2 Timothy 3:2–5

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Loving self will lead to loving money, for with money men can buy what will feed the gratification of self.

"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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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?

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.

"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 savage temper always blinds men to what is good. Some in the Christian profession do not only love evil; they hate "what is good".

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.

This adds another shade of wickedness: the "treacherous", or "traitors". It is the form of malice that betrays others to ruin without a second thought. The Lord tasted this bitter baseness among His twelve disciples as no one ever did or could. This verse warns us that it will be a mark of Christendom. The trait was there here and there even when the apostle wrote, but like the rest it will spread and deepen as the last days drag on.

"Heady" or "headlong". The man who can betray his friends is the man who will drive on with his own will. He does not care what it costs, and he gives no thought to others.

"High-minded" or "of vain pretensions". The headlong man is full of self-conceit. He tries to cover his self-will with the empty pretence that he is acting for the general good.

Love of self, love of money and love of pleasure are to mark the religious people of the last days. All the evil things listed between them show the different ways the proud, self-sufficient, lawless spirit of fallen man expresses itself. And all this, remember, is in people who call themselves followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. If we know anything of the present state of the so-called Christian nations, we may well conclude that we have reached the last days.

Who can deny how plainly and how strongly "pleasure-loving rather than God-loving" has grown? It is not new, of course, but it is stronger in our own day than ever. And it grows among people who would be deeply offended if they were not counted as Christians. When in this world's sad history was there ever such a constant, widespread whirl of excitement — travel and change, sweet sounds, pleasant pictures, and sensational tales? And that is to say nothing of lower kinds of bodily pleasure.

The clouds of coming judgment may be gathering. But Christendom is blinded by its own vanity and selfishness. It gives itself up to a whirl of excitement and looks for its pleasure in the senses. Too often the professed ministers of religion lead the way in every kind of worldly pleasure.

Compare Romans 1:29-31. You will see that the evil to be turned away from was as bad as the evil among the pagans. It was only worse here, because it stood in the place of light and under the pretence of light.

Too often the amusements of the evening lead to the neglect of the Bible in the morning. This happens again and again, until the soul goes numb under the round of worldly fun and the lack of spiritual food. Then the life on show can only be described as "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God". Surely all would shrink from such a brand!

It is Christendom that comes before us. Yet those bearing the Lord's name can only be called "men". In their morals they are as corrupt and violent as the heathen (compare Romans 1:29-31), if not as gross. They keep a form of godliness while they have denied its power.

Godliness is the one thing worth having. All else is corruption and evil. To have the form of what is good, and for it to be only a form, is sad beyond words. It is a form with none of the power that belongs to true godliness — a shell without a kernel.

The "form of godliness" not only lacks what is real; it also denies the true power. Even the leaders of Christendom deny the need for the new birth and for conversion to God. They deny the need for a living faith in the Son of God to guide in the things of God. They have the outward forms of christening and confirmation and such things, and wrongly imagine the form is what God demands.

In the closing days of Christendom the professing mass will give themselves over to every form of evil. They will try to cover their wickedness with the cloak of sanctity. So nominal Christians become more wicked than pagans. They indulge in all the evils of paganism, then add to their wickedness by hiding it under the form of Christianity. That form is empty of Christianity's spiritual power. What can be more desperately wicked than using the Name of Christ as a cloak for evil? This cloak of sanctity is what makes the last days "difficult times". The show of piety at times deceives even true Christians.

The answer is that these moral features were already beginning to appear. They will appear more and more clearly while the Lord Jesus delays. At last they will reach their full growth in the sins and corruptions described here. So when the Apostle adds, "from such turn away," he gives a direction for every age. It shows that it is the Lord's mind for His people to be in complete separation from all this moral corruption.

This was not to "go out" from the house of God but to be separate from the evil done in the Lord's name. Such separation is owed to Him. It is to depart from evil, but not to forsake the Christian profession… But no one is to slight fellowship: each is to seek out and cling to it with all who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

There is no need to know evil fully, for we do not escape evil simply by knowing about it. It is by knowing the truth that we can detect what is false and contrary to the truth. Having detected the evil, we should not dwell on it, but "turn away" from those who pursue it.