In 2 Timothy 3:1-9, the Apostle Paul warns that hard times are coming. I believe that for us they are right around the corner. I pray I am wrong, but I am persuaded that I am right.
We face a foe that is mostly overt and one that is more covert. One foe we face is the more obvious: the hostility of the world. Watch the news on TV. Go out into public. What Paul describes in verses 1-5, might as well be America in the 21st century.
Rather than loving people and using money, we will love money and use people as lovers of self and lovers of money. Arrogance will be apparent as we are boastful, proud, demeaning—which marks the attitude of our elite that seek to dominate us today. There is disrespect of authority, beginning in the home, “disobedient to parents,” and such defiance at home breeds disregard of heaven, “ungrateful, unholy...”—rejecting our earthly fathers, translating into rejection of the Eternal Father. There follows despising His rule and throwing off moral restraint (v.3-5). Religion will be present, but an empty shell—mere ritual with deadening effect.
This leads from the hostility of the world, which is overt to that which is covert—the subtlety of the wayward—and that will be our topic for tomorrow, God willing.
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