This is part of a series in which I hash out my notes I have scribbled on my bulletin from the Sunday sermons. As such things may be messy and abruptly end.

Context

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself. – 2 Tim 2:1-13

Note the character traits listed in chapter 3 to beware of, not “beliefs”

Doctrines determine behavior?

No. It’s far too easy to point at someone not believing in the resurrection or Christ and then say, “Oh, you see? Because he didn’t intellectually affirm this doctrine, that’s why he cheated on his wife”. No, because people like Steve Lawson who does affirm those doctrines also cheated on his wife.

Beliefs and behavior can be two separate train tracks.

You will know them by their FRUIT

Loving or “owing” something to yourself is contradictory and evil?

…[David] loved [Jonathan] as he loved as his own soul – 1 Sam 20:17

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him…But David strengthened/encouraged himself in the Lord his God. – 1 Sam 30:6

“He who sins against [wisdom] wrongs his own soul” – Prov 8:36

“He who gets wisdom loves his own soul” – Prov 19:8

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. – Eph 5:28

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” – Matt 22

Is self-control contradictory? Is loving yourself evil?

“Owing” something to one’s self:

To have an obligation or duty to do something for the sake of someone or oneself. We owe it to our parents to look after them as they get older. You owe it to yourself to extract yourself from your present situation and reassess your life. You need to stop worrying about work. You owe it to yourself to enjoy the weekends with your family For health insurance reasons you owe it to yourself to take care of your one and only body - your working machine.

Why not treat yourself like a child or pet you need to take care of? This mental shift can help people care for themselves and push them to choose right/healthy/good things so they can in turn help others and be an asset rather than a liability.

Rather than rejecting the phrases outright, why not investigate the thing that is claimed to be owed and determine if it actually is owed and if it brings you closer to your goal (and if the goal is worth attaining)?

The Point of Paul Talking about Them

…evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived – 2 Tim 3:13

Timothy would’ve known about all of these vices already. None of them are new, and even prior pagan philosophers have talked about them at length. Timothy would’ve known first-hand since Paul is writing to him from prison, and in chapter 1 Paul already talked about how all of Asia deserted him.

In fact, Paul talks about very similar vices in Romans 1 and in that passage, the ungodly and unrighteous men there do have knowledge of God, hold the truth in unrighteousness (changed the truth of God into a lie), and who know the judgment of God.

So why is he talking about these? If Paul’s main point is for Timothy to find potential candidates for continuing the faith-line, then it would behoove him to warn his protege of imposters that can sneak their way into churches. It’s easy to mimic and say “all the right doctrines” all the while being lovers of self, lovers of money, unholy, boasters, etc. See, again, Steve Lawson.

The List of Vices

Notice that this list is about character, virtue (or rather lack thereof), and behavior. Paul does mention false doctrine, like how Hymenaeus and Philetus taught that the resurrection is already past, but by and large Paul in this letter (and the pastoral letters in general) emphasizes embodying the gospel and walking the Path, not listing a bunch of things that need to be parroted in order to be considered “theologically orthodox”.

Indeed, Paul says in chapter 1 to not “strive about words to no profit” and “shun vain and idle babblings”. Why? Because it would “increase to more ungodliness”.

Lovers of themselves

Narcissists (ironically being self-less); not the same as having a healthy love of self (tending to the body, eating well, treating yourself like a child or pet that you need to take care of, cultivating virtue). On the other hand, people who virtue-signal about how humble they are and how they “deserve Hell” are very much lovers of themselves. Though they claim they ‘deserve Hell’ for their sins, they can’t handle criticism or people doing something against their wishes/paradigm.

Lovers of money

Optimizes for scalability/efficiency/the institution over and and against care for people and community; selling out, grifting, “what’s your price?”

Boastful

Someone who boasts about qualities, accomplishments, or wisdom they do not possess, using these boasts to manipulate or impress others; Spiritual Usury (get the accolades/virtue up front, but then you eventually will have to pay it back with interest or else “foreclose”) reference material

Arrogant/Proud

Inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, superiority, etc. Different than merely feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one’s stature or self-worth; their opinion of themselves is over-inflated, not measured. Merely having an opinion on one’s self or abilities is not intrinsically proud. Most people who drive a car will have the opinion that they are at least confident in their ability to get from point A to point B without crashing.

