Paul paints a picture of the way the world will look before Jesus’ return. The picture he paints is not very nice. It’s kind of scary:

People without God live terrible lives

¹You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian. ² For people will love only themselves and their money; they will be proud and boastful, sneering at God, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad. ³ They will be hardheaded and never give in to others; they will be constant liars and troublemakers and will think nothing of immorality. They will be rough and cruel, and sneer at those who try to be good. ⁴ They will betray their friends; they will be hotheaded, puffed up with pride, and prefer good times to worshiping God. ⁵ They will go to church, yes, but they won’t really believe anything they hear. Don’t be taken in by people like that.

⁶They are the kind who craftily sneak into other people’s homes and make friendships with silly, sin-burdened women and teach them their new doctrines. ⁷ Women of that kind are forever following new teachers, but they never understand the truth. ⁸ And these teachers fight truth just as Jannes and Jambres fought against Moses. They have dirty minds, warped and twisted, and have turned against the Christian faith.

⁹ But they won’t get away with all this forever. Someday their deceit will be well known to everyone, as was the sin of Jannes and Jambres.

One can hardly say anything about this, except that we have to make sure that we don’t participate. On the contrary, we must oppose it. We must oppose it with love radiating from us. We must be grateful for all that we receive from God’s hand. People should be able to trust us and we should never think that we’re better than others.

May God always be inside us and may we share his power inside us with others. May God through His Spirit, help us.

Scripture
2 Tim 3:1-9

Reflection
What part of the dark vision is inside you too?
How can you change it?

Prayer
Father, I can honestly say this is not a nice picture. Actually, it’s very scary. I don’t want to be part of it. Let your Spirit show me where I need to live differently. Amen.