2 Timothy 3:1-17

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: 2 Timothy

Rusty's Notes

67 AD (4 years later)

• Paul is in prison in Roman
  
  

DIFFICULT TIMES AHEAD
2 TIMOTHY 3
1 But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.

• Last days = Season before the Lord Returns (Tribulation, etc.)?
• Today, we live in the last days, that period between Christ’s exaltation and his return.[1]
• So why worry about how bad things are?

 

• When an individual's center of gravity shifts from God to self, a plethora of sins can spring up.[2]

2 For people will be lovers of self (self-centered, narcissistic, self-absorbed)1, lovers of money (money hungry), boastful (of their own importance, self-promoting), proud (in attitude, arrogant, stuck up), demeaning (abusive to others, scoffing at God, profane), disobedient to parents (unresponsive to parental discipline, contemptuous), ungrateful (unthankful, unappreciative, crude), unholy (impure, nothing is sacred, coarse), 3 unloving (heartless, callous, hateful, dog eat dog), irreconcilable (unforgiving, unbending), slanderers (of others, speaking with malicious gossip), without self-control (impulsively wild), brutal (uncivilized, cruel, savage), without love for what is good (antagonistic, haters of good, no interest of good, cynical), 4 traitors (betrayal of friends, treacherous), reckless (headstrong, rash, ruthless), conceited (puffed up with pride, wrapped in a mist of self-delusion, bloated windbags), lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (devoted to personal pleasure, addicted to lust and allergic to God), 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power (religious). Avoid these people!

• This last characteristic clarifies that those individuals described in verses 2-4 would even claim to be Christians (i.e., false teachers and their followers).
• Timothy was to avoid association with people who demonstrated these characteristics except, of course, for purposes of evangelism and instruction.
• Who influences who?

6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions, 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

• These false religious leaders take advantage of the problems people have and promise them quick and easy solutions.[3]
• TV evangelists are a great example for today.
• They were listening to the false teachers and Judaizers.
• They had an insatiable curiosity about religion but little discernment to distinguish truth from error.[4]
• Today we have Google doctors, tik tok scientists and Facebook selective knowledge.

8 Just as Jannes (yawn-ees) and Jambres (yawm-brees) resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind and worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.

• Paul used the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses in the plagues (Exod. 7:11; 9:11) to illustrate the fate of these false teachers.
• 1,400 years earlier… they are still mentioned by name.
• They turned staffs into snakes but couldn’t compete with Moses in boils.
• Jewish oral or written tradition preserved their names even though the Old Testament did not.
• As these magicians, the false teachers opposed God's revealed truth, possessed corrupt minds, and were outside the fold of the faithful.
• They would proceed only so far, as their Egyptian predecessors did.
• Their foolishness would become common knowledge when their power proved inadequate.

 
STRUGGLES IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
10 But you have followed my teaching (ministry), conduct (ministry), purpose (ministry), faith (life), patience (life), love (life), and endurance (life), 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

• The fact that Paul was delivered from his persecutions was to be an encouragement to Timothy.

Romans 8:38—39 -- For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[5]
12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

• Some “prosperity” messages will not filter here.
• This course is in opposition to the world system.
• Confrontation and conflict are inevitable.

13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.

• This statement does not contradict what Paul said in verse 9.
• In verse 13 he meant that evil becomes more intensive as time passes.
• In verse 9, he meant that teaching evil does not necessarily become more extensive and captures a wider audience as evil worsens.

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

• Jewish parents were expected to teach their children the Law from age five onwards.
              - Bate Safair (Torah – First 5 books)
              - Bate Talmude (Law & Prophets)
              - Bate Midrash (rabbi disciple)
• 1:5 - I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.[6]
• What you know is reliable and powerful.

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.[7]

• It is God's Word, the expression of His person (heart, mind, will, etc.).
• This was the view of the Old Testament that Jews in the first century commonly held.
• 2 Peter 3:15-16 (67 AD, same year as 2 Timothy) - 15 Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. 16 He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things that are hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they do with the rest of the Scriptures. [8]
• They are profitable for doctrine (what is right),
• for reproof (what is not right),
• for correction (how to get right),
• and for instruction in righteousness (how to be right)."

 

• “man of God” – direct reference to Timothy
• Also to those who commit themselves to God
• What completes you for every good work?
              - The Helper
              - The Scripture
• “good work” is not the goal… it is the byproduct of what we have been given.

[1] Lea, T. D., & Griffin, H. P. (1992). 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (Vol. 34, p. 223). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Lea, T. D., & Griffin, H. P. (1992). 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (Vol. 34, p. 224). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 250). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Lea, T. D., & Griffin, H. P. (1992). 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (Vol. 34, p. 228). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ro 8:38–39.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Ti 1:5.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Ti 3:1–17.
[8] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Pe 3:15–16.