How We Should Live In the Last Days, Part 2
We continue our series in the book of 2 Timothy this morning. Last week, we looked at
the first half of 2 Timothy 3, where Paul painted a terrible portrait of the last days. This
morning, Paul, in the remaining verses of chapter 3 arms us with three strategies for living in the
last days. Because these strategies are so closely tied with the terrible image of the last days, I’d
like to begin this morning by reading all of 2 Timothy 3 together, so if you would, turn there
with me. 2 Timothy 3, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of
difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant,
abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen
with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of
godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep
into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various
passions,7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just
as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted
in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly
will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
10 You,
however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith,
my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to
me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them
all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving
and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly
believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been
acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be
complete, equipped for every good work.”
If you were with us last week, you’ll remember Paul’s warning to Timothy in verses 1-9
of the godlessness that would occur in the last days. The phrase “last days” refers to the days
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between Christ’s ascension and His return, a time in which both Timothy and we live. The list of
characterizing attributes of people in these days is long and scary. Take a look at that dreary list
in verses 2-5 … okay, that’s enough. It really is a scary list! When I look at that list, I wouldn’t
ever want to live in that world … but I do. How are we supposed to live in a world like that?
How should we live in these last days? In this morning’s passage, 2 Timothy 3:10-17, we can
draw out three answers to that question, and we will dig into those this morning. The first
principle for living in the last days is to (1) hold the right mentors in high regard. The second
principle is to (2) hold the right perspective about the last days. The third principle for how we
should live in the last days is to (3) hold on to the Bible.
Let’s start on that first principle for living in the last days—to hold the right mentors in
high regard, and it is contained in verses 10-11. Paul starts verse 10 with a contrast. “You,
however” tells us that Timothy is different than the worldly people described in the previous
verses—so we know Timothy is different than them. How? Well, Timothy has found the right
mentor, and held him in high regard. Let’s look at all the things Timothy has followed in verses
10-11a, “10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith,
my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings…” Specifically,
he has followed Paul’s teaching, or the gospel message that Paul proclaimed. Also, he has
followed Paul’s conduct, referring to the guiding principles of Paul’s life that determined the
way that he acted. In addition, Timothy has lined up his goals, or aim in life, with Paul’s; he is
dedicated to the spread of the gospel and the growth of the Church. He has adopted Paul’s
strong faith, knowing that God’s purposes were greater than any of His own and relying on God.
He has also grown by following Paul’s example of patience; now, young men are stereotypically
impatient. A classic example of this impatience is … me. I really struggle with patience!
Patience is not in my nature. Some amazing transformation is happening in Timothy’s life as a
result of that special bond with the right mentor in his life, Paul. Let’s look at that next aspect in
verse 10. Paul says that Timothy has also followed after Paul in his love, embracing both friend
and foe alike. Timothy has also pursued steadfastness, becoming firm in his purpose and
resolution. Paul sure had a lot of that—and young Timothy is copying him.
Continuing in verse 11, we come to the next characteristic of Paul that Timothy has
followed—Paul’s persecutions and sufferings. Look at the three towns in verse 11 where Paul
was persecuted. Those were Timothy’s childhood stomping grounds. Timothy had followed, or
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he was well-acquainted with the sufferings that Paul had gone through. In verse 11, Paul says
that he endured persecutions … but God rescued him from them. Why would somebody have to
endure something that they have been rescued from? The way that I’ve come to understand this
phrase is that God rescued Paul from death, giving him the strength to endure.
Let’s ask and answer some questions here. First, what does mentoring look like?
Growing up I watched the Karate Kid movies; they were a series of movies from the 80s and
90s, the overall theme of the movies is a young kid thriving in the face of overwhelming odds
thanks to the wisdom of his older Chinese mentor. The older Chinese man didn’t just teach the
young guy how to fight, but also humility, good sportsmanship, and a lot of other things; he
helped him in every area of his life. The origin of the word “mentor” actually gives us another
picture of what mentoring looks like. It comes from Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Here, a
father, Odysseus, goes off to war, but he leaves Telemachus, his young son behind with a
caretaker. This caretaker raises Telemachus, teaching him all about life and sharing his wisdom
with Telemachus. Twenty years later, Odysseus returns home and finds his son to be a grown
and mature man. Now what the name of the caretaker was in the story … his name was Mentor.
