Summary:

Timothy fully knew Paul’s “faith” (3:10). Not the faith that saved him, the faith in Christ he continued to have when life got tough. That’s when many Christians lose their faith. Paul lost two years of his life’s work (Acts 19:10 cf. IITim. 1:15) but his faith remained strong. Would yours? If your faith is flagging just because your world is unraveling, what will you do in the last days when the world is unraveling (cf.Jer.12:5)? That’s the subject of this passage (IITim.3:1).

Timothy also fully knew Paul’s “longsuffering” (3:10). Paul suffered long with unbelieving Jews (Acts 20:19), but rather than lashing out at them, he prayed for them (Rom.10:1). He suffered much from magistrates (Acts 17:36,37, but told others to obey them (Tit.3:1) and pray for them (ITim.2:1,2). If you are longsuffering with those who wrong you, that’s proof you love them (ICor.13:4).

Timothy also fully knew Paul’s “patience” (3:10). Maybe you haven’t impatiently quit your job knowing the Rapture is imminent like the Thessalonians did, causing Paul to write what he wrote in I Thessalonians 3:5. But there’s other ways to impatiently wait for the Lord. Like fretting when unbelievers prosper (Ps.37:7-9). That’s talking about Jews waiting for the 2^nd Coming, but if you fret over the prosperity of unbelievers, remember their future (Ps.37:9,10).

Timothy also knew Paul’s “persecutions” and “afflictions” (3:11). “At Antioch” they spoke against him (Acts 13:45), “at Iconium” they assaulted him (Acts 14:5), and “at Lystra” they stoned him to death (Acts 14:6,19). Paul wasn’t living in the last days, those things can happen anytime, anywhere. But Paul cites those examples because they were the first 3 stops on his apostolic journey, but he didn’t quit. Timothy was about to start out on his own without Paul, and would need that encouragement.

Paul doesn’t say all who preach the gospel will suffer persecution, he says all who “live godly” (3:12). Men didn’t like godliness in the Lord (John 3:19) and they won’t like it in you either (cf. John 15:19,20).

Paul promised Timothy the same afflictions he endured but couldn’t promise him the same deliverances once the day of miraculous jailbreaks was past. But before you pass on being willing to endure afflictions, remember the 3 Hebrews knew that they’d be delivered even if they died (Dan.3:17,18).That’s the attitude Paul had too. Remember, he died at Lystra, yet he told Timothy the Lord had “deliv-ered” him at Lystra (3:11). Paul was “delivered out of the mouth of the lion” (II Tim.4:18) i.e, either the king of Rome (cf.Pr.19:12;20:2;Jer.50:17) or else the literal lions that the king would have thrown him to if he’d been convicted.

But when Paul went on to say that the Lord “shall deliver me from every evil work” (IITim.4:18), he said that right before they beheaded him. How was he “delivered” in that case? He finished that thought by saying, “and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom” (IITim.4:18). That’s how he looked at life and deliverance. He didn’t trust in the God who broke him out of the Philippian jail, as so many today do in vain, he trusted the God who raised the dead (IICor.1:8-10).No Christian trusts that God in vain.

Paul had an advantage in this trust that we don’t have, he’d been to heaven (IICor.12:1-4) and knew by experience that it was “far better” (Phil.1:23). But we have his word on it, which is God’s word! If you’re tempted to kill yourself to go there early, you should know that Paul was tempted too (Phil.1:21-24). But he decided it was more needful to stay and serve the Lord and His people — and so should you. If you’re thinking you’ll never be used of the Lord like Paul, you’re right. But that’s what whoever led Les Feldick to the Lord thought too, but he or she ended up doing something momentous for the Lord. Even if you never do, “who hath despised the day of small things” (Zech.4:10)? Every little service for the Lord adds up!

The only “persecution” most of us get (3:12) is mocking (Gen.21:9 cf. Gal.4:29), but don’t discount the power of mocking! Violent persecution fans the flames of Christianity and makes men want to preach Christ, while mocking tends to make them clam up lest they receive more mocking! Don’t let that happen in your life!

Summary:

There will be two comings of the Lord, one to catch us up to meet Him in the air to take us to heaven (IThes. 4:13-18), and another all the way back to earth 7 years later to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth for Israel (Zech. 14:3,4). But that means there will be two sets of last days!

Most Christians think the Lord’s “coming” in Matthew 24:3 is the Rapture, but the 12 also asked about “the end of the world,” and the world won’t end at the Rapture! The world as men know it will end at the 2nd coming of Christ to establish the kingdom though. Most Christians think “rumors of wars” (Mt. 24:6) will come before the Rapture, but they will come when Antichrist shows up with a bow but no arrows in the Tribulation (Rev. 6:2).

Most Christians think the rising of nations against nations today is a sign of the Rapture (Mt.24:7), but it too is a sign of the Tribulation (Rev. 6:4) and the 2nd coming. “Famines” too (Rev.6:5). These are “the beginning of sorrows (Mt. 24:6-8), and when God starts judging He will begin in Israel (I Pe. 4:17), so modern wars and rumors of wars and famines that don’t start in Israel aren’t a sign of the Rapture. Men recently thought of Matthew 24:29 when the total eclipse happened, but the darkening of the sun that this speaks of is also Tribulation ground (Lu. 21:25,26).

The last days before the Rapture are very different. I Timothy 4:1 says nothing about wars or the darkening of the sun. It speaks of darkness in men’s souls. “Seducing spirits” in the past seduced women to produce a race of giants to oppose Abraham. Seducing spirits in the last days will be creeping into houses and seducing women and men with “doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1). Just as there have always been women silly enough to be “laden with sins” and wicked men willing to seduce them (II Tim. 3:6), so there will always be silly people laden with sins and religious teachers willing to seduce them with false teachings.

