The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

2 Timothy 3:10-13

All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God

¹⁰ You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my Faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹ my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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Last week’s post discussed a further condemnation of Paul concerning false teachers; they prey on the vulnerable and pretend to follow the faith, although they will be found out in the end, just as Jannes and Jambres, the magicians opposing Moses, were. Jannes and Jambres, ancient Jewish writings tell us, were responsible for the golden calf incident, and the Israelites killed them afterwards.

In 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul commands Timothy to get rid of the false teachers corrupting the church in Ephesus and the surrounding towns. Paul either senses or knows that Timothy is having a difficult time of it. The false teachers arose from the midst of the congregation, which probably makes it more difficult for Timothy to assert his authority.

Here, Paul appeals to his younger protégé. At this point, Paul was in his mid- to late 60s and Timothy was 30 years younger. They would have been working closely together in the ministry for around 15 years.

Paul says that Timothy has followed him throughout: the Apostle’s teaching, his conduct, his aim in life, his faith, his patience, his love and his steadfastness (verse 10). Paul truly practised what he preached.

Before analysing the verse, let us contrast Paul’s life with the life of those who profess to be Christians but are lacking in faith.

Matthew Henry’s commentary says that is because such people do not know or understand the word of God (emphases mine):

The more fully we know the doctrine of Christ and the apostles, the more closely we shall cleave to it; the reason why many sit loose to it is because they do not fully know it.

John MacArthur says the same thing:

Let me say again, there are a lot of pastors, there are a lot of Christian leaders, there are a lot of good Christian lay people in the church but there are not many warriors for the truth who guard right doctrine, who cry out for uncompromising holiness. They are few and far between, certainly in this generation. And yet the church desperately needs them if we are to pass on a legacy of truth and conviction to the generation to follow.

Moving on to an analysis of verse 10, Henry tells us:

Now what is it that Timothy had so fully known in Paul? 1. The doctrine that he preached. Paul kept back nothing from his hearers, but declared to them the whole counsel of God (Acts 20 27), so that if it were not their own fault they might fully know it. Timothy had a great advantage in being trained up under such a tutor, and being apprised of the doctrine he preached. 2. He had fully known his conversation: Thou hast fully know my doctrine, and manner of life; his manner of life was of a piece with his doctrine, and did not contradict it. He did not pull down by his living what he built up by his preaching. Those ministers are likely to do good, and leave lasting fruits of their labours, whose manner of life agrees with their doctrine; as, on the contrary, those cannot expect to profit the people at all that preach well and live ill. 3. Timothy fully knew what was the great thing that Paul had in view, both in his preaching and in his conversation: “Thou hast known my purpose, what I drive at, how far it is from any worldly, carnal, secular design, and how sincerely I aim at the glory of God and the good of the souls of men.” 4. Timothy fully knew Paul’s good character, which he might gather from his doctrine, manner of life, and purpose; for he gave proofs of his faith (that is, of his integrity and fidelity, or his faith in Christ, his faith concerning another world, by which Paul lived), his long-suffering towards the churches to which he preached and over which he presided, his charity towards all men, and his patience. These were graces that Paul was eminent for, and Timothy knew it.

MacArthur directs our attention to the words ‘you followed’ in that verse:

Now, the key thing that I want you to note there and underline, two words in verse 10, “you followed,” you followed. And I want to expand on that as the major concept and thrust in this particular text. Timothy had a tremendous spiritual example, the epitome of patterns to trace your life on was Timothy’s pattern, namely the apostle Paul. And as I said, uncompromising champions of the truth usually have learned that at the feet of a stalwart defender of the faith. That was Timothy’s case. Paul himself was the model. You followed, and then Paul lists all those things about himself that Timothy followed.

You patterned your life after me. You followed the – the demonstration of uncompromising loyalty that was true of my life and you set your life in that same pattern. You saw that I suffered and that didn’t deter me. You saw that I was persecuted and that didn’t deflect my goal. You saw that I made the commitment whatever the price. You have had that pattern for your pattern. And several times in 2 Timothy he says you’ve got to suffer like I suffered, you’ve got to endure like I endured, you have to expect persecution like I got it. That’s the pattern. You’ve seen it, you’ve followed it, you’ve traced your life on it. You know what it means to have a strong example …

… Paul says, “But you,” – and that’s in the emphatic position in the original language – “But you,” – on the other hand, in contrast to all the deceitful false teachers and wicked men – “you followed,” – and we’ll just put the word “me” in there to sum up everything Paul says in verses 10 and 11. You had a pattern to follow to make you different. “You” is emphatic, pointing out that Timothy has had a very distinct training.

