WEEK 13 HOOK 2 Timothy 3:1 9 Current Event: Frank Abignale, Jr. s life story inspired the movie Catch Me If You Can. Abignale became one of the most famous imposters ever, claiming to have assumed no fewer than eight identities as an airline pilot, a check forger, a chief resident doctor, a university teaching assistant, and a U.S. Bureau of Prisons officer. His biography states: For eleven months, Abignale impersonated a chief resident pediatrician in a Georgia hospital. The position was not difficult because supervisors did no real medical work. He was able to fake his way through most of his duties by letting the interns handle the cases coming in during his late-night shift. However, Abignale was almost exposed when an infant nearly died from oxygen deprivation because he had no idea what a nurse meant when she said there was a blue baby. Eventually, he left the hospital after he realized he could put lives at risk by his inability to respond to life-and-death situations. 1 How do people pretend to be something they are not? What are the dangers of posing as someone with power, authority or life-and-death responsibilities? Personal Story: Share with the class a time when you misled someone by appearing to be someone or something that you were not. Be sure to describe the situation and your motives for misrepresenting yourself. Inform them of the consequences of your misrepresentation, both for yourself and others. Use this time to be transparent with your class so they will honestly check their false lives before God. 1 Frank W. Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can (New York: Random House, 2008), p. 277.
WEEK 13 BOOK 2 Timothy 3:1 9 Background: This paragraph opens by signaling a contrast from the previous paragraph ( but ). Although Paul hopes that some false teachers will repent, he does not want to give an unrealistic picture of the situation. While God may grant repentance to some, it is also clear that opposition will continue. 2 Timothy 3:1 5 1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ESV Study Bible: Paul uses a common technique, emphasizing an item in a list (vv. 2 5) by placing it either first or last and expanding upon it more than the other items in the list: while Paul and Timothy s opponents have the external appearance of godliness, they do not have its real essence. Power means the present, effective working of God in and through believers lives (see note on Acts 1:8). Godliness (Gk. eusebeia) means genuine piety, including holiness, reverence, faith, and love and devotion to God. In 2 Tim. 1:7, Paul linked power to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and this power enabled perseverance through suffering (1:8; see 2:1) and faithful defense of the gospel (1:14). The people referenced in 3:1 9 claim to know God, but their lives are devoid of the work of the Spirit, which would have resulted in holiness, perseverance, and effectiveness in advancing God s kingdom. Avoid such people. This is the only command in vv. 1 9. This avoidance most likely involves excommunication. Although there may appear to be a contradiction between this and the exhortation in 2:24 26, the point in 2:24 26 is to seek the repentance of such people. In 3:5, however, Paul envisions those who remain obstinate and states clearly that there comes a time when such people must be excluded from Christian fellowship. What are the last days to which Paul is referring? Is it the present or the future? What does someone who loves self and money look like? How do they live daily? What does it mean to have the appearance of godliness? How can we guard against becoming these kinds of people? Should we always avoid people like this? How does evangelism fit here?
2 Timothy 3:6 9 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. ESV Study Bible: Jannes and Jambres are the names given in early extra-biblical Jewish writings to the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses in Ex. 7:8 13. In these writings, these men became key symbols of opposition to God s truth. Though their names do not appear in the OT itself, they would be familiar to Timothy and other Jews; identifying the opponents with these archetypal enemies of God s truth would have significant rhetorical power. corrupted in mind. Again false teaching is cast in terms of deficient thinking (see note on 2 Tim. 2:26). This is why divine aid is necessary for coming to the knowledge of the truth (2:7, 25 26). disqualified regarding the faith. In spite of their claims, these people do not have saving faith, since they oppose the gospel both in their teaching and in their living (see Titus 1:16). What does it mean to capture weak woman? Is this physical, emotional, or spiritual? How does sin burden and passion lead astray those in the faith? What does a person look like who is always asking questions but never maturing? What can we learn from Jannes and Jambres in the book of Numbers? What is true about those who try to hide their sin? What lesson does that teach us?
