By David Phillips
In the first five verses of 2 Timothy 3, Paul gives Timothy a listing of Who’s Who among despicable characters of the last days:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be 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, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (ESV).
It would be easy to claim that any time in history could rightfully be tagged as times of difficulty, but Paul identifies our time, the last days. This is a New Testament term for the age of the church on earth, the gospel dispensation. This term does not refer only to the time just immediately before the second coming of Christ, but the entirety of the Christian age. So now that we know when Paul is referring to, let’s note the kind of people he says will characterize that [this] time.
There will be selfish people, who specialize in looking out for only themselves.
There will be greedy people, who see the dollar as the greatest prize.
There will be people who go about filled with and driven by pride and arrogance.
There will be people who are coarse and abrasive to others both in what they say and in what they do.
There will be people who have never learned or appreciated the value of obeying their parents.
There will be people who never say thank you.
There will be people who have no desire to be different or distinct from the world.
There will be people who see compassion as weakness and have no qualms about destroying life.
There will be unreasonable people who attack and fight for the satisfaction of destroying.
There will be people who are false accusers.
There will be undisciplined people who show no measure of restraint in anything.
There will be people who act in a savage way toward those they do not like.
There will be people who delight in evil, taking pleasure in opposing truth, righteousness and good.
There will be disloyal people who will turn their backs on anyone for little reason.
There will be headstrong people who are rash and reckless, seeking only their own profit.
There will be boastful people who believe they are superior to everyone else.
There will be people who elevate personal satisfaction to a level higher than God.
There will be people who claim to be godly, but demonstrate the opposite with their words and deeds.
What a rough crowd! We as Christians live in the midst of them all, and Paul’s advice is to avoid such people. To the Christians in Corinth, he warned, Do not be deceived: bad company ruins good morals (1 Cor.15:33). Though we are in the world, we must not be of the world, John 15:19.