Perilous Times

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth... but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

What truly makes the last days perilous is not the world's sin, but worldly carnality creeping into the church.

"Know This" — A Command to Remember

I've had the privilege for a long time of teaching at a local Bible College. One of the things that happens frequently as I lecture is that I come to certain points and say, "Remember this—it's going to be on the final." I think that's exactly what Paul is saying when he opens 2 Timothy 3 with "know this."

In these nine verses there are only two imperatives, and one of them is this command to know. It's as if Paul is telling Timothy, "This is going to be on the final." There are certain things God commands us to know. We could read this: you must know this important truth. And what must we know? In the last days, perilous times will come.

We Are Expected to Know Certain Future Conditions

Paul makes a bold claim here about things that will exist in what he calls the last days. There are three important things this verse makes clear.

First, there will be last days. The church, going back two thousand years to its very beginning, has believed and taught the concept of the last days. Jesus spoke clearly about the last days, the end of the age, the end of the ages. These concepts appear in the Old Testament and very clearly in the New Testament.

The major difficulty surrounding this teaching is what we often call the "already but not yet" nature of the last days. As you study the New Testament, you realize there was an already sense and a not yet sense. The early church believed they were already living in the last days two thousand years ago, yet they also spoke of the last days as something still to come.

Already, But Not Yet

Hebrews opens this way: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." The author recognized that he and his readers were already living in the period the church called the last days—the time from when Jesus ascended into heaven until He returns.

But there is also a future sense. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3, "knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts." So there's an already component—we've been in the last days since the ascension in Acts 1—and a not yet component, because Paul and Peter put the church in mind of a time still coming.

The second thing the verse makes clear is that the last days will be characterized by specific things: perilous times. The word perilous can be translated difficulty, or literally "times of stress." Whether Paul speaks of the entire period from Jesus' ascension to His return, or the time right before His return, isn't the issue. We recognize we live in times that are difficult and can be perilous.

The third thing is that these days are certain. When someone gives a troubling prediction, our inclination is to figure out how to avoid it. But Paul makes clear these things will come. It's a future-indicative reality—not a might, not a maybe, but a certainty.

Not Surprised by What We're Told to Expect

If we know something is going to happen, it's not really shocking. Something is not shocking if it is expected. So we should expect that during this period—between Christ's ascension and His second coming—these days will be characterized by difficult, stressful, perilous times.

But what's fascinating is why Paul describes these times as perilous. Look at verse 2 and circle the word "for." It's a causal conjunction—you could replace it with "because." The times will be perilous because men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, and on through these nineteen characteristics.

These nineteen traits describe people not walking in righteousness, not walking in Christ's likeness. People will be selfish and self-centered, marked by extreme greed, blasphemous—speaking evil of the things of God—unthankful, unholy. The word "unloving" literally means heartless or cruel. He mentions people being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; that word literally describes a strong affection for hedonism—always seeking the next pleasurable thing.

The Antithesis of Love

Two things are worth noting about these nineteen characteristics. First, they are the antithesis of the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. That love chapter, quoted at so many weddings, uses the Greek word agape—the most frequent word for love in the New Testament. The King James translates it "charity," and there is a self-sacrificing, charitable nature to it.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Read those characteristics against the ones that make the last days perilous, and you see a direct contrast. The last days become stressful because people are proud, boastful, unloving—the very opposite of love that suffers long and is kind. Paul argues throughout his letters that our lives as followers of Jesus should be characterized by love. In Galatians 5:22 he says the fruit of the Spirit—the evidence God's Spirit is in you—is preeminently love, and from it flows joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

The Same List as Romans 1

Second, many of these traits are identical to Paul's description of unrighteousness in Romans 1:18 and following. There Paul writes that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness," and then describes the life of a person inviting God's judgment. The words are very similar to those in 2 Timothy 3.

Why does that matter? When Paul brings these things up in 2 Timothy 3, he is not saying the last days are perilous simply because these traits exist in the world. That's how the world has always been. Some say it's far worse in 2019 than in the first century, but you have not read history. People are no more wicked now than two thousand years ago—people are wicked because people are fallen. I don't stand here as a holier-than-thou individual; we are a wicked people. One of the most devastating errors of our day is to deny the existence of evil. Evil exists because humanity fell into sin, and the Bible has an answer for why.

Carnality Within the Church

What makes the last days perilous is not that these things exist in the world, but that things normative in the world have come into the church. That's clear from the context. Back up to 2 Timothy 2:20: "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor."

The great house is a metaphor for the church. In it are some seeking to walk in righteousness, to be vessels of honor—and others without honorable intentions, because the Master is gracious and calls all to come. There were faithful ones like Paul, Timothy, and Silas, and there were devastating problems like Hymenaeus and Philetus. As one commentator put it, "the very conditions that exist among the heathen in their savagery and uncivilized state will characterize professing believers in the last days."

