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.
without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, of unsubdued passions, savage, having no love for what is good,
Paul's list for "the last days" reads like a description of pagan society. Yet he writes it about people who carry the name of Christ. This verse sits in the middle of that list. It traces the collapse from home outward to every other relationship.
One writer sets this list beside Paul's account of pagan life in Romans 1. The same evils appear, now under a religious name.
Look at this passage. It is a very solemn and clear testimony of the Spirit of God. It speaks of professing Christendom going back to a state like that of the pagan world, which the Spirit describes in Romans 1. Here the Spirit is not saying that the pagan world would be like this in the last days. He had already proved that it was so. But in the last days it would be so of those who had the form of godliness while denying the power.
ESV calls it "heartless"; older translations say "without natural affection." One writer weighs what society loses when that love goes.
Human love is the greatest gift of the Creator, surviving the fall, yet spoiled by it. In this life, it is the one bit of cement that holds society together. Without it we would have the very uproar of hell about our ears.
What follows when those ties are cut is not a wider love but an empty one:
There is no human centre and safeguard greater than home, with its many affections and the duties it involves… But here we learn of a dark and threatening change. Christendom in general does not merely show indifference to these ties of family life. It tramples them down as contemptible and would throw them out as unworthy nuisances. It makes a show of world citizenship as the true ideal. That ideal is wholly unreal and does not work, so the result is pure selfishness — a barren waste with no objects given by God for the heart, where self-will runs riot as it pleases.
Older translations call the next word "trucebreakers", as though these people merely broke their promises. One writer says it means more.
The lack of natural affection is a horrible result of false Christian profession. The wider hardness that follows is its companion, in place of that universal love which is loudest in theory when there is least of it in practice. The word goes further than the breaking of a truce that the Authorized Version and other translations attach to it. It expresses the lawless state that refuses to take on any such obligation. It is bad enough to fail to keep faith. It is much worse, as here, when men's hearts say, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."
The word for "slanderers" is also a title of the devil. The sting is who the Spirit gives it to.
Next in the list comes the character of "slanderers", or "false accusers", as the Authorized Version has it — the same title that belongs to the arch-enemy, the devil. Is it not solemn that the Holy Spirit has to describe men this way — not mere pagans, but men who bear the Lord's name in the last days?
One writer says the older translation of this word, "incontinent", is too narrow.
The next word is "uncontrolled", rather than "incontinent". Usage limits "incontinent" to a lack of self-restraint in impurity. The word here takes the fullest range: reckless indulgence in action, as the word before it does in spirit and speech. So the moral connection is clear.
This lack of restraint shows itself in temper:
"Fierce" or "savage". The man who slanders others in speech and has no restraint in his actions will show a savage temper. It wholly lacks the gentleness that marks the Christian spirit.
The verse ends with "not loving good." One writer ties this to the savage temper just named.
The savage temper always blinds men to what is good. Some in the Christian profession do not only love evil; they hate "what is good".
Paul does not tell Timothy to fix this. He tells him to step away. And that order is not held back for a future generation.
These moral features were already beginning to appear. They will show more and more clearly while the Lord Jesus waits, until at last they reach their full growth in the sins and corruptions described here. So when the Apostle adds, "from such turn away," he gives a direction that applies to every age. It shows that it is the Lord's mind for His people to be entirely separate from all this moral corruption.
- Form without power. These are not pagans but people who keep the name of Christ; the Spirit says Christendom goes back to what Romans 1 describes.
- Home falls first. Human love is the Creator's gift that holds society together. Where self rules, men trample family ties as nuisances.
- Then no bonds at all. The word here means more than broken promises. It describes men who refuse to take on any obligation.
- Then speech and temper. Slander borrows the devil's own title. Lost self-restraint hardens into a savage temper, with none of the gentleness that marks the Christian spirit.
- Then hatred of good. The chain ends not just in loving evil but in hating what is good. The believer's one instruction is to turn away and walk apart.