in direct opposition to many we share it
with. One reason why Paul says that Christians will suffer
persecution is because “evil men will go from bad to worse”.
Paul clearly believed that men would not get better.
He believed as time went on that men would get worse in the evil
lives they lived. This
thinking is in direct opposition to Restorationests who believe that
things will get better as time goes on. Paul reminds Timothy that he is not like those men
who go from bad to worse. From
“infancy” Timothy has known the truth as found “in Scripture’.
It is through these Scriptures and faith in Jesus, Paul says that
bring salvation and wisdom. Verse 16 is a well know Evangelical verse.
It begins with the words, “all Scripture is God-breathed”.
When Paul used the word “Scripture”, he was speaking about the
Old Testament. Every single
verse was inspired by God and therefore must be reverenced and understood
in that light. Peter says an interesting thing about Scripture in
his second letter, chapter 3 verse 16.
Concerning Paul’s writings he says that they are often
misunderstood, “which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do
the other Scriptures”. By
using the words “other Scriptures”, Peter is classifying Paul’s
letters with “other Scripture”. This
might be a hint that Peter believed New Testament writings were on the
same level of inspiration as Old Testament writings, something we believe
today. I don’t believe we can say this for sure from what Peter says,
but it is quite possible, and some commentators do make a strong point for
this. Paul says that the Scriptures are “useful” for
four things. This is most
likely not an exhaustive list. He
says that Scripture is important for “teaching, rebuking, correction and
training”. Teaching and training may be easier to accept on our part
than rebuking and correction. In chapter 4 Paul begins by giving Timothy a charge.
The charge is based on the return of Christ and His kingdom, when
He will judge both the living and the dead.
Note that Paul believes that the Paul charges, or commands Timothy to “preach the
Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and
encourage – with great patience and carefulness.”
Paul wants Timothy to be on his toes at all times, ready to preach,
correct and rebuke. Yet
concerning the rebuking and correcting Paul tells him to use “great
patience and carefulness”. Correcting
is part of the duties of a leader, but how one corrects is very important.
In verse 3 Paul says that the time will come when
people will not put up with “sound doctrine”. People will gather the
leaders to themselves who will speak to them things they want to hear.
In our modern church we have something similar, yet not as bad as
what Paul is speaking about here. In
many denominations perspective ministers come and “candidate” for a
job by preaching a Sunday morning message.
The church members listen to a few of these “candidates” and
then choose who they want for their pastor.
This is not first century Christianity. Now this is not exactly
what Paul is referring to here, but it is in the general direction.
The influence of worldly philosophies like
post-modernism are gathering many Christians around their leader today.
Christians not founded on the Word of God gather their itching ears
to hear what these false teachers are saying today. Even though many “will turn from the truth” as
Paul says, he warns Timothy “to keep his head in all situations”.
He is basically telling Timothy to use his common sense and don’t
get carried away with emotion. He
also tells Timothy, once again, to “endure hardship”, a topic that
always seems to appear in Paul’s writings.
Paul tells Timothy “to do the work of an
evangelist”. Does this mean
that Timothy was an evangelist? We
might be able to say from this verse that Timothy was an evangelist.
Could he be more than an evangelist?
It is quite possible. Paul
considered himself to be an apostle, teacher, and preacher, among other
things. So we cannot use this
verse to make a conclusive statement saying that Timothy was an
evangelist. He could have been
that and more. Verse 6 seems to suggest that Paul believed his life
was coming to an end. Unlike
other letters where he had some hope of being set free from prison, that
hope seems to elude him here. He
says that he is “being poured out like a drink offering”.
You can see by these words that Paul viewed his life, and
especially his death as one big sacrifice.
He says that “the time has come for my
departure”. It is
interesting to note how he viewed his life near its end.
He says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith”. Paul
did his best and when he reached the end he didn’t say, like many of us,
that he wished he had done better. As
a result of keeping his faith to the end, Paul says that he will be
rewarded by Jesus “on that day”. “That
day” refers to the second coming of Jesus.
Note that the rewards will be handed out then, and not when we pass
from this life to the next. Paul makes sure Timothy realizes that he is not the
only one to receive rewards. All
Christians can be rewarded by Jesus when He returns for them. We
are all rewarded for those good works that we have done because of our
trust in Jesus. We are not
rewarded for things done in the flesh.
Personal
Remarks (ch. 4:9 - 18) In verse 9 Paul tells Timothy “to do his best to
come to him quickly”. Paul
seemed to believe that his time was short and he wanted to see Timothy as
soon as possible, especially in light of the fact that most of his close
fellow workers left him. Demas
was one such friend who Paul says “loved the world”, implying that he
loved the world more than the work of the Lord.
Only Luke remained with Paul in these dark days of his life. (ch.
4:11) Paul wanted Timothy to
bring Mark with him, “because he was useful for the ministry”.
Along with Mark, Paul wanted Timothy to bring a cloak that he left
in In verse 14 a man named “Alexander did Paul great
harm”. Paul was not
interested in repaying him for this harm.
He knew the Lord would take care of that, only that Timothy should
be “on guard” himself for men like Alexander.
We should simply ignore those who oppose us, that is, ignore them
the best we can. In verse 16 Paul tells Timothy that no one came to
support him while he was defending himself in the Roman judicial system.
He was all alone. Yet Paul,
like Stephen in Acts 8, and even Jesus while on the cross did not hold
this against them. The
important thing was the “the Lord stood at my side”, said Paul.
No matter if everyone forsakes us, If we have developed a
relationship with Jesus, He will be with us in times of need. Paul gave his defense before the Roman judicial
system. He knew from day one
of his salvation that the gospel would be preached to Kings by him, but at
the time he did not know just how that would come about.
He indeed did get to preach the gospel, but it was a result of his
imprisonment as a criminal. As
he defended himself he had the chance to preach the good news of Jesus,
for which he was very happy for. In verse 18 he says that “the Lord will rescue me
from every evil attack”. He
went on to say that “He (Jesus) would bring him safely to His heavenly
Kingdom”. Paul
died at the hands of evil men. Paul
considered this wicked way of death as God rescuing him and bringing him
into God’s heavenly Kingdom. Final Greetings (ch. 4:19 - 22) In Paul’s closing remarks he says that he left
“Trophimus sick in Once again Paul asks Timothy to do his best to get to
him “before winter”. Paul
wanted to see Timothy and get the things he asked for. Paul sends greetings to Timothy from a number of
brothers. This would suggest
to me that when Paul says, “everyone left him”, that does not mean
everyone as in all the church, but everyone as in his fellow workers. Paul closes by saying, “the Lord be with your
spirit. Grace be with you”.
We all need God's grace, and we all need Jesus to be with our
spirits.
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