Blasphemers

(lit. either “hurtful utterance” or “stupid utterance”) To speak evil/ill of, slanderous with regards to men, God, rituals, practices, etc. On the other hand, people prone to making baseless accusations (e.g. trying to cancel someone) probably is what Paul meant below with “slanderers”

Disobedient to parents

(lit. not peitho; not obedient/trusting/confident) - Or rebellious/insubordinate. Lack of discipline, unable to be discipled, does not have a good orientation with the past, blind to inherited gifts/trauma, doomed to repeat cycles.

Ungrateful

Lacking in gratitude, typically full of resentment which is absolute poison and antithetical to the Way that is Christ; that is, to endure suffering comprised of failure, betrayal, and injustice with no resentment, but with love and gratitude.

Unholy

Not sacred; English word for “holy” meaning possibly “that must be preserved whole or intact, that cannot be transgressed or violated” connected with the Old English word for “health and happiness”; undefiled by sin, pure; NT believers are referred to by the same name as the Sons of God in the OT and 2nd Temple literature: “holy ones” (which get translated as ‘saints’). Not acting as one fit for rulership/dominion (see parable of the talents).

Unloving/Lacking natural affection

(lit. not storge); hard-hearted toward kindred; cluster-B personality disorders (Antisocial Personality Disorder; BPD, Narcissistic Personality Disorder); both psychopaths and sociopaths. storge is innate and instinctive. Lacking this trait common to all humans should be an obvious red flag.

Irreconcilable

(lit. not spendo; without libation, meaning unable to be placated); One who can’t be reconciled with or unable to mutually agree to something

Slanderers/False accusers

(lit. diabolos; typically a title for Satan, i.e. the Devil) - Make false/malicious statements about someone in order to cause humiliation or disgrace. For people actually being irreverent, see “blasphemers” above.

Without self-control

(lit. without kratos; lacking power), talked about a lot by Greek philosophers etc. The lower will predominantly operates against the higher will and/or their shadow/subconscious runs autonomously; the appetites rule over the nous

Brutal/Savage/Wild/Untamed

(lit. not hemeros; not tame/gentle); marked by a lack of self-restraint or reason, driven by rage, vengeance or hubris and opposite of ordered the ideals of civilization, justice, and moderation; acting in the spirit of Chaos (e.g. Leviathan or Behemoth); anarchic, threatens to disrupt cosmic or societal order.

Opposed to what is good

(lit. not philagathos; against loving the good/good men); against transcending selfish impulses and against orienting one’s self toward the sacred; refuse to become a more Christ-like version of themselves, which if they did, naturally becomes communal by nature. A Christian-ese way of saying it might be “love and care for the new man born in you”. Proper self-love oriented toward virtue is in concert with philagathos. It is NOT love of the egoic self (i.e. the old man).

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. – Eph 5:28

Traitors/Betrayers

Same term used of Judas; untrustworthy, violate by unfaithfulness, mislead, deceive, deliver or expose to the power of an enemy by treachery; one who does not see relationships as sacred and worthy of protection/privacy.

Reckless

Impulsive, careless, thoughtless, not thinking of consequences. Poor capacity to think about the future. Does not care about his future self and so effectually hates himself and those around him. Not the same as phronesis (wisdom practiced in the moment).

Conceited

(derived from the word meaning to envelop with smoke); to be puffed up, insolent, to be blinded by pride and so be rendered stupid; English word meaning to have an overweening opinion of oneself “I know all the answers. I have my systematic theology, I follow the great giants of the faith, etc.”

Also statements like, “I have arrived at all the right conclusions and I don’t need to look into different perspectives, nor think that I or the people I put on a pedestal are wrong”

Lovers of pleasure rather than (or more than) lovers of God

(lit. philo hedone); Polybius writes about societies that succumb to indulgent hedonism negatively, and praises the Roman Republic whose people at one point generally practiced self-restraint and a sense of duty. Hedonism can erode personal virtue, societal cohesion, and political instability. The whole “Strong men create great times, great times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. Hard times create strong men.” type of thing. The spirit of the Carthaginians.

Outward appearance of godliness but denying its power

It appears to be “godly” and “Christian” and “pious”, but it’s a sham because they just play dress-up and not be in attunement with the real thing. Perhaps it’s the reason why Paul references Jannes and Jambres. They were the religious elite (like the pharisees), they had a show of power, knowledge, and authority, they could even mimic the first two plagues. It’s not the “atheists out there” outside of our church that’s the problem here, it’s who infiltrates and tries to destroy the church to fit their own agenda (whether they’re intentional about it or not).

