Paul wrote to Timothy as a warning, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

This verse is meant to be understood that people in the church will be acting this way. If you can imagine people in the church acting that way, how much worse the general population will be. In the church they will be appearing to try and be godly, and fail. People outside the church won’t even be trying.

Of the second verse in the passage, Wesley’s Notes say,
“For men – Even in the church. Will be – In great numbers, and to an higher degree than ever. Lovers of themselves – Only, not their neighbours, the first root of evil. Lovers of money – The second.”

Barnes Notes explains,
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves – It shall be one of the characteristics of those times that men shall be eminently selfish – evidently under the garb of religion; 2 Timothy 3:5. The word here used – φίλαυτος philautos – does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It means a lover of oneself, “selfish.” Such a love of self as to lead us to secure our salvation, is proper. But this interferes with the rights and happiness of no other persons. The selfishness which is condemned, is that regard to our own interests which interferes with the rights and comforts of others; which makes self the central and leading object of living; and which tramples on all that would interfere with that. As such, it is a base, and hateful, and narrow passion; but it has been so common in the world that no one can doubt the correctness of the prophecy of the apostle that it would exist “in the last times.”

Whoa. That is bad. The one place where there is supposed to be love…will be lacking of it in many places. Or at least, there will be a pale imitation and when push comes to shove, it will be revealed as ungodly love. I think that is the worse condition. To be faked out, I mean.

Here are some examples of selfish and ridiculous behavior in the general population that are a harbinger of what is coming to the church. As Barnes said, ‘been so common in the world that no one can doubt the correctness of the prophecy of the apostle that it would exist “in the last times”‘ in the church too. These news articles are from my local daily and local weekly. I live in a low crime area that is fairly rural. As soon as a few years ago I left my front door unlocked for the day. (Not anymore, things are always locked up tight.)

9-year-old moons bus driver, spits at police
“A 9-year-old girl mooned a school bus driver Friday afternoon and generally behaved so badly the driver had to pull over on the Outer Loop and call authorities, according to an Athens-Clarke police report. As an officer boarded the bus, he wrote he saw the girl trying to kick the driver. He convinced the girl to leave the bus with him, but once outside she tried to run away, the officer said. The officer managed to catch the girl before she got into the street and handcuffed her after she said she wished a vehicle had hit her. In the back of his patrol car, the officer said the girl repeatedly kicked the glass divider. He had to call for back up so someone could bring him a device to restrain her legs, according to the report.”

It goes on, the things the girl did. She attends a special alternative school for unruly children. The sad part is that she had to be handcuffed because she almost ran into traffic, and when the policeman was cuffing her she said she wished a car had hit her. It is so sad that children are so broken so young, that they defy educational authorities and even civil authorities like police officers. At age 9?! Decades ago, can you imagine the culture would have devolved so quickly to so taint the tender youngsters?

Even the older youth don’t know any better. See this story about a spate of police calls for youths n buses being transported home from the Middle School and High School in my county. And this next article, is simply outrageous.

Drunk UGA student urinates on shelves in Athens store
“A drunken University of Georgia student damaged merchandise valued at hundreds of dollars when he urinated inside a downtown Athens convenience store early Friday morning, Athens-Clarke police said. Austin James Smith, 23, of Lawrenceville, relieved himself in an aisle at Lay-Z-Shopper on East Clayton Street shortly before 2:30 a.m., damaging $200 worth of snacks and $100 worth of household items, according to police.”

Gross, gross, gross. What, was he raised in a barn?

This next one happened a few miles up the road from me. Scary.

Hull residents alarmed at finding severed dog heads on front porch
Four days have passed and no more severed dog heads have been left on the front porch where Zachary Osburn lives in Hull. For two days straight — Nov. 23-24 — the heads of dogs were found on the steps leading to the home where Osburn, his sister, and girlfriend all live on Old Elberton Road. Osburn called the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, which sent a deputy to investigate the bizarre matter, but the motive for someone leaving the heads, or even how the dogs died, is a mystery. … “My sister didn’t even go to work the first night because she was so shook up about it,” he said, explaining that his sister refused to take a close look at the head.”