This poem eventually became so well known that the act of advising, training, and influencing
another person regularly resulted in the verb “mentor”, after the character in the poem.
Ultimately, the best place to go to if you want to see what mentoring looks like is the Bible.
There are mentoring stories all throughout the Bible. The best example we could follow is Jesus,
who mentored several disciples during His time on earth. I could go on, Paul and Barnabas,
Naomi and Ruth, Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua, Elizabeth and Mary, and the list goes on.
Let’s ask another question. Why is it that we need flesh and blood mentors walking out
there in front of us? Why does a real-life example make so big of a difference? If we think
about it, God could have just given us a book of principles and said, “obey them.” Instead, He
gave us a flesh and blood example and said, “follow Him.” God knows our tendencies to follow
those around us; could it be that God knows something about us that we aren’t aware of
ourselves? We are all following something, whether we know it or not. We are naturally wired
to conform to the group around us. Here in 2 Timothy 3, the group is all that nasty stuff in
verses 1-9. How do we keep from following that? Romans 12:2 says “do not be conformed to
this world”. We need to consciously decide what we are going to follow, instead of
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unknowingly following anybody and everybody. We all need to seek out the right examples to
follow; if we don’t, we’ll end up following the wrong people to the wrong places.
Now, here at KBC, I’ve held up many of you in high regard as my mentors as I’ve grown
up. You all show love really well. You all display faith really well. And rarely do we have a
church event that is attended by people from only one age bracket. So, for all of us that desire to
mentor, or mentor better, think about the list in verses 10-11. We can mentor others through our
teaching. We can mentor others through our steadfastness. We can mentor others through our
love. These are the qualities that you want to pass on! The right role models have blazed the
trail, paved the path, and are handing the tools to us so that we can then carry on. We must seek
out the right mentors, and then work to hold them in high regard.
On the other hand, we should seek to mentor others. This is for AWANA leaders. This
is for parents. This is for older couples, younger couples, and anywhere in between couples.
This is for anybody who is striving to pursue a life of godliness and leading others to know God
more fully. Not only is the need for mentors reflected in the culture of unbelievers, but it is
mentioned all throughout Scripture. Fathers, mothers, are you sitting down with your children
and leading them into a life of prayer, Bible study—into a life of godliness? AWANA workers,
are you prepared to go beyond controlling rowdy kids and pour everything you’ve got into
their lives to help them grow?
There’s a lot of areas in Paul’s life that Timothy is following, and you might be thinking,
“well, I don’t have it all together like that yet”. Notice that Paul does not commend Timothy for
following his perfection! Paul himself was flawed, but he could say “follow me”. Why could he
be so confident? In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”.
Paul was worth following because he himself was following Christ. The thing that matters is not
our lack of perfection, but that we are doing our best to follow Christ. Let’s not wait until we’re
perfect to mentor somebody. It should be one of our greatest desires to be able to say to another
believer, “Follow me! Follow my teaching! Follow my conduct! Strive for what I strive for!
Love like I love! Endure like me!” Do we do that? Do I do that? Pray that that would be each
of us. We are living in the last days. The first principle for living well in these last days is to
hold the right mentors in high regard.
The second principle for how we should live in the last days is to hold the right
perspective on the last days. This is true in a lot of areas, but in these verses, Paul is giving us a
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reality check specifically regarding persecution. Look at verses 12-13. “12 Indeed, all who
desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and
impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13).
Our verses this morning are all about a perspective shift from one that is human-minded to one
that is God-minded. The wrong perspective is that once we follow God, our problems go away.
The fact, on the other hand, is stated clearly; “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Paul is helping Timothy with a change of perspective.
The right perspective for the last days is the hard fact that Christians will suffer.
Now, who does Paul say is going to suffer? Those who desire to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus. We are in union with Christ, and we experience suffering as a part of the
fellowship that we have with Him (repeat). What does a “godly life in Christ Jesus” look like?