On denial:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him:
if we deny him, he also will deny us:
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:
he cannot deny himself.

Avoid. People. Like. These.

Here, Paul doesn’t distinguish between Christian and non-Christian, and given the context of Timothy finding and cultivating faithful men who are able to teach others also, a bit of the edge goes to watching out for the former rather than the latter

Indeed, they will progress no further as their folly will be manifest to all.

Last Days

It may refer to “the Church age”, but again, all these things were already known to Paul and Timothy and all these vices are not new. Perhaps we could take the “latter days” phrase and see it as a fractal: saying instead your or our latter days or latter state. First half of life, second half of life. Dawn and Dusk. 1st trimester and 3rd trimester. Something like that?

Because the phrase shows up even in the OT and it doesn’t appear to me that it always refers to the very last age of human history or even “the Church age”.

And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days: – Gen 49

And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days. – Num 24

For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands. – Deut 31

O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! – Deut 32

So the LORD blessed the latter end of Jacob more than his beginning… – Job 42

Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; And thou mourn at the last [end of your life], when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, – Prov 5

Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end – Prov 19

Wisdom literature is rife with references to the “latter end” or “last days” of a man.

It also really isn’t a “technical term”. Paul is just using a phrase like any person would when communicating with anyone else. John uses the phrase “the last hour”. If you take it to refer to the same thing, then it can’t be technical phrase. It’s not as if the writers of the NT were creating some reductionistic systematic. It’s just a phrase meant to point to some idea that the writer wants to get across to his readers.

So what if Paul is thinking “locally” when talking with Timothy, meaning he’s not talking about the end of history or even the far future of the “church age” necessarily, but rather the latter days of Timothy’s life as he sees how events are unfolding in Rome and in Asia in particular (see chapters 1 and 4)?

Perilous times

“Times” used here is not chronos but rather kairos: precise timing of a decision/action to achieve the best outcome. A common metaphor for kairos involves archery and one’s ability to aim and shoot at the exact right time and on-target; a fleeting moment. This sounds like phronesis wisdom.

kairos is, “…a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved.” - E.C. White

kairos requires awareness, intuition, and wisdom to recognize and seize the moment.

Here, kairos conveys the idea of an urgent crisis or a tipping point in history when the cumulative effects of sin and human failure result in peril. These are moments when the potential for chaos and destruction is at its peak, and the moral fabric of society is tested.

Given the list of vices and traits Paul describes, of course it would result in a society that stands on a knife’s edge (and note that Paul doesn’t distinguish between Christians and non-Christians).

But this all underlines Paul’s point about enduring suffering well, staying on track, and finding and cultivating the proper and real candidates of faithful men who are able to teach others also.

Jannes and Jambres

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

Corrupt

Corrupt/warped/ruined/shriveled/withered/perish

But [false teachers], as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; – 2 Peter 2:12 (only other time that Greek word is used)

Reprobate

Reprobate/disqualified/disapproved. Used of testing the quality/integrity of money as well as the men that decided to NOT circulate counterfeits:

In the ancient world there was no banking system as we know it today, and no paper money. All money was made from metal, heated until liquid, poured into moulds and allowed to cool. When the coins were cooled, it was necessary to smooth off the uneven edges. The coins were comparatively soft, and of course many people shaved them closely. In one century, more than eighty laws were passed in Athens to stop the practice of whittling down the coins then in circulation. But some money-changers were men of integrity, who would accept no counterfeit money; they were men of honour who put only genuine, full-weight money into circulation. Such men were called dokimos, and this word is used here for the Christian as he is to be seen by the world. – Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans: God’s Glory, pg 18

The word used in 2 Tim 3 is adokimos, its negation. Paul is telling Timothy that he shouldn’t put people like that in circulation, especially in leadership positions. They need to be approved, assayed, tried, tested, etc.

[Unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the Circumcision] profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work adokimos [not approved]. – Tit 1:16

A Pithy Paraphrase of 2 Timothy

“Timothy, it’s the end of the road for me. You all need to keep moving the ball forward. Find your pool of faithful and competent candidates and build them up. In this process avoid fakers and those that don’t embody the gospel and remember the reward that awaits those who do good and maintain themselves to the end.”