Lesson for April 13, 2022
The Book of II Timothy
Chapter 3:1-7
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
The Church has been in the “last days” since the ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven after the Resurrection. As time has progressed, the Angelic Conflict has intensified and will continue to intensify until the Rapture. We see signs of the progressive deterioration of the world today, predicted by Paul in this chapter.
The first thing we need to understand is that Satan is the ruler of the world system in which we live. (John 12:31,14:30, 16:11; II Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2) The sins in these verses are part of Satan’s agenda to corrupt the human race, believers and unbelievers alike. One of Satan’s strategies is to use false teachers to deceive both believers and unbelievers. False teachers are hypocritical, meaning they hide behind a mask of what sounds like the truth but is in fact, false. (Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18) False teachers use trickery and gimmicks to entice believers into believing their lies. (Galatians 4:17,18; II Timothy 3:5-7) False teachers appeal to a person’s ego, which leads to legalism and self-righteous arrogance.
(II Corinthians 10:12; I Timothy 1:7-8)
Difficult times will come means times of disaster, pressure, and chaos. Living in Satan’s world system is a challenge for believers who are living their spiritual lives and advancing to spiritual maturity. Satan attacks those believers who are living their spiritual lives in an attempt to discredit them before God. One of Satan’s favorite ways of doing this is by promoting religion. Religion is the most ingenious device that Satan has ever used to distract people. Satan uses many techniques to dupe unsuspecting unbelievers into rejecting Christ as Savior, like human good works.
In verses 2-4 we have a list of the characteristics of apostate teachers and all those who believe them and follow them. The apostate false teachers are those who reject or distort the truth of the Word of God for selfish motives. They represent themselves as true in order to gain entrance into a local church. These false teachers have deliberate motives, which include monetary greed, sensual pleasures, luxurious lifestyles, power, and fame. They actually train themselves in the art of greed and lust. The Bible says that they use fabricated words of flattery with promises of prosperity in order to extort money and material possessions. They are members of the “mutual admiration society,” pretending to admire certain people in order to gain acceptance. They literally make merchandise, the Greek word “emporeuomai,” of unsuspecting, unstable, spiritually weak believers. (II Peter 2:3,14,15,18; Jude 11,16,18)
Apostate false teachers play upon the emotions of duped believers since they themselves are ruled by their emotions. These false teachers have no substance in their message, they scoff at the truth, and will not accept the authority of God or His Word. They bring with them destructive, self-willed, erroneous opinions that lead to divisions and the formation of factions within the local church. It is, of course, impossible for them to bring in accurate doctrinal information from God’s Word, since they are unable to learn truth.
The Bible says that these false teachers live a lifestyle of the “rich and famous,” while turning the grace of God into a license to sin (reckless). They are arrogant souls (conceited), in love with themselves (lovers of self), in love with money (lovers of money), and love to brag about it (boastful). They live contrary to the reaching of God’s Word (unholy), they are lovers of sensual pleasures (lovers of pleasure), and they cannot be appeased (irreconcilable). They are rash (brutal) in their speech (revilers), lack self-control (without self-control), especially over their emotions, and cannot be trusted (treacherous). With everything they have accumulated they are nevertheless ungrateful and callous to human affection (unloving), they do not honor their parents (disobedient to parents) and hate anything that is deemed good (haters of good). And they love to spread gossip within the local church (malicious gossips). We are commanded to avoid them at all costs! (II Timothy 3:2-5; II Peter 2:2,12, 13,14,19; Jude 8,16,18)
The followers of the false teachers are those who allow themselves to be seduced. They are those who reject truth and believe the fabricated lies of the false teachers. Peter tells us that many will follow their evil ways, so it should come as no surprise when these ministers of Satan “pack the pews.” The pivot (remnant according to grace) has always been a small elite group of believers that refuses to compromise accurate Bible teaching. (II Peter 2:2-3)
The followers of the false teachers are enemies of the Cross of Christ and partakers in satanic activity. They have been enticed by words of flattery, which promise wealth and physical healing from a “fairy god mother” type of “god.” As a result of being seduced, they become slaves to the idea that God is going to bless them with houses, cars, money, the perfect job, family harmony and healing of the body. Failure to seek truth from the Word of God leaves them with only Human Viewpoint Thinking, self-induced misery, and bewilderment. They cannot understand how God can allow them to suffer so much and why He doesn’t wave His “magic wand” and fix all their problems. (II Timothy 3:6, 4:3-4; II Peter 2:14,18; Jude 12,16)
These same duped believers send their hard-earned money to these false teachers in hope that they will receive blessing in return. They also become the “shopping mall” for the false teacher, as he calls in any needed revenue for his personal desires. Often called “seed money,” only the false teachers get to “harvest the crop” of their monetary gifts. Year after year these poor, ignorant believers send their rent money, car payment money, even their food money for a chance at the “Christian lottery.” It is a sad state of affairs, but no one has an excuse before God for being seduced by false doctrine. If a person wants to know truth, God will provide it for them.
