In the last days difficult times will come. Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace

2 Timothy 2:22-3:17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³ But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. ²⁴ The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, ²⁵ with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

¹⁰ Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, ¹¹ persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

As believers we should not be surprised at the condition of our society and culture, the moral depravity, the division, the greed, the self centered and self serving nature of people. It is the condition of man apart from God. In today’s text Paul says:   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.     Lovers of self: Check, our culture and society so focuses on the individual’s right to do or be whatever they want to satisfy themselves. There is a tendency to try to divide people in financial terms, the 1% vs the 99%. Yet in matters of morality it is truly the 99% who are made to accommodate the desires of the 1%.    Lovers of money:  Check, little more really needs to be said, other than perhaps what 1 Timothy 6:10 says:  The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.    It is not money which is evil. Money can be used for many good and necessary things. It is the love, the desire of and for money, which is the root of all sorts of evil. That evil is not limited to those who have money, but rather to all who desire it, both rich and poor. That desire for money is the root of all sorts of evil, beginning with greed and envy, but also leading to dishonesty, division, hatred and even violence.  Boastful, arrogant, revilers: Check, check, check.   Disobedient to parents:  It is more than that children are disobedient to their parents, some disobedience is natural and normal. It is part of nature and nurture. The real problem in our culture is that children are encouraged to be disobedient and disrespectful to parents and elders. Fathers in particular are treated with disrespect and disdain. For the past several decades family and fathers have been portrayed as dysfunctional on TV and in movies. The traditional family, father (husband), mother (wife) and children is no longer valued. Children, both through entertainment media and in our schools are encouraged to be disobedient to and disrespectful of their parents. Parents ability to discipline, and so to nurture their children is now a legal government issue.   Ungrateful: Check, even the poorest among our society have more than kings and the wealthiest people had a few hundred years ago. Certainly I don’t mean to down play or disregard the needs of the destitute, the homeless and the hungry in our society. But often it is not they who are ungrateful. They appreciate and share what they do have. It is those who have who are ungrateful and want more.   Unholy, unloving, irreconcilable: Check, check and reconciliation is only the Christ, through first being reconciled to God, then to others.  Malicious gossips:  Check, gossip, malicious gossip is not limited to any one element of our society. Social media and the news media is guilty of and responsible for a tremendous amount of malicious gossip. There is little or no regard for truth and facts. The goal of much of what is repeated through media is to support an agenda, not report an occurrence.   Without self-control: Check, when self satisfaction is the goal, there is no reason for self control. Everyone is encouraged to do what is good for themselves.   Brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.    Check, check, check, check, check and check.       Haters of good, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God are all sort of wrapped into one. Our culture and our society though, truly has gotten to the place where we are beyond just loving pleasure. Our culture truly has begun to hate what is good. We not only revel in immorality, we despise morality. It is the right of one to curse and use vile language, even in public, yet it is no longer viewed as right to pray or say God bless you. It is considered good to kneel in protest, but the one who kneels in prayer is hated. Again it all comes back to what people are apart from God. When God is no longer loved, but rather He is hated and despised, all these conditions of our culture and society are to be expected.

As believers then what are we to do?  Today’s text says:  Flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will… You, however, continue in the things you have learned and… known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.    We should not be surprised at the condition of our society. Neither though should we accept that there is nothing we can do to change it for good and for God. In John 15:18-19 Jesus says: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”    The world, our culture and society may hate us as they hate Jesus, as they hate what is good and what is God. That should not be our concern. Jesus says: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”   Although the world may hate us we should be light. We should kneel in prayer. We should say God bless you. Most of all though we should:  Flee from lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. We should not be surprised at the condition of the world or its hatred of us. Instead we should surprise the world with the love of God and the truth of His word.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit may I live as a light in the darkness of the world. May I not be surprised at what people are when they are without you. Rather may I surprise them with Your love.   Amen.