2 Timothy 3:1-9.  Paul’s picture of the last days is frighteningly accurate.  He describes difficult times that will come because of ungodly people.  These people are:

• lovers of self,

• lovers of money,

• proud,

• arrogant,

• abusive,

• disobedient to their parents,

• ungrateful,

• unholy,

• heartless,

• unappeasable,

• slanderous,

• without self-control,

• brutal,

• not loving good,

• treacherous,

• reckless,

• swollen with conceit,

• lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (2-4).

He concludes his list of attributes of end-times people by saying that they have the appearance of godliness, but deny its power.

Paul pulls the whole instruction back to the present by telling Timothy to avoid such people (5).  The opposition that Timothy should be concerned with is present within the first-century church itself.  They prey upon the weak, lead them away from God by their arrogant teachings, and will oppose Timothy just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses.  Even though they are known as scholars, all their learning never leads them to accept the truth (7).  Their true loves are self, money, and pleasure. All such people eventually crash and burn.  Their folly becomes plain to all.  Their lives of selfishness in the name of God bring dishonor to his name.

Timothy is not simply to avoid such people personally.  He is responsible to appoint leaders in Ephesus.  He needs to take care that the leaders he appoints are not like those self-proclaimed experts: men with corrupt minds who are disqualified regarding the faith.

Timothy’s mission is ours today.  Paul’s list described modern society so well that we cannot escape the assumption that we are living in the last days he predicted.  Avoiding unqualified leaders in the church should be simple.  We just have to reject those people who fit comfortably into our godless society.

LORD, give us discernment.  Help us to follow those who truly follow you, not just those who claim to know about you.