Timothy 3:1-5 – “But mark this: There will be
terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have
nothing to do with such people.”
The beginning of verse 2
says it all: “People will be lovers of themselves”…This is the typical pattern
of sin - it was Lucifer’s downfall (Isaiah 14:13-14) and it is mans as well
(Genesis 3). How that sin of “self” manifests itself is found in the rest of
the paragraph. This is also what happens when a nation turns its back on God.
People are unholy, ungrateful, lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God; which leads to a total moral collapse. People become lovers
of money, conceited, without love toward others, boastful, proud, unforgiving,
“not lovers of what is good.” This leads to a total breakdown of society.
People will be treacherous, rash, slanderous, brutal, disobedient to parents,
abusive and without self-control.
That last phrase means
that in the end, anything goes! No rules, no moral absolutes, no restraints of
any kind. Every man does that which is right in his own eyes, and woe to the
person who dares to question his “lifestyle choices.” Just as a side note: It’s
interesting that Paul includes “disobedient to parents.” It may seem too
trivial to be in such a radical list, but for Paul, disobedience is the spark
that ignites the flame that leaves the home in ashes. In the light of Bible
prophecy, we should expect that as we approach the end times, all these things
will increase in intensity and frequency, until we have the situation portrayed
in the Book of Revelation.
No comments:
Post a Comment