15-16 Mar 2024
As we study the Gospel of Luke, we note the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament; we see how prophecies from the OT were fulfilled in the NT, the promise of the Messiah was also fulfilled with the birth of Christ and John the Baptist, heralding a new era.
The Gospels would record the days of Jesus as a youth, his ministry following the baptism, his completion of his mission, the resurrection and ascension, and his continuing ministry in the apostles and believers by the Holy Spirit (particularly in the second volume of Luke, Acts).
The ‘last days’ refers to the entire period between Christ’s first coming and his second. The coming of Christ (beginning with the Incarnation)s is so world transforming, now that the kingdom has already dawned, that the old world is petering out; it is coming to an end. We are now already in the last days.
It is helpful to note what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:10:-
“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,” (v10). Apostasy is one of the features in the last days – the Lord himself declared it and believers should pay heed to this warning.
The apostle Paul refers to these last days in the passage from 2 Timothy. Paul begins with “But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days (3:1). “Terrible” suggests violence or wild conduct – there will be uncontrollable times, wild times, in these last days. What are the characteristics of those who are ungodly that fit such a label or trait.
The first four items in the list of the characteristics depict selfishness – people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful and proud. The Lord Jesus communicated that the first commandment is to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is to love our neighbours as ourselves. By contrast, these people are characterised first and foremost byn loving themselves.
Whatever we do that is wicked demonstrates that we do not truly love God. The antithesis of loving God is worse than not loving God: it is loving something else supremely, most commonly ourselves or things that we covet. We become idolaters: we do not love God supremely. Wallowing in self-love, it is easy to be arrogant and boastful.
The next two terms suggest socially destructive behaviour. We become ‘abusive’. whether in word or deed, ‘disobedience to parents ‘ characterises our conduct. Disobedience to parents is not the only disobedience we manifest – it reflects a certain kind of rebellion of heart that is fundamentally against God himself. Of course authority, even parental authority, can be abused and abusive, but then it is no response to be suspicious of all authority, for some authority is ordained by God.
Paul went on to list four “un” words: ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving. This list shows that sins sometimes manifest themselves in the absence of good, of virtue. What is missing is gratitude, holiness, love, and forgiveness.
Two more characteristics follow: sins that reflect speech and behaviour – people become ‘slanderous’ and ‘without self-control’. Self-control is a virtue that is constantly stressed in Paul’s epistles.
Two more ‘un’ terms appeared: ‘untamed’ (brutal, savage), and ‘unloving of the good”. Such people may love all kinds of things: they may love money, their home, their children but they do not love the good – they do not cherish and cleave to what is truly good just because it is good.
Paul then turned his attention to characteristics of false teachers. He calls them ‘treacherous’, ‘rash’, ‘conceited’ and ‘lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God’.
Believers might not be too troubled by teachers outside the framework of genuine Christianity who spewed out views that are obviously foolish or false. But if we find someone who has been a public teacher of Christianity for some time and who then gradually moves away from the centre of the faith, it sometimes takes a while to discern the nature of the drift. When the first people who notice begin to wave the red flag, others say, “Oh, come on, you are just being too critical. Afterall, we trust this person; he has been such a great help to us’. It may take a long time before many see clearly how serious the drift is; and in the meantime, much damage has been done and those who seek to sound the alarm may themselves end up as ‘casualties’ and asked to leave.
Such false teachers are treacherous – they have turned their backs on what they once taught and defended. They become conceited, far too impressed by their own new-found opinions and deeply persuaded that others are narrow-minded and bigoted. Their egos grow so big to think through things out – instead they are too busy telling everybody else how wrong they are.
Paul ends with a clause: these people who make up this lost and condemned age during these last days have ‘a form of godliness’; they sport a certain appearance of godliness but they deny its power. This appearance may take the shape of ‘a fine liturgy’, or lots of exuberant noise, or even a lot of fluent God-talk but what is missing is the transforming power of the gospel that actually changes the lives of people. It is so much a verbal denial than an absence of any evidence of spiritual power in one’s life. They claim to know God but by their actions, they deny Him. What is missing is the transformed life in Christ! This is indeed tragic.
Paul told us to have nothing to do with such people. Salvation includes regeneration, Spirit-empowered transformation of life, such that Jesus himself can say, “By their fruit you will recognise them” (Matt.7:20).
(B)
In the final paragraph describing the false teachers in 2 Timothy 3, apostle Paul talks about the predatory nature of some of them. They ‘worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded with sins and and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires..'(vs6-7).