Another Perspective: Bible Knowledge Commentary: Paul focused on the specific situation in Ephesus. It was from the increasingly large group in society who displayed the preceding characteristics that the false teachers had emerged to plague the church. Their methods were insidious. They would worm their way into homes and gain control over those they knew were vulnerable and gullible. In the case of Ephesus the false teachers had crept in via a group of weak-willed women who were, literally, heaped with sin and fed by various lusts. Once more Paul connected false teaching with moral deficiency. Their carnality and immaturity rendered them easy targets for the false teachers (cf. Eph. 4:14). Out of a so-called openness to learn they evidently embraced as a fad whatever new heresy came along. Their problem was that they could not recognize the truth when they saw it. 2 Class Discussion: Have your class discuss how they guard their minds and hearts against sin gaining control over them. Share what boundaries you have set regarding television, relations with the opposite gender, relations with the same gender and exposure to worldliness at work. Remind your class members that if they are not actively watching their commitment to things not of God, then they will be drawn away from Him. Encourage them to make a list of weaknesses and seek God s direction in each one. Holman New Testament Commentary: In this era, people refuse the love of God. choosing instead to be lovers of themselves. This sentence offers the key to unlocking the rest of Paul s list of vices. When we fall in love with ourselves, our own appetites consume our souls. We become our own lover, pandering to that solitary I which must, of necessity, dismiss all threats and counterclaims to our affections. Everything from thoughts to possessions must be lavished upon the one we love ourselves. This leads quite naturally to becoming lovers of money. Paul dealt with this rather extensively in 1 Timothy 6. Loving money and all it buys opens the soul to Satan s traps, ensnaring the person in desires which cannot be met and enslaving him to a continual lusting for more money, possessions, or power. 3 Class Discussion: Have your class discuss what it means to be lovers of self. List how people actively choose self over God. For each point of selfishness, write a corresponding point of godly living. Encourage dialogue among the class, as some issues will be based on wisdom and not Scripture. Transition to a new discussion that includes how money would be spent if the focus were entirely on self. Do the same as above and show how money could be used for God instead. End with prayer over both lists. 2 A. Duane Litfin, 2 Timothy, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 2 Ti 3:6 7 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985). 3 Knute Larson, vol. 9, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Holman New Testament Commentary, 301 (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000).
WEEK 13 TOOK 2 Timothy 3:1 9 In Today s World: Christians are surrounded by a society that says in order to be loved, you must first love yourself. Dr. Robin Smith, a popular psychologist, suggests that the cure for most of our prevailing social issues can be found in true self love. On Oprah.com, Dr. Smith is promoted as having the answer to the world s problems: What in the world makes us self-destruct? Why do we harm other people? Why do we dislike people who don t think like us, whose skin color is darker or lighter, whose religious affiliation is different from our own, whose sexual orientation is different? Dr. Robin says the answer is that there is a lack of self-love. Not narcissism, she says, but true self love. What that means is that if I love myself, I m able, I m capable, I m equipped with what it requires to love somebody else, she says. 4 Class Exercise: Have your class respond to culture s current promotion of self-love. Remind the class of Jesus words in Matthew 22:37 40, that we are to first love God and not self, and then love others. Encourage the class to discuss the difference between the priority of loving God and loving self. Encourage them to discuss whether the love of God or love of self causes or solves current social issues (violence, racism, etc.). Challenge: Encourage your class with this: Those who love and obediently follow Christ have the power of God. Since believers have the power of God (Matt. 18:18 20), challenge your class to share the Gospel at least once this week. Note the importance of authenticity in the life of those who share their faith and the life transforming Gospel. Remind them that sharing the Gospel is centered in God s love and His love for others. 4 Dr. Robin Smith, The Importance of Self Love, www.oprah.com