The followers of the false teachers fail to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions, entering into the arrogance of self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption. Because of their instability from lack of Bible doctrine, they are easily lured away into false doctrine themselves. Like a fisherman catching a fish, these false teachers entice these weak believers, not only into taking the bait, but paying for it.
Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. These false teachers present themselves as servants and ministers of God, which they are not. They are actually the enemies of God because they fail to acknowledge Christ’s power and authority over them. They are on an “ego trip” of arrogance and are being used by Satan to promote his agenda. They may be believers, but they are still God’s enemy. (James 4:4)
Believers are instructed to avoid these false teachers. Avoiding these false teachers means choosing God and His policies rather than choosing the false, satanic doctrine of these teachers. Believers are to separate themselves from anyone or anything where accurate Bible doctrine is compromised. This includes conformity to a false way of thinking, or a “worldly lifestyle” which results in getting off track spiritually. Separation is a mental decision according to Romans 12:2. We are to separate ourselves from fleshly lusts according to I John 2:15-17, from religion according to II Corinthians 6:15-18, from certain social activities according to
I Peter 4:1-7, from anyone who would lead us in a direction contrary to will of God according to II Corinthians 6:14.
For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses. The Greek word for enter is “enduno,” which means to creep or to sneak in wrapped with a garment. The idea is to disguise yourself or your true intentions. When it says, “those who enter,” it is talking about false teachers with nice personalities, pleasant people, people who are great salesmen, people who know how to appeal to the emotions. Those who have rejected doctrine (weak women) makes them susceptible to being deceived by these false teachers. When a spiritually weak believer is “captivated” by the teaching of a false teacher, the eventual result will be a slide into carnality and/or reversionism (weighed down with sins). The Greek word for weighed down is “soreuo,” which means to heap on. This is referring to chain sinning becoming a lifestyle as a reversionistic believer operates on emotion (impulses), and not on accurate Bible doctrine. Prolonged carnality leads to reversionism which builds scar tissue on the soul (callousness) and leads to black out of the soul (total disregard for God and His Word).
Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The illustration Paul used was women who are being taught something but are unable to come to a knowledge of the truth because they are being taught by a false teacher. This applies equally to men who are following the false teachers.
Even though Paul was writing to Timothy regarding being the pastor at Ephesus, there is a great deal of application for every believer in Christ. The sins that Paul lists in these verses refers specifically to the false teachers who had infiltrated the church and were leading believers astray. In the same way that we are to avoid false teachers, we are also to avoid those who follow their teaching. That being said, there are those who we should also avoid who do not follow anyone’s teaching, who do not listen to accurate or false doctrine but are nevertheless caught up in the same sins as these false teachers. This of course is nothing new. Since the creation of the human race, mankind in its rebellion against God, has been guilty of committing all the sins listed in these verses, and many more that are even worse. It should be obvious to any believer that these types of people should be avoided. The doctrine of separation in the Word of God instructs us to avoid anyone who would entice us to commit sin, to ignore God and His Word, to compromise our beliefs, or do anything that would bring dishonor to our Savior Jesus Christ.