Paul is not saying that all women are gullible or weak-willed and that all men are predators. The Christian minister/leader who commits adultery wants to feel needed; he wants to exercise a certain kind of power; on the other side, there may be a need to be attached to a powerful figure, to feel strong and cherished because of being identified with someone who is at the front.
The combination of sins, sexual desires, neurosis – all these form a ‘recipe’ for moral catastrophe.
One can be a false teacher not only by saying things that are untrue but also by hankering for power and ‘conquest’ that frankly leads to predation. They are teachers who cannot see and live the truth because they have depraved minds (v8).
Paul is in fact saying that in every generation, evil people get worse and worse. We ought not to be surprised by evil; while we may be horrified by evil, we should never be surprised by it. Christians should hold few illusions about the world.
Our current culture strongly advocates not criticising anyone if we want to be regarded as nice people; this attitude is so rampant that even honesty is sometimes sacrificed to remain ‘nice’.
The ‘world and worldview’ constantly tries to convince itself that we are all pretty good, and that evil is not endemic and systemic part of us; and that if we are nice, everything will be alright.
We need only to pause and consider the ‘terrible’ things that are happening in this world under the guise of disagreements, idolatries, greeds, injustice, arrogance, materialistic hedonism, unbelief and just plain malice, and the prevalence of evil people who become worse and worse, and we can surely hold few illusions about the world getting better, and people are generally nice and ‘good’.
Faithful living in the last days must not ignore this element of truth; we need to be vigilant, prayerful, and dependent on the Triune God to keep on persevering in the path of our Master and to keep on keeping the call to remain holy, and true, in our pursuit of honouring God and giving Him the glory during these last days until we see Him face to face.
(C)
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul now brings us to vs 16, a verse that is familiar with most Christians, perhaps over-familiar.
Paul wrote (and this applies not only to ministers) that this Scripture, this written material, is itself God-breathed. In consequence, it is ‘useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped in every good work’.
Of course, all of us generally are open to be taught; but when it comes to rebuke, correction and training in righteousness, it is altogether a different matter. And this is particularly difficult for older Christians, leaders, and ministers. Imagine someone who is not even equipped with theological degrees trying to rebuke, correct someone who is a leader, who graduated from Bible colleges with a string of degrees and even Phds. This is surely hard to take. It reminds me as a doctor how some doctors, when corrected by patients, would retort, “Are you the doctor or am I the doctor?” There are however many instances when the patient is right and the doctor is wrong, and this is a bitter pill for the doctor to swallow. The bottom line is PRIDE – remember that God rejects the proud and exalts the humble.
But we need to re-emphasise (and I confess that I have been doing this again and again) that in a world where there are many false ideas – many deceptions, selfish and anti-God ideas – what must we do to get orientated toward God himself? We have to go to God’s Word – we have to hold on to the Bible. That means we must not hold on to the Bible as a magic book, but one who teaches us how to think and what to think (note that we need to love God with all our mind).
The Bible provides us an entire frame of reference – it is not that this frame of reference saves – only Jesus saves, not ideas about him. But if we truly understand what this gospel is, and look around at the world ‘surrounding’ us and seeking to ‘influence’ us, out of the framework of this gospel and this Book, then we are able to withstand the subtle allure of passing fancies that drive us away from the God who is our Maker, Redeemer, and Judge.
Hold on to the Bible; also hold out the Bible to others. Paul told Timothy to preach the word, in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction (4:2). Now we may not all be like Timothy, a co-worker and pastor, but in principle, this is given to all Christians. We are to be involved in teaching ministry – in our homes, in small groups, with our children, or when it is one-to-one. How do we respond to this world that is going in other directions? How do we prevail and be victorious in these last days? We have an “offensive weapon” – the Word of God, the “sword of the Spirit”. But we must know how to use it, in dependence on God. It is no use sending a soldier to war who does not know how to use his weapon.
But to know the Bible, we need to be disciplined and serious. Ours is an entertainment-oriented society. Following this model, seriousness in lifestyle, speech, and purpose is often discouraged. Few things are more feared than the fear of God! The gospel is not a ‘play’ or pantomine; it is a matter of life and death, it is about eternal destiny. Christians ought to take the gospel seriously and this should show in their manner of life and living.
But to know the Bible accurately, we need wholesome teaching. God’s Word is solid food which builds Christians up in their faith (Heb.5:12-14). For spiritual growth we need and require constant feeding. We need to grasp the basic elements of the gospel; however, in most churches, a premium is placed on personal activism rather than on the knowledge of God and his Word that comes from patient study and meditation. Without this, life-changing, character-building knowledge of God is side-lined. It is no wonder we cannot take the onslaught of the world, the devil and indwelling sin in the face of intense spiritual battles!