What does “godly” mean for us? In our lives, it basically means that we are always trying to
rightly reflect God and His attributes to the world around us. This ends up in being a sort of
persecution magnet, according to Paul. Why is it that godly lives are persecution magnets? In
John 15:18-19, Jesus says, “18 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it
hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you
are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” God
is perfect, and the world is sinful. There’s a disconnect. And right now, we are Christ’s hands
and feet in the world. For this reason, the world will hate and persecute us. 1 Thessalonians 3:3,
talking about afflictions, says “you yourselves know that we are destined for this”. Acts
14:23 says “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”.
Paul, well-
acquainted with much suffering like he just mentioned, has simply accepted the fact that
persecution and suffering is all just a part of the package deal.
Back in 2 Timothy, Paul goes on to say in verse 13 that while we are being persecuted,
the evil will go on to flourish, “[going] on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived”.
Notice those words “bad” and “worse”. As I was reading these verses, I got the image of a train
heading into a desert—it reaches its last stop, Bad; that’s as far as anybody can go. However, the
people don’t just settle for living in Bad, they hop off the train and do everything they can to go
even farther, arriving at an even more unimaginably farther-than-far location, Worse. Do you
sense the black canvas again?
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How does expecting persecution help us to live in the last days? I studied karate here at
the church under a good friend of many of you, Mark Eaton, for about six years. As I
progressed, so did the intensity level, and he and I would pull out the gloves and do a little
sparring. Boy, that guy knew how to put me on the mats. Now, even though he was at a way
higher level than me, it still helped me to see a punch coming. Sometimes I would see him
flinch or see a muscle move that would give me a heads-up so that I could throw my hands up
and block. I’d still take a hard hit, but even that was better than getting blindsided by a fully
unexpected power punch in the face and getting laid out on the mats with a bloody nose. When I
was expecting it, it made a big difference. Some of you know what it’s like to get blindsided in
life. The enemy knows which of your strings to pull. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love
us. Without the right perspective on suffering, it is easy for us to question the abundant
goodness of our God. We should listen to Paul and expect to suffer and be persecuted.
This Christianity thing is starting to sound pretty tough. Now, the natural question is
“why is this worth it?” Why should we not give up? The answer is that in suffering for the
gospel, a partnership with Christ in His suffering and a glimpse of God’s sovereignty far
outweighs any persecution, no matter how difficult.
So, now we know that in order to live in the last days, the first principle we should follow
is to hold the right mentors in high regard, and the second is to hold the right perspective about
the last days.
The final principle for living in the last days is in verses 14-17, and that is to hold on to
the Bible. Let’s look at verses 14-15.
14 But
as for you, continue in what you have learned
and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood
you have been acquainted with the sacred writings,”. Let’s walk through these two verses for
a minute. In verse 14, “But as for you” again contrasts Timothy with the worldly people in verse
13. Paul then urges Timothy to “continue” in what he’s learned. The words “learned” and
“believed” there are referring primarily to the Scriptures. If we look in the second half of verse
14, Paul says “knowing from whom you learned it”; that word “whom” is actually plural, and is
referring to people like Paul himself, but also to people like Timothy’s grandmother, Lois and his
mother, Eunice. The point is, Timothy had a lot of good teachers. Look at verse 15. Paul says
that Timothy has been acquainted with the “sacred writings” or Scriptures, since he was a child.
That word “childhood” actually means “infancy”. Lois and Eunice began to teach Timothy from
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the earliest age possible. Although they didn’t have picture books back then, Timothy would
have heard the beautiful telling and retelling of those rich stories, and then as he grew he was
taught the principles for his life that lay within the stories. The emphasis here is that it is never
too early to start teaching our kids the Scriptures. Now, I don’t want to read anything into this
text that is not already here, but we can imagine Timothy’s childhood; his mother was a devoted
Jew, and his father, as hinted at back in Acts, was probably a heathen Greek. Despite this fact,
his mother and grandmother somehow managed to acquaint Timothy well with the Scriptures.
That’s a hard home situation. Many of us are free to read our Bibles as we please, without
worrying about our family authorities coming down on us. With this freedom that we have, do
we work to acquaint ourselves well with the Scriptures? Paul notes that Timothy has been
acquainted with these Scriptures from childhood. Many of our kids know a lot of the basic Bible
stories, and that is fantastic! They have been introduced to the Scriptures. Now let’s work to get
them well acquainted. As examples, do we ourselves work constantly to make ourselves aware
of or familiar with these “sacred writings”? Be reassured that that is a valuable goal. Why?