Let me talk a little about the word “followed.” It’s very important. It’s not just a simple word that means to follow in – in some generic sense. It’s a rich word that has some profound insight, parakoloutheō literally is to follow alongside. That’s simply its literal meaning. But as you see how it’s used in ancient times, it begins to open up in incredible ways. For example, the Stoic philosophers used the word as a technical term for the relationship between a disciple and his master, a student and his teacher.

A very close relationship was expressed in this term. You followed not from afar, not at a distance, but you followed in an intimate relationship as a – as a master and a disciple are connected. Some have translated it, for example, like this: “to study at close quarters,” or “to carefully note with a view to reproducing,” or “to take as an example.” So let’s – let’s take that middle meaning and read it this way, “But you carefully noted my life with a view to reproducing it.” That’s the essence of the word. You patterned after me. You began to think like I think, talk like I talk, walk like I walk, react like I react. You patterned your life after me.

It was Paul the apostle and Timothy the disciple, Paul the father and Timothy the child, Paul the leader and Timothy the companion, Paul the head and Timothy the associate, Paul the leader and Timothy the follower, Paul the example and the friend. That’s the way it went. Timothy the submissive learner and servant. Timothy was ever at his side, always at his side learning, learning, learning to imbibe the spirit of an uncompromising defender of the faith.

There has never lived a greater defender of the faith than Paul. And Timothy had an inestimable privilege that none of us will ever have, to walk alongside that incredible man. The aorist tense is used here which sums – sums up all of Timothy’s experience. You followed. From the beginning of our time together to the present time you patterned your life after me.

And, beloved, I want you to know that that is part of the necessary ingredients in a person who is a champion of the faith. You look for someone who has had a pattern to follow like that. And this really summarizes the whole of Timothy’s experience. So much was Timothy in one sense a clone of the apostle Paul that in 1 Corinthians 4 – Paul, of course, is very upset with the Corinthian church and he says to them, “I exhort you therefore be imitators of me,” verse 16. You need to pattern your life after me. Then he says, “For this reason, because I want you to be like me I have sent to you Timothy.”

Our models, those we choose to follow in some way, affect our lives, too:

And let me say just in a general sense … I am absolutely convinced that this is a tremendously important point. We are all copiers, we are all mimics, we are all imitators. And who you pattern your life after is going to be who you turn out to be in great measure. You are marked by your models. You are marked by your mentors. You are marked by the patterns you choose to follow. Your heroes, your examples mark you.

That’s why I tell young people all the time, it’s so important whose ministry you sit under, what school you go to, particularly what seminary you go to because the people who influence your life will do that. They will mark you. They will mark you with their set of convictions, with their perceptions and perspectives. If Timothy is to be loyal and strong against apostasy, if he is to stand against heresy and all attacks on the church, then he is going to be able to do that if he has learned to do that by patterning his life after someone who is like that. That’s the challenge. And Paul is concerned with Timothy’s loyalty. And he is concerned that Timothy make the most of his privilege of having been patterned after the apostle Paul himself …

We will imitate somebody or somebodies. We might as well imitate people worthy to be imitated. It is not wrong to be a reproduction if you are a reproduction of the right person. And that was the case with Timothy. He had followed all those attributes of Paul. He was the pattern.

MacArthur then examines Paul’s list in verse 10:

Now, I want to talk a little bit about the word “my,” you have followed my teaching … You did what I did in this point, this point, this point, this point, this point …

Now, we could divide this list, Paul loves lists and every time you come across a list of Paul, it’s helpful if you can kind of divide it up and get the flow of his thought. And there are really three areas in this list that Paul covers. And he says you have followed me in all these three areas. The first one is ministry duty, ministry duty. And that’s the first place where you learn how to pattern your life after someone. How do they carry on their ministry? He divides his ministry duty into two things: teaching and conduct. You have followed my teaching, my