But this know, that in [the] last days difficult times shall be there;
Paul tells Timothy to expect trouble, not improvement, as the Christian era draws to its close. Two questions decide what the verse means: how far "the last days" reach, and how strong the warning about "times of difficulty" really is.
One Greek verb carries the weight of the verse. The choice is between a threat drawing near and a state already here.
Here the English version renders it "shall come." But the meaning is certainly not "shall be at hand," which would have no point. It is "shall be present." To be only close at hand was a small thing. The serious point was that difficult times would actually be there in the last days.
Older translations used "perilous," a word that suggests danger. Kelly prefers "difficult," and traces the difficulty to evil dressed up as godliness.
Difficult or grievous times were to set in; not "perilous" merely, as in the Authorised and all the older English versions. The times are described this way because sin spreads widely under a fine Christian appearance — an outward form of godliness with a real denial of its power... He hates presumption. He seeks humility. He loves his brothers. He is bound to be faithful to Christ, and he cannot go on with evil, whether it is personal or shared by a group. It is a hard time truly for heart and conscience.
The phrase is not pinned to a few years just before Christ returns. It marks a whole period, and only the Lord's coming ends it.
The phrase plainly covers the closing days of the Christian era, however long God may be pleased to prolong them. It means the time in general before the coming of the Lord. Then God will end His present ways, and the kingdom will come in displayed power and glory.
If the span is that wide, the warning is not a distant forecast. The other apostles used the same words about their own time.
"The last days" began as soon as Paul was gone. John, who outlived him, could tell us, "Children, it is the last hour" (1 John 2:18). James says, "You have laid up treasure in the last days," and, "The Judge is standing at the door." Peter says, "ready to be revealed in the last time." He also says, "It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God," and, "Scoffers will come in the last days." So "the last days" is not merely the time in which we live... It is an expression used by all the apostles to describe the moral state that had come, or was just coming in.
Paul had written to Timothy about evil before. Kelly sets the two warnings side by side.
In the earlier letter (1 Timothy 4:1-3) a prophetic warning had been given, but about evil quite different in time, character, and extent from what we have here. Instead of "last days," the Spirit spoke specifically of later, or after, times — that is, times following the apostle's writing. Instead of a widespread condition of "men" in Christendom, he there spoke of "some" only. The language suits and supposes comparatively few.
Many expect the world to get better as the gospel spreads. This verse points the other way.
How different is the future of Christianity in this world from the pictures painted by its popular advocates! They love to sketch the gradual conversion of the world by the preaching of the gospel... What God reveals here about the course of Christianity dispels this illusion at once... He lifts the veil and lets us see that evil and corruption will increase. So, as the end comes near, we must expect difficult times, along with the corruption named here.
The chapter does not stop at describing the trouble. It sets out three things in order.
I know the path of the believer, and especially of the servant, is increasingly difficult in this evil day. But we have been forewarned, and our resource has been provided... If you examine the whole chapter you will find mainly three things. First, what marks these difficult times (vv. 2-9). Second, that persecution must be the lot of the godly (vv. 10-12). Third, that the word of God is our only resource (vv. 14-17).
- Told — Paul does not leave the future to guesswork. He says "understand this," so that no believer is caught off guard.
- Timing — "The last days" is a broad phrase. It covers the whole closing period of the Christian era, and the apostles used it of their own day.
- Texture — The word behind "perilous" means difficult or grievous. What makes the times hard is evil carried on under a fair Christian appearance.
- Trend — The path leads to more corruption, not to gradual improvement. Writers here reject the hope of a world converted before Christ returns.
- Tool — The same chapter also gives the answer. It marks out the times, warns of persecution, and points to the word of God as the only resource.
for men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, evil speakers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, profane,
Paul warns Timothy that the last stretch of this age will be hard. He then lists the moral traits that make it hard. The people wearing them still carry the name of Christ.
The list is not aimed at outsiders. It describes what goes wrong inside Christianity itself.
This does not describe something that has always existed outside Christianity. It describes the corruption of what began in such heavenly power and blessing at the start of the present age of grace. The world as such was always evil. But in the company described at the beginning of the book of Acts there was nothing of what we get here. Then men loved God, and not themselves, but one another. Then men were not covetous, but each man gave all he had for the good of his neighbour.
The order is not accidental. The first item explains the rest — and points to its cure:
"For men shall be lovers of self." That is the opening characteristic, so grievous to the Lord and His own among those bearing His name. It rightly holds first place in this list of Christ-dishonouring professors. It is the very mother of evils. It goes straight against the will of God in Christ Jesus for His children. Christ did die for all. But the moral purpose was that those who live "might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised." … So the first condition of discipleship, if we listen to our Lord, is denying self — the exact opposite of loving it.
Some today treat self-love as healthy. This verse points the other way:
This is well worth stressing. Some people today speak about loving oneself as if it were a right thing. But Second Timothy names it as a feature that marks corrupt Christian profession in the last days.
"Lovers of money" is one word in the original language:
The word philargyria literally means 'love of money'. It is the miser's sin, and a man may indulge it while professing religion. So in Luke 16:14 it is applied to the Pharisees, and in 2 Timothy 3:2 to those who had a form of godliness but denied its power. This love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Those who chase it are liable to wander away from the faith and pierce themselves with many sorrows.
The connection is practical:
Loving self will lead to loving money, for with money men can buy what will feed the gratification of self.
The next trait shows what wealth does to a man's talk:
"Boasters." The love of money will turn men into boasters. Men boast in their skill at gaining wealth. And having piled up riches, they often take the chance to advertise their acts of charity. This is the opposite of the lowly grace of Christianity, which teaches us to give so that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
Smith takes the verse's "abusive" as speech against God. Where God is despised, the closest human bond gives way too.
"Disobedient to parents." If men are capable of blasphemy against God, it is little wonder that they are disobedient to parents. If they have little respect for divine Persons, they will have no respect for human relationships.
Ingratitude sounds mild next to blasphemy. It shows up in how a person reads good fortune:
The men of this age stand out for their ingratitude (see 2 Timothy 3:2). They see the hand of God in nothing. If things happen to go well with them, they only say, "My luck was in." It is our privilege to see the hand of God in all things. Walking in His fear, we trace His ways with us in a thankful spirit.
Darby sets this list beside Paul's description of the pagan world in Romans 1:
At the start of the letter to the Romans, Paul lists the sins and abominations of heathen life. They show the moral state of men in those times of darkness and demon-worship. Compare that list with the catalogue of sins that marks those who have the form of godliness. We shall find it is nearly the same, and in moral character quite the same. Only some of the open sins are missing — the ones that mark a man under no outward restraint. The form of godliness rules them out and takes their place.
- Self first. Love of self opens the list. It is the mother of evils, and the reverse of why Christ died. Its cure is self-denial.
- Then money. Loving self creates the appetite; money buys what feeds it. This sin sits easily under a religious profession.
- Then noise. Wealth breeds boasting, boasting breeds arrogance, arrogance breeds speech against God.
- Then the home. People with no respect for God will have none for parents. Ingratitude follows: they see God's hand in nothing.
- Then the mirror. The result nearly matches Paul's picture of paganism in Romans 1. The same nature, minus the worst open sins, with a form of godliness in their place.