Paul answers that next.
The next part of verse 15 says that the Scriptures “are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The reason that we want to hold on to the Bible is
that God uses His Word to save people. What we learn here is that the act itself of reading the
Bible doesn’t save us. However, if you handed a Bible to a non-believer who was looking for
life’s answers and explained it to them, they could find what they needed to come to salvation.
The sooner we bring God’s Word to people, the better. We have to note the importance of the
next part of that sentence, “through faith in Christ Jesus.” The lives of unbelieving Jews held
evidence to the fact that no matter how much we know about Scriptures, the integral piece to the
puzzle is faith in Christ Jesus; without it, salvation won’t ever happen.
We now arrive at one of the key verses that really highlights the value of the Bible.
Highlight it, underline it, mark around it, memorize it, whatever—you need to know and
remember this one. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. If
you’re one that likes to mark in your Bible, this is the time! These two verses tell us three key
things about our God-breathed Bible: (1) Who it’s from, (2) What it’s for, and (3) What it
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accomplishes. Let’s put some brackets around that first phrase, “All Scripture is breathed out
by God”. Some versions use the word inspiration there. The problem with the word “inspired”
is that it’s been hijacked over time to mean several other things. For example, think about how
we use the word “inspired”. We might say, “that was an inspiring movie”, or if you love nature,
we could say that “that inspiring inspiration might inspire you to take up bird watching and tree
frog hunting”. If we dig back to the original word, Paul actually seems to have made it up. He
literally took the word for “God”, and the word for “breathed”, and stuck them together to mean
“God-breathed”. In fact, if you look at other Greek literature, that word doesn’t appear anywhere
else until this passage, and it only appears in other places after this passage was written.
But what do we mean that the Scriptures are “God-breathed”? How did God do that?
Did God whisper His Word into the biblical writers’ ears? 2 Peter 1:21 clarifies the concept of
inspiration. “21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from
God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Here, Peter isn’t denying any human
volition or personality in the writing of Scripture, but identifying God as the ultimate source.
That word “carried along” is also used to describe what wind does to a sailboat. Wind fills the
sails and ‘carries’ the boat along a path, in a particular direction. In other words, God was
providing the wind to move the boat, or the writers, in the right direction. It’s interesting that He
does that in a host of different ways. We have a scale that we call the “inspiration continuum”.
On one hand, we have dictation, and on the other hand, we have research. The truth is, our
Scriptures have content from many points in between those two extremes. For example, in some
cases, Old Testament prophets were directly commanded by God to write down exactly what He
said—and they did. In fact, the Old Testament is littered with the phrase “thus says the LORD”,
indicating a direct quote from God Himself. On the other hand, Luke was a researching doctor
who was obsessed with writing down a thorough record of the life of Christ. That’s just one
example of Bible writers going out and doing research, never receiving a direct voice message
from God. The boat illustration still applies here; God providing wind for the Old Testament
prophets’ boat looked like Him guiding them by giving them the words that they needed to write
down. In addition, God providing wind for Luke’s boat looked like Him guiding Luke to the
right locations and right people to acquire the knowledge that he needed to write an account of
Jesus’ life. Regardless of how the inspiration took place, we know that God is the ultimate
source of our Scripture. It’s perfect. One author puts it this way: “Though error and at least
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partial falsehood may characterize the speech of every human being, it is the characteristic of
God’s speech even when spoken through sinful human beings that it is never false and that it
never affirms error”. Here’s the big idea. We can trust our Bible.
Look again at verse 16. Who is our Bible from? All Scripture is breathed out by God.
Paul could have stopped right there. That’s enough for me. The all-powerful, all-knowing, allpresent God of the universe is the source of Scripture. But wait, there’s more. What is our Bible
for? Let’s put some more brackets in around the next phrase in verse 16, “and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. As I read these
verses over and over, I could almost feel Paul’s elbow reaching across millennia to nudge me.