So we should not be surprised by increasing carnality within the church. Don't misunderstand—I'm not saying we should be satisfied with it or tolerate it. But as the church fulfills its commission to go into all the world and make disciples, it opens its doors to all who would come. Some have right intentions and desire God's work in their lives; others identify as churchgoers, even "Christians," whose lives are not in line with righteousness.

So we shouldn't be shocked that the church is full of hypocrites. People in the world think this is a big revelation. Well—of course it is, because we're all hypocrites. You don't become righteous merely by stepping onto the campus. I've been here every day since I was eleven, and just coming here has not made me righteous. Ask my wife—but please don't.

"From Such People Turn Away"

Here's what comes as a shock to Christians. At the end of verse 5 Paul says, "And from such people turn away!" This is where we get a little squirrely. We ought not keep company with people in the church who do not manifest a growing Christlikeness.

Think of Jesus' parable of the sower. The seed is the Word of God. Some fell by the wayside and the birds—the evil one—plucked it away. Some fell on shallow, stony ground and sprang up quickly, but the sun of trials burned it out. Some fell among thorns, and the cares of this world choked it. But some fell on good, prepared ground and produced fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold.

We have a picture of the church. The seed of the Word goes forth every day we preach, but it doesn't always yield fruit, because hearts have varying degrees of receptivity. We should desire our lives to produce fruit—and what is that fruit? Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. These are not things you produce on your own; they are God's work in you. So Paul says we should avoid those who profess Christ yet produce no fruit of the Spirit, because there's a heart issue at the root.

Have No Fellowship With the Unfruitful Works of Darkness

I know that sounds harsh, as though it doesn't fit the loving, accepting nature of Christ. But consider this: less than five years before Timothy was sent to deal with the problems at Ephesus, Paul had written to that same church.

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints... And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. (Ephesians 5:3, 11-12)

The message was still fresh, but it had not been applied. That's challenging for us—a reminder of how often we can have the fresh Word of God in our minds without it ever being applied in our lives. So Paul has to write to Timothy and say: avoid those vessels of dishonor whose lives reveal these ungodly characteristics.

A Little Leaven Leavens the Whole Lump

Consider also 1 Corinthians 5. The church at Corinth boasted about how loving and gracious they were—so gracious they kept a man in the church living in open sexual immorality with his stepmother. Paul writes:

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)

The leaven is sin; the lump is the church. Paul reminds them: "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world... for then you would have to go out of the world." Apparently they had separated from the very people they were supposed to reach. So he clarifies: "I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person." That's heavy.

Judge Yourself First

We have to be careful, because the proclivity—exactly what happened to the Corinthians—is to become militant, labeling everyone and casting them all out. This is why Paul had to write 2 Corinthians. Lest we do that, remember the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not, that you be not judged. First remove the plank from your own eye before you remove the speck from your brother's eye."

So we must judge ourselves by the Word of God. What is being manifest in my life—is it love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, or the works of the flesh?

Beware of Caustic and Corrupting Churchgoers

Why is Paul so strong? Back to verse 6: "For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." These were the sort of Hymenaeus and Philetus, whose message spread like cancer (2 Timothy 2:16-17). They creep in slyly and bring into bondage those already struggling with sin.

So beware of caustic and corrupting churchgoers. They do exist in the great house of God. How do we know them? "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). You can identify that they are unfaithful, unloving, without natural affection, without self-control—the works of the flesh—while no fruit of the Spirit is manifest. Paul says shun such individuals, because if you don't, they will increase to more ungodliness.

This is a heavy word for Sunday, but an important reminder. We're called to be salt and light in a dark, unsavory world. The church becomes most ineffective and experiences the greatest peril when it's hard to see a difference between the church and the world. Let's be candid—the church in the Western world of the last seventy-five years has looked far more worldly than it ought. The temptation is to reach the world by dropping our standards of righteousness, telling people they can keep living as they are and still call themselves Christians. Paul would not have agreed.

Called to Be Holy

So Paul would say, "Come out from among them and be separate," for God has said, "Be holy, as I am holy." I must add this qualifier: we are made holy by the presence of God in our lives, not by our religious effort. As we draw near to God and He draws near to us, the enemy flees, and God produces the fruit of righteousness in us.

But sometimes that fruit of righteousness challenges us, saying, "The way you are living, Christian, is not acceptable before God." So I call you to repent and turn to the Lord, that the times of refreshing may come by the Spirit of God into your life. God wants His church to be like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden—a light to those in darkness, salt to an unsavory world.

Closing Prayer

God, Your Word is challenging; it's heavy. Lord, I pray that Your Word—living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing between joint and marrow, soul and spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts—would lay our hearts open and bare before Your light today. Shine into our lives and reveal if there's any area of carnality, any leaven, any weeds and tares among the wheat, that we would repent and confess it. For Your Word says if we confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

It may be that as we stand here you realize there's something you need to confess—something hidden from others but wrong before God. He wants you to walk in rightness before Him. You can't remove it on your own, but God by His grace removes it. So pray this in your heart: Lord, come and remove this from my life. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me and make me clean. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation, and help me to walk in a way that brings honor and glory to You. In Jesus' name, amen.