1. What is Paul trying to impress upon Timothy in this passage?
Ministry will be difficult because of sinful men who will oppose him, but these will be proven false before all. I think this passage may refer to a broad group of non-Christians, but especially ('among them', v.6) to false teachers. These people, unlike non-believers in general, should be 'avoided' (v.5)
Paul prefaces this passage with a 'but', because he has expressed hope in the closing verses of Chapter 2 that some false teachers will repent.
The "last days" are those that come after the first and before the second coming of Christ, e.g. "in these last days he (God) has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb 1:2); Christ "was revealed in these last times for your sake" (1 Pet 1:20). )The Holy Spirit is also given in the last days (Ac 2:17). No further outworking of redemptive history or new revelation will come before Christ returns to close out the age. So Paul's warning to Timothy in his day applies equally to us.
2. What does this warning have to do with Chapter 2?
Paul here is laying out the character of the false teachers - those who are bad workmen and dishonorable vessels. We can only 'avoid' those we know to be false, and we tell false teachers by their bad teaching and their bad character. So Jesus says, we will know them by their fruit (Mt 7:15-18)
3. The first 2 vices of verse 2 and the last one of verse 4 all point to the deluders' chief error: wrong love that corrupts potentially good things.
a. What should they love (v.4)?
God.
But what is love?
To hold as having highest value, to treasure as being of the greatest worth, because we find the greatest fulfillment and pleasure in it. Jesus is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price for which we give up everything else to obtain (Mt 13:44-46). Where our treasure (what we value) is, there our heart will be (Mt 6:21) -in practice, what we value (love) will order our priorities, and actions.
Selwyn mentioned 3 aspects of love for God: emotional attraction, active obedience (c.f. Jn 14:15-21) and maintaining relationship. Qin mentioned that love is seen in sacrifice - the giving up of what is valuable for the sake of something more valuable. God gave us His Son (Jn 3:16). and we are to give up our lives for others (Jn 15:13)
b. What do they love (v.2.4)?
Self
Money
Pleasure
c. How do people commit this error today?
My reflection is that Jesus assumes that we will love ourselves (Mt 19:19; 22:39). Even Paul tells husbands to love their wives as their own bodies (Eph 5:28). Why and when then would loving our selves be wrong? Love of self is wrong when it is greater than love of God. Self becomes an idol. These who love themselves in this way will put their own comfort, enjoyment, security, status, convenience and possessions above others, and in such a way that they will deprive others of their comfort, enjoyment, security, status and possessions so as to maintain and increase their own.
Those who love money will accumulate wealth and possessions as their security and source of significance. Money is congealed life (Ravi Zacharias). Money is a symbol of all the world has to offer, a way of obtaining the world's resources. Selwyn shared his reflection that beyond trusting in our wealth, our life focus is to be on treasures in heaven, not on accumulating wealth on earth
Lovers of pleasure will prioritize the pleasures of sex, food, leisure and other luxuries. We know that pleasures all come as gifts from God to be enjoyed. We rightly enjoy them when we look to the Lord who gives them, and do not let our focus terminate on the pleasure in itself. So in practice we give thanks for our food when we say grace before meals, and we share what pleasure what we have with others.
Using a topical Bible or just leafing through one of the Gospels, explore Jesus' teaching on one of the traits listed in 2 Ti 3:2-4.
in the parable of the sower/soils (Luke 8:13-15), pleasure is identified as one of the reasons for seed/people not bearing fruit because they are "choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life". Perhaps there is a parallel here with 2 Ti 3:2-4 where "self" has as it's counterpart "cares". A word search on 'merinma' shows that it is a word found only in 6 places in the NT, 3 of them in this parable. Paul has 'anxiety' for all the churches (2 Cor 11:28) and er are told to cast all our 'anxieties" on God because He cares for us (1 Pe 5:7).
Linking the idea of self and anxieties, I would then say that we will be anxious about the things that threaten our expectations and achievements in life. When I ask myself what I have been anxious about, it would be when my reputation or image is threatened
We spent quite a bit of time sharing our thoughts about Ravi Zacharias' recent exposed scandals. We remember how hard it must be for his family to deal with the situation and pray that the Lord will be with them. RZIM will have lessons to learn about governance and accountability. We thank God for all the good work He has done through Ravi and are happy to look at his perceptive teaching, even as we mourn for the fall of his reputation and the harm done to God's Name.
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