2nd Timothy study, Part 14

Hi everyone! How are y'all doin'? Sorry, Texan moment! Oh yeah, I have been baking cookies!!!! MMMM!!! Sorry, yet another moment! LOL. Remember to pray today! Also, we are starting chapter three today!

1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontienent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

I took a big chunk again today because they are all speaking of the same event. Actually, verses two, three, and four are all just speaking of what men will be!

In verse one Paul tells us what will come in the last days. He writes, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." Or, in the other version, "You must know this-that in the last days difficult times will set in." Paul says that we "must know this." I think he should have put an exclamation point at the end of that first part. We must know this! What do you do if someone says, "you must know this!" You listen, right? Unless it is one of your crazy younger siblings playing a trick on you. :P So, Paul is trying to get our attention, he says that we should hear what he is about to say.

Next he says the important thing that he wants us to know, "that in the last days perilous times shall come." Wouldn't you want to know if a hurricane were heading straight for your house? I would! I would want to be warned long before it hit so I could be ready! That is what Paul is trying to do, he warns us that perilous or difficult times are on their way. When? "In the last days." The last days of what? The world. When Jesus comes back. He says that in the last days of the world before Jesus Christ comes back, the times will be difficult/perilous.

Barclay wrote a good deal on this verse, I would encourage y'all to read it.*

In the next three verses Paul lists all of the things that people will be, I am going to list them just like in part 13.

• Lovers of their own selves
• covetous
• boasters
• proud
• blasphemers
• disobedient to parents
• unthankful
• unholy
• without natural affection
• trucebreakers
• false accusers
• incontinent
• fierce
• despisers of those that are good
• traitors
• heady
• highminded
• lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God
• having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof

Wow! That's a long list! Like yesterday, I will go over each briefly. (If "briefly" is at all possible in my case.)

The first one says that men will be "lovers of themselves." That's no good! People who love themselves care not for others, or God. It's all about them. The world revolves around them. It's so annoying! They love themselves so much, that they have to have everything they want, when they want it, if they don't get what they want, they blame others. It is all rather disgusting if you think about it.

The next one is, "covetous." Wanting what someone else has. That is definitely self-centered. There was a king in the Bible named Ahab. His wife (Jezebel) was the nastiest woman who ever lived, in my opinion. And they saw an vineyard that they really liked, so they killed the man who owned it, and stole it from his wife. So sad. They coveted that vineyard, they wanted what someone else had, so they had the owner murdered so they could get what they wanted. Yuk! You can read the story in 1st Kings 21.

Next is "boasters." What does it mean to boast? To tell someone/some people what you did that was great. For example, you designed a gorgeous building, an then you told everyone how wonderful and beautiful your building is. That, is boasting.

Number four says that men will be "proud." They will be prideful. They will think of themselves greater than anyone else. Pride is dangerous, very dangerous. A verse in the Bible, that I can't think of right now, is "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18

The next one is, "blasphemers." What does it mean to blaspheme? It means that you are insulting someone. In the Bible we usually think of blasphemers as people who insult God, but in the Greek, it can also be used to describe someone who insults another human.**

"Disobedient to parents." Today, we don't think an awful much of when someone disobeys their parents, because kids are doing it all the time. In the time of the Bible, disobeying your parents was almost like a crime! Hitting one of your parents was accounted as murder!

Next is, "unthankful." This is a clear one. For, if one is unthankful, then we know that they are not thankful for what they have, they do not care about who gave it/what it is. Someone that is unthankful is often spoiled, in my opinion.

Number eight is, "unholy." And in the other version it is, "Regardless even of the ultimate decencies of life." What does this mean? I am not to sure. I think, when it says, "ultimate decencies of life," it means obvious things that are wrong or indecent. Such as, things I don't want to get into here. Y'all know what I'm talking about, things that are clearly not decent for one/both/or a group of people. It says that people will do these things "regardless even of the ultimate decencies of life." They will do it no matter what.

The next one is, "without natural affection," or "without human affection." Both make perfect sense. It says that people will not love each other or care about each other. They will be totally self-centered.

Next is, "trucebreakers." What does it mean to be a truce breaker? Well, I looked it up on Ask.com, and (this is hilarious) the first thing that popped up was, "2nd Timothy 3:3!" LOL. I have never had a scripture pop up first (or at all) on a search! That was weird! Anyways, a truce is "an agreement or treaty...a temporary respite, as from trouble or pain." So, a truce breaker, is someone who breaks/doesn't remain faithful to a certain agreement/treaty/etc. A truce breaker cannot be trusted.

The next one is, "false accusers." Yipes! This is one that we have all heard of. Someone who accuses someone falsely just to get them in trouble. I have been falsely accused, it is not good. It is hard sometimes to see who the false accuser is because they tell really good lies to make people believe something or other.

Number twelve is, "incontinent." The first time I looked at it, it looked like "incontent," but it's not. "Incontinent" means, "lacking in moderation or self-control...unceasing or unrestrained." So, someone who is "incontinent" also means someone who is self-centered, someone who thinks only of themselves. Ahhh! A ton of these go straight back to self-centeredness! It is incredible how selfish the people of that time will be! Think for a second, are these the last days???

Well, I thought I would get through them all today, but this is getting really long and we are only halfway through. So, I will do the other half tomorrow. :) God bless! Buttercup <3

*The letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; pages 182-183
**I didn't know about that before I read about it in the commentary. :P