I’d be shook up, too. It seems demonic, like something people do in satanic cults like voodoo, or in the ancient days of bloody pagan practices.

I am sure that examples abound of people doing strange things like these in your area too. But the interesting thing is that the Paul wrote that men will be selfish, brutal, slanderous, uncontrolled… etc., in church! The heightening of bizarre behavior outside the church seems to me to be a dark stain that is slowly encroaching into the last sanctuary- the local worship place. When it starts seeping in in greater force, I wonder what that would look like? Would it look like the above, youths showing up drunk to worship and urinating on the couch? With youngsters so out of control in AWANA that the police have to be called?

I know one thing Paul’s prophecy looks like, is spiritual abuse. I’ve written about that before, several times. Spiritual abuse is performed by men who seem godly, adopting a form of it but denying its power. At root, abusive pastors, leaders, deacons, teachers etc are selfish, because they deny God’s power so they can exalt their own power. Spiritual abuse is brutal.

I’d imagine that being slandered in church is a terrible blow to a Christian, too. We open ourselves up to trust levels we don’t even do in families or workplaces. When our character is impugned by someone who had purported to love the truth, it is a severe blow. Paul knew this. In 1 Corinthians 10 he spends a good deal of time defending his ministry. After Paul founded it, he left the Corinthian church to check on his other churches. Immediately, false teachers swooped in and through small lies and big ones, not only succeeded in making the Corinthians doubt Paul’s teaching, but their doubt extended to impact against the spread of the Gospel. When a person’s character is doubted it destroys their teaching. Maybe it was those fake-godly men he was remembering when he warned Timothy about future encroachments of other ones inside the church.

Note how Paul ended the first set of verses at verse 5: “Avoid such people.”

We are not just to intellectually note that such people exist in the church. We are not simply to mark when it happens. We are to DO something about it. We are to avoid them.

Referring to the verse in Corinthians, Phil Johnson preached about spiritual warfare, saying, “A lot of times spiritual warfare calls us to engage with people who look like, and pass themselves off as, ministers of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:15).

Again, I wonder how this will play out in real life. This command to “avoid such people” is a difficult thing. I mean, if you notice a deacon in your church, or a teacher or leader who is displaying one of the characteristics above, as a pattern of behavior that impacts the peacefulness of the church or the witness of the Gospel (not as a one-time error- please don’t jump to conclusions), how do we avoid them?

Do I alert the media? Change my pew? Get off the committee? Quit Sunday School? It is a difficult thing. I suppose of someone was caught stealing the tithes or molesting the children it would be clear that avoidance would be the least of the actions taken. But if they were slandering? Being ungrateful? Unappeasable? Taking Paul’s recommended action seems to me to be trickier to enact. But we must. It is prophesied to happen and the recourse is a command, not a suggestion.

I don’t have the answer yet, but I am sure that with further study and prayer the Holy Spirit will illuminate my mind. He is great to help bring the bible to life and its precepts to action. But I’m not looking forward to the day when the behavior such as Paul listed above comes into the church. But I wanted us to be aware of its prophetic imminence and to start praying how to keep loving even when people who faked us out for many years turn out to be brutal, slanderous, selfish etc toward us. Be ready. And part of being ready means being strong in our faith because when it happens to you, it will make you want to lie down and quit. We have to strengthen our armor now.

The great opportunity we have is that when the ungodly ones are revealed in our lives and our worship, our witness can be even brighter for Jesus, pointing to Him as the way and the truth and the life. Darkness is prophesied to steal into the pew, the pulpit, the classroom, but we are forewarned. We will be ready, we will be peaceful, loving, and bright with His glory, having prayed for strength and love to ride the waves of the coming church brutality and selfishness.

Our home is in heaven, and soon, we will never have to guard ourselves again. We will never have to gird ourselves with weapons. We can just…be. Cling to this thought, wonderful people:

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)