Friday 2nd February
Read 2 Timothy 3:1-5
“But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (NIVUK)
Paul has warned Timothy about the dangers of those who are argumentative and seek to lead people astray – and describes them as captive to the devil (2v26). So perhaps the real enemy is a spiritual one, unseen but destructive.
Yet immediately he goes on to warn Timothy of the ‘terrible times in the last days’ (the time between Jesus first and second coming, in which we now live) (v1). But it is not the devil he warns Timothy about, it is people. All sorts of people, doing all sorts of evil (v2-4), even amongst the church (v5). Tares amongst the wheat.
At the very heart of all these descriptions, which we won’t break down in detail, is a simple truth. People are lovers of self (v2a) rather than lovers of God (v4c). That is how Paul brackets his list, and everything within is an expression of self-centredness that is destructive. The gospel turns that around (cf Philippians 2:1-11), and but for Jesus, Paul is describing us.
Is there anything you can do for someone today for which you get no reward?
