Nakala

I heard some statistics the other day about how to avoid unexpected accidents. It suggested some guidelines.

• Avoid riding in automobiles, airplanes, boats, or trains because they are responsible for 36 percent of all fatal accidents. I guess you need to walk.
• But don’t walk either because 14 percent of all fatal accidents are suffered by pedestrians.
• So, maybe you should just not go anywhere. No, do not stay home—17 percent of all fatal accidents occur in the home.
• Where can you go, then? Well, do not go to the hospital because that is where 32 percent of all deaths occur.
• This researcher said that only one half of 1 percent of fatalities occur on Sunday in church; so, the safest place to be is in church.

I am not too sure about this research. It sounds like a pastor came up with it.

But the truth is obvious: life is filled with risks and injuries and unexpected problems that occur.

There is nothing wrong with being careful or preparing for the unexpected. The question is, are we preparing for what we should expect—for what, in fact, is certain to happen?

As we set sail into 2 Timothy 3, Paul points out some certainties for which we can all prepare—certainties for Timothy’s future and ours. He also tells us how to prepare for what is coming.

The first half of 2 Timothy 3 tells us to be prepared because evil days are coming. Paul writes to Timothy, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty” (verse 1).

Paul is going to explain what those “times of difficulty” involve, but first we need to know what “the last days” refers to. This expression speaks of the entire period of time between the birth of Christ and the second coming of Christ to set up His kingdom on earth. So that means, technically speaking, the New Testament views Christians in the first century as living in the last days.[1] So, likewise, you and I can consider ourselves living in the last days. The last days, beloved, are now 2,000 years and counting.

When Paul writes here about these “times of difficulty,” he uses the plural form, indicating there will be a number of periods or seasons within the “last days” when Christians will experience great difficulty. So, while Timothy was already living in the last days, he could expect a growing intensity of difficulty.

In verse 2 Paul begins a lengthy list of evils that will characterize people in these difficult times. You might rightly ask yourself if you are living in a period of time like this, when the intensity of these characteristics grow more pronounced around you. Here is the description in verses 2-4:

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.

Included in this list—almost too easy to miss—is disobedience to parents and an ungrateful spirit. You might not put them in the top-twenty list of sins, but God does.

You might also notice that these difficult times are marked by people who are characterized by what they love—love for self, love for money, love for pleasure! But there is no love for God. They are self-centered, proud, arrogant, and conceited, which means they are absolutely unable to truly love someone beside themselves.

In verse 5 Paul says that some of these people have “the appearance of godliness,” but they deny “its power.” This indicates there is some kind of outward commitment to Christianity but no life-changing power in their religion. So, this is not just a problem out there in the culture; it is a problem inside the church. People wrap themselves in a cloak of religious respectability, hoping to hide their true wickedness.[2]

They are going to sign up for the Bible study, but Paul describes them in verse 7 as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” And that is because they do not really want to live it. They will get into the Bible, but they are not about to let the Bible get into them.

Timothy is told to avoid such people—and so should we. They and their favorite false teachers, Paul says, “are corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” (verse 8). Paul also predicts that sooner or later, their evil is going to be exposed. I have lived long enough to see that happen over and over again.

Now Paul is writing this inspired passage because he does not want us to be surprised and panic when we see such evils. God certainly is not surprised. The Trinity has never held an emergency meeting—not once. Even the evil of mankind is woven into the fabric of history, so that God’s ultimate purposes are fulfilled. That is why the Bible never tells us to resent our culture but to reach it with the gospel of Christ.

So, we are to be prepared because evil days are coming.

Second, Paul wants us to be prepared because persecution is rising. The apostle predicts here in verse 12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Persecution should not be unexpected. So, get ready for it. How? By doing exactly what we are doing right now: studying and applying and committing to life the Word of God.

In verse 14 Paul reminds Timothy, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” He learned it from his mother and grandmother, as we saw back in chapter 1. And, as verse 15 says, Timothy grew up to follow “the sacred writings”—that is, the Old Testament. The Scriptures made him “wise,” Paul writes; they prepared him “for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

No matter what you are facing, beloved, the Scriptures are able to encourage you and equip you for life. The Bible is not just any old book. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (verse 16). Many translations say “inspired by God.” But the term literally means “God-breathed.”

Paul is actually referring to the Old Testament. That is all the Scripture He and Timothy had. But that was still capable of equipping the believer. When Paul says all Scripture is inspired, or God-breathed, the word he uses for “Scripture” is a term that will later be applied to the New Testament Scriptures, as we see in what Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:16.

The Bible comes directly from God. But how does inspiration work? One theologian put it this way: “God’s words were given through men, [directed] by the Holy Spirit so that their writings are without error.”[3]

And because the Bible comes from God, Paul goes on to write, it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God [that includes every believer] may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).

I like to outline these four ways the Bible is profitable like this: It is profitable “for teaching”—it tells us what is right. It is profitable “for reproof”—it tells us what is wrong. The Bible is profitable “for correction”—it tells us how to get right. And finally, it is profitable “for training in righteousness,” equipping us for good works—it tells us how to live right.

The question for the Christian is not, Why study the Bible? but How can we afford not to? Beloved, you will never have a close relationship with God if you have a casual relationship with the Bible.  

Let us never take the Bible for granted. Let us treat it like a gift, a gift from the very breath and heart of God.