Jump Start # 4156

2 Timothy 3:1 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.”

The setting of our passage today is troubling. Instead of the glowing, happily ever after, optimism that we’d like to believe, Paul paints a dark picture about the future. Difficult times will come. Realize this. Know this. Understand this. What follows are nineteen reasons why the last days will be difficult. Many of this are character flaws that spill over into relationship issues. Running through this list is misguided love. Loving self. Loving money. Unloving. Loving pleasure. Not loving God.

Dark times. Narrow attitudes. Causing trouble. Paul’s words to Timothy were to “avoid such men as these” (5).

Some lessons need to arise from this:

First, some people cannot be changed. It is not that the Gospel is not powerful enough. For the good seed to take hold and do some good, it must intersect with a honest and good heart. These people have demonstrated that their heart is neither good nor honest.

We want to save everyone. We want everyone to come to Christ. However, there comes a time when some people must be avoided. We must avoid them so they won’t change us. We must avoid them because they are not interested in honest discussions. We must avoid them because they are hurtful and dangerous. We must avoid them because the Lord said to.

Second, we must maintain the course set by the Lord. Later in the chapter we find, “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of” (14). There is a separation taking place even before the judgment. The evil are descending in a direction of destruction and the righteous are ascending towards the Lord. Less and less in common. Fewer and fewer things to talk about. Don’t allow them to change you. Don’t meet them half way. Don’t look the other way and pretend things are better than what they are. There comes a time with some people that you must put some distance between them.

Third, some simply do not get what the Lord is about. The people Paul describes in this letter were not atheists who denied God’s existence. Instead, the language shows that they had some conscience about them. Paul says that they were “holding to a form of godliness” (5); “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth” (7); “enter into households and captivate weak women” (6). They had an exterior of religion but there was nothing on the inside. The first principle in discipleship is to “deny self”. That comes before taking up the cross. That comes before following Jesus.

As long as these people were “lovers of self” they would never become disciples of Jesus.

Now, why was Paul telling Timothy these things? This wasn’t to scare him off. Instead, it was a reminder that not everyone is genuine. Not everyone is following the Lord. Not everyone cares. Not everyone can be trusted. Some are not interested in the saving message of Jesus. Some do not want to change their ways. Some are happy just where they are. It’s not the failure of the messenger. It’s not a failure of the message. It’s hearts that are closed and selfish.

We can beat ourselves up, thinking we are failures because some people walk away from the message we have for them. It’s not us. It’s not the message. It’s the hearts of some people. Jesus tells us that men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil.

There will be some in your family that are not interested in Jesus. There will be people you know that do not want to hear what you have to say. This breaks our hearts. This makes us want to find better ways of presenting things to them. But as long as their hearts are closed to Jesus, there is no method that will work.

Blessed be the ones who hear. Blessed be the ones who are seeking. Blessed be the ones who follow the Lord.

Tough words for tough times.

Roger