2 Timothy 3:2
2 For [gar] men [anthropos] shall be [esomai] lovers of
their own selves, [philautos] covetous, [philarguros] boasters, [alazon] proud, [huperephanos] blasphemers, [blasphemos]
disobedient [apeithes] to parents, [goneus] unthankful, [acharistos]
unholy, [anosios]KJV-Interlinear
2 For men
will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,
disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, NASB
Our context carries
over from the previous chapter, in that wickedness will exist generally
throughout society, but more specifically wickedness will exist from within
Christianity, and even more specifically, this wickedness within Christianity, will
swell in the latter days of the Christian era, thus forming perilous times.
Those perilous times
will be the Tribulation preceded by the impending Rapture.
Thus extreme wickedness
gives over to the rule of Satan and the pattern of his rule which is the policy
of evil.
And even though these
characteristics have existed in society throughout history, and exist among
unbelievers as well as believers, the subject here is the pattern of life that will
exist among believers near the end, perhaps the last couple of generations, of
the Church Age.
Just as the Tribulation
will demonstrate the extremes that humanity will go to in rejection of truth,
so too, then the end of our current dispensation will lay the groundwork for
that evil time.
No timeframe is
defined. No dates are specified.
This is a pattern or
trend, that will become increasingly dominant throughout Christianity as well
as throughout the world.
The first sin is the
love of self. This is perhaps the sewer out
of which all of the remaining sins, come.
Lovers is ‘phil,’ which
comes out of ‘phileo,’ which is used in the relationships of people in
friendship. The Father loved ‘phileo’
the son, Jesus loved ‘phileo’ John, Pauls love ‘phileo’ for believers, and so
forth.
The object is ‘autos’ or
self. And when self is elevated above
others, then God and others are eliminated from the relationship orientation of
life. Self becomes more important than
spouse, family, friends, work, community, honor, responsibility and so forth.
Lucifer loved self and
thus became Satan. Adam and Eve came to
love self and then came sin. In every case,
when self is elevated, God is ignored and trouble begins.
Society will eventually
love self to an extreme, and thus the end of human history will result.
And even in our current
day, self love is becoming the standard for therapeutic treatment. And that is nothing more than a problem being
treated by a problem. The result will be
worse than the original problem.
Resulting from love of
self, is the love of things, or covetousness. And so materialism will grow
rapidly as the secular side of society places great value on the things of
life.
Following this is
boastfulness, wherein the person boasts in things of self, that he is not. Boasting elevates self, exaggerates facts
such that they have no basis in truth.
Boasting makes one competitive thus attacking any competition in order
to advance ones self. People do this in
office politics, in gossip, in marriage, in politics, in celebrity circles, in
any form of social or public setting.
Truth is set aside in order to bring attention and credit to ones self. Authority is rejected.
Arrogance or pride,
carry the connotation of elevating ones self above, or making ones self
superior in some way. The arrogant
create an atmosphere of superiority in thought, in opinions, in favoritism, in
standards, in beliefs, and all at the expense of others. Bias and prejudice result.
This high opinion leads
to blasphemy or abusive and slanderous and contemptuous attacks against others. Others become beneath you. Other ideas become beneath yours.
When an older
generation is wicked in general, then the younger generation is not trained
properly in life and they become disobedient.
This leads to a succeeding generation that will follow in the footsteps
of their evil parents and thus become even more wicked.
Wickedness can never
satisfy or complete ones self. Thus
never achieving satisfaction, leads to ungratefulness. An ungrateful society wants more, is never
satisfied, and that leads to even greater problems.
Unholy is generally a
term that means lacking of righteousness and justice. These are two terms that define
holiness. When a person believes in
Christ they receive imputed into their life, Gods righteousness and Gods
justice, which serves to define salvation.
However, once saved,
then a person cannot become unsaved One
cannot unborn themselves.
Therefore, believers
who pursue a path of wickedness, will lose sight of sinless perfection, no
spiritual life, will lose sight of justice, no washing or confession. They will leave the spiritual behind, become imitators
of unbelievers, and thus be no better than unbelievers as far as the functions of
the world go.
In the future, sooner
or later, apostate thinking will take over the world. Certainly there will be believers, for the
Rapture exists to remove believers from this world. But the general idea here is that the
spiritual functions of Christianity will dwindle down to near nothing, but not
completely eliminated, as other things, activities, outlooks, things, beliefs
and so forth begin to prevail throughout society.
Prior to the flood,
Noah and his family, eight people, were all that were left before the flood
came. There were fewer people to be
rescued in Sodom when Abraham wanted the city saved for the sake of Lot. The Rapture will most likely see millions
being removed as the world will by then reject truth, and thus God will remove
it, and in a dramatic way.
Remember we have already
studied the three great gaps in history, wherein spiritual declines led to
major changes in history. The first was
in Noah’s day, when during a period of 120 years apostasy led to the flood.
The second was during
the last four centuries prior to the birth of Christ, when divine revelation
stopped as the Old Testament books were concluded several centuries prior to
the First Advent, because of the rejection of the Messiah.
And the third major gap
in history will occur at the end of our dispensation when it would appear that
there will be no further additional new believers in Christ, due to the lack of
the teaching or hearing of the gospel, let alone the teaching of doctrine.
Thus requiring a major
change, the Rapture, in order to bring society back to their senses, in which
millions will be saved during the Tribulation, who might otherwise not have
been saved were it not for the Rapture.
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