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A Pointed Description of Today Written 2000 Years Ago

People are often amazed when something or someone can indicate attitudes, actions, or event weeks or months in advance. Often, we don’t heed the predictions and to be fair, sometimes we don’t know what the predictions mean.

For instance, months before Mount St. Helens explosively erupted in 1980, there were tremors and rumbling in the area. The eruption took people by surprise because few people knew what the predictions meant.

Sometimes, though, the predictions are so pointed that there is little doubt about what they mean. That is especially true when the prediction has to do with more than one or two things. When there is a series of attitudes that are mentioned, all of which are all quite noticeable and which are to take place concurrently, it is difficult to ignore it when they all happen. People still try to do so, but the fact that the predictions came true or are happening is obvious.

That is the case with the Apostle Paul. Nearly 2,000 years ago, he wrote letters of encouragement to Timothy. The second such letter was written while Paul was in prison and knew that he was soon to be executed. His thoughts weren’t of himself, though. Paul’s thoughts were on Timothy and the things that were going to happen.

In 2 Timothy 3:2-5, Paul described the situation by saying,

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Paul wasn’t describing the people of his time, nor even those Timothy would encounter. Some of the people at that time no doubt had a few of these traits. However, none of these things was widespread. In fact, it is likely that this described only a relatively few people.

What Paul was describing was the conditions today and we can plainly see these attitudes all over the world. All 19 of these things are so common that many people don’t even think about them. The daily news is filled with stories based on these attitudes.

Paul was writing to encourage Timothy, yet he was also giving a warning that applies to us. Like so many of his writings, he was giving us instruction and encouragement.

It is unfortunate that his words are so commonly ignored and that these negative traits are so dominant in the society of today. However, this is a prediction that is very pointed and has clearly come to pass.

Have you taken the time to think about what Paul said to Timothy so long ago? Do you heed his advice?

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What do you think?

Written by Rex Trulove

9 Comments

    • I make it a point to read the bible every day if I can, sometimes more than once a day. I don’t always succeed and I’m working on it. Still, studying the Bible can be fun. It strikes me, though, how many people are totally alone in a crowd of people. Still, I prefer living with few people nearby. I live in town, but there are fewer than 1,000 people in the entire valley and at times it almost feels like it is crowded. That’s okay because I can go 10 miles in any direction and can be in the middle of nowhere.

  1. I agree that what Paul wrote can be applied to today’s society but it could also be applied to past societies. Although you’re right that since the population is far greater, the effects of selfish, cruel behaviour has more serious consequences.

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    • I could put in a different way to illustrate what I mean. There are about 1,000 people living in our entire valley, including the town. I have no doubt that someone here is a lover of themselves. There are doubtless those who are lovers of money. Others may be boastful or proud or abusive or disobedient to their parents, etc. However, one thing that distinguishes this town is that most residents aren’t that way and very few are all of these things.

      In most places throughout the country and world, a great number of people are all of these things or most of them. More importantly, back in Paul’s time, all of these things were generally shunned. In today’s world, they are so commonplace that these things are accepted as normal behavior.

  2. Are you sure? I would have thought that there were plenty of examples throughout history – in many parts of the world – to which these epithets would apply. I don’t think the modern world is any better or worse that past ages in terms of how people behave towards each other.

    One might also ask why Paul would write a letter to someone in the knowledge that what he was saying would have no relevance to the person in question.

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    • In comparison to today, things weren’t nearly as bad 2.000 years ago. All of these descriptors are happening at the same time, all over the world, though the world population is far, far greater. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that these attitudes are prevalent today.

      • I beg to differ. The behavior of the rulers of the Roman Empire fit all those descriptors – you only have to read a few “lives of the saints” to appreciate the depravity and cruelty of officials who condemned the early martyrs to terrible deaths. OK – we can allow for exaggeration in some of the stories, but I reckon that these people are far more likely to have been the targets of Paul’s warnings to Timothy, given that they would have a profound influence on the early Christians.

        • Here is the trap; Paul wasn’t talking about non-believers. He was referring to people professing to be Christians. Paul was well acquainted with the cruelties of the Roman Empire since he persecuted Christians before he became a follower. Still, he was actually referring to fellow believers.

          • If that is so, then my case is proved beyond doubt! The record of professed Christians in being thoroughly unpleasant to each other and behaving in completely “un-Christian” ways goes back a very long way. It could even be argued that the reason why Constantine I adopted Christianity for the Empire was to bring peace by knocking Church heads together and imposing authority where there was none. As things stood, the warring Christians were a destabilising force, which was something that the Emperor simply could not tolerate.

            Agreed – the Council of Nicaea (Constantine’s imposition of order on Christianity) was a long way into the future as far as Paul and Timothy were concerned, but maybe Paul could see where then-current trends were leading.

            Presumably your original point – that things today are just as Paul predicted – must also be held only to apply to Christians and not society as a whole. I can see that – as an American – you might not see the two in as a clear a distinction as we Europeans would do. This is because 90% of American adults claim to believe in God, which is a vastly higher proportion than anywhere else in the World (with the possible exception of the Vatican!) – so how Christians behave in America is very similar to the way Society as a whole behaves. And I agree – the attitudes of many Americans towards each other is not far removed from Paul’s list.