“Ben, do you want to be able to teach and be taught? Do want the authority to reprove and the
humility to receive reproof? Do you want to be wise enough to correct, and able to accept
correction? Do you want to train and be trained in righteousness?” There’s one answer. Yes I
do. I want that more than anything. I feel that nudge again, “Then hold on to the words in your
Bible! You can count on them! They’ve been breathed out by God Himself!”
Look at verse 16. Paul says Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and
training in righteousness. All of those words seem too similar at first glance—but they’re not;
let’s break them down. First, Scripture is useful for teaching—it’s a reliable source of doctrine.
We can let ourselves be taught, and confidently teach from the Scriptures. Reproof occurs in the
moment when somebody who is sinning is confronted. So, we know that Scripture teaches good
and exposes bad, convicting us of our sins. Next is correction—after repentance occurs,
correction helps us restore our doctrine or personal practice to a right state before God. Finally,
there is training in righteousness. Our Scriptures provide moral training that leads to righteous
living.
This can be illustrated with a road trip. Good teaching puts us on the right road, heading
in the right direction. Now, say we make a wrong turn on our road trip. So, we’re off on this
dark road when the roving spotlight catches us—it’s reproof time. How horrible it would be to
leave us there in that position! Our Scriptures can then correct us either detouring or
backtracking us to get us back onto the right road, pointed back in the right direction. Finally,
we have training in righteousness. Now that we’re on the right road, we get a nice push and
plenty of fuel to help us keep going in the right direction.
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Again, it’s bracket time! What do these God-breathed, profitable Scriptures ultimately
accomplish? In verse 17, the purpose for all of that—all of the teaching, all of the reproof,
correction, and training in righteousness, is “that the man of God”, so that Timothy, so that
Reagan Silvey, so that Tamara Langley, so that Joey de Graffenried, so that Sarah Fruge, so that
Royce Stengele—“may be complete, equipped for every good work”. That word “complete”
means that we don’t lack anything; we’re competent; we’re ready. For the word “equipped”, I
actually like the KJV the best; it says “thoroughly furnished … unto all good works”. It can
be used to describe somebody who is “in fit shape or condition”. We should be spiritual athletes.
We should strive to be equipped. The Scriptures will provide all the right resources for
accomplishing “every good work” (repeat). Put your faith in the Word of God. Be ready for
every good work He has for you.
We are here on earth without a visible, physical Jesus that we can sit down and have a
conversation with, but God left us with a Book, a fascinating book, and a powerful book. God
still speaks through this book. We listen to God by reading the words on the pages. The
Scriptures should amaze and astound us. When we read, we need to see what we are reading as
truth, not as some fictional story. We should rely on these holy words that we are holding on to.
One author wrote this short story that illustrates exactly what I mean.
A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He
was loudly shouting praises to God. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled
without worrying whether anyone heard him or not.
While he was doing this, along came a man who had recently completed some
studies at a local university. Now, thinking that he himself was very enlightened in the
ways of truth, he was very eager to show this enlightenment, and he asked the boy about
the source of his joy.
“Hey” asked the boy with a bright laugh, “Don’t you have any idea what God is
able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole
nation of Israel right through the middle.”
The enlightened man laughed, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open
his eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be very easily
explained. Modern science has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only ten inches
deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to just wade across.”
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The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying
open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person,
turned to go. He had hardly taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise
even louder than before. The man turned back to ask the boy why he had resumed his
praises.
“Wow!” said the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did He
lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the
whole Egyptian army in ten inches of water!”
This young boy was holding on to the Bible. They’re not just a story. Don’t you want to
be like that? Scripture is meant to draw us to God and lead us through life. We need it. It is our
life blood. It’s absolutely necessary for us as believers, and it is for this reason that we should
hold on to the Bible.
We are living in the last days. The first principle for how to do that is to hold the right
mentors in high regard. Do you have a mentor? Have you said “follow me” to another believer?
The second principle is to hold the right perspective about the last days. Are we aware of the
persecution that is promised to us for persevering in these last days, in our darker-than-dark
world? Have you experienced that? The final principle is to hold on to the Bible. Do we know
where to turn for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness? Do we
value these God-breathed Scriptures? Let’s pray.
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