Some of those doctrines of devils are “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (I Tim. 4:3). Your two main drives are your drive to eat and procreate. To deny them and think that you are pleasing God in the process is very seductive to your religious flesh, as Rome has proved for centuries. But in the last days before the 2nd coming they’ll be doing the opposite (Mt. 24:37-39).

II Timothy 3:2-5 also says nothing about earthquakes or wars, just more darkness of men’s hearts, which is scarier. I know they’ll be “blood” in the last days before the 2nd coming (Acts 2:19,20), but spiritual darkness is worse than physical darkness. Don’t forget, the physical darkness will be from God but the spiritual darkness will come from men, and David feared man’s judgment worse (II Sa. 24:14)

II Timothy 3 is all about when you see this spiritual darkness in spiritual leaders, that’s a sign of the rapture. They’re the ones that creep into houses, by radio and TV and internet, and seduce people. Most spiritual leaders mean well and are “ever learning, and never able to come unto a knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:7) because they’ve been blinded by religious tradition. But these religious seducers won’t come to a knowledge of the truth because they study the Bible looking for ways to seduce men. The more men know about a woman the easier it is to seduce her, and these religious seducers know that the more they know about the Bible the easier it is to seduce Christians.

Jannes and Jambres (II Tim. 3:8) opposed Moses by duplicating his miracles, and religious seducers teach a duplicate Jesus (II Cor. 11:4), the Jesus of the four gospels, and the “Spirit” of Pentecost, and the “gospel” of the kingdom. Their “folly” appeared (II Tim. 3:9) when Moses’ snake “swallowed” theirs (Ex. 7:10-12), and “swallowed” should make you think of the resurrection (I Cor. 15:54; II Cor. 5:4). Religious seducers always look good in life, but their folly will be made known after the Rapture at the Judgment Seat.

How should we prepare for the last days? Not by stocking the shelves of our pantry with survival food to survive the Tribulation, but by stocking the shelves of our mind with Pauline doctrine, as Paul prepared Timothy (II Tim. 3:10).

Summary:

That phrase “oppose themselves” is first used to speak of how God opposed Himself (Job 30:21).God always blessed Job for his righteousness (Job 1:8), but when He allowed Satan to move Him against Job, He opposed Himself. That is, He wasn’t His usual self, a God who blessed the righteous (Job 1:1-3 cf.Gen.13:4-6). He wasn’t obliged to do so, since He didn’t promise He would until later under the law (De.7:12-15). So Job couldn’t charge Him with unrighteousness but he could charge Him with opposing Himself.

The only other time anyone opposed themselves was when God called the Jews to be a light to the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-47). When they refused to be the light God made them to be, they “opposed themselves” (Acts 18:6). And that’s what it means when believers today “oppose themselves.” God made us to be saints” (I Cor. 1:2),. When we don’t act that way, we oppose ourselves, and can’t be the light God set us to be in the world (Phil. 2:15).

But there is more involved in being a light to the world than not living in sin. To be the light of truth God made you to be you must also avoid teaching error like saying the resurrection is past (IITim.2:18). You need someone to meekly instruct you to repent and acknowledge the truth (2:25).

Meekness means you don’t react when someone attacks you personally and doctrinally (Num. 12:1-3). This is important, for when you try to help someone living in sin, they say, “Who are you to correct me, you’re not perfect.” You know. They get personal. Even if you are pretty moral, you must instruct others meekly for you might fall (Gal. 6: 1). And when you correct someone doctrinally, they say, “Who are you to correct me? My interpretation is as good as yours.” They too get personal. You have to react meekly.

If you can, God “peradventure” will give them repentance. This doesn’t mean God may or may not give it. When God gave repentance to Israel (Acts 5:30,31), it was up to Individual Jews to repent. When God gave repentance to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18), it was up to individual Gentiles to repent. So when it says God “peradventure” will give repentance to those that you instruct, it is up to them too.

The truth you need to “acknowledge” if you are living in sin is all the good things Christ put within you (Phile. 1:6). That’s grace motivation! Beating yourself up with the law won’t help. And the truth to “acknowledge” to correct doctrinal error is the truth that is according to godliness (Tit. 1:1), Paul’s gospel. If you teach the resurrection is past, you take away hope, and men live in sin (Jer. 18:12; ICor. 15:32). Instruction in Paul’s gospel will fix that!

“Recover” (2:26) means to get something back (ISam. 30: 18). Recovering yourself
means getting back to being the sinless person God sees you to be, teaching the truth He’s given you to teach.

A “snare” (2:26) is a trap (Job 18:10). Usually snares are used to catch animals, but  those who teach error set snares for men (Jer. 5:26). If you fall into the vain babbling of error it is ungodly, and will led to more ungodliness (IITim. 2:16). When that happens, Satan takes you “captive” (2:26). You don’t cease to be a child of God any more than the Jews did when they were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar. They just couldn’t function as His children. They could only sacrifice and observe their feasts and sabbaths in Israel. If Satan takes you captive, you can’t function as a child of God you’re not “meet for the master’s use” (2:21)

Being taken captive at Satan’s will doesn’t mean he overpowers your will. He was only able to enter Judas (John 13:2) to sell the Lord out (Mt. 26:14-16) because he was covetous (John 13:2). Peter asked “why” Ananias let Satan fill his heart because he knew how it happened—he let him! We must let him also or he can’t. But when you’re taken captive at Satan’s will, you can recover yourself. Solomon’s vessels couldn’t (II Chron. 36:7) because it as God’s will they be taken captive as well as Satan’s (Jer. 25:90). But that’s because they were under the law and so God had to curse them. You’re not under the law, so it is never God’s will that you be taken captive by Satan. You’re a vessel of God (2:22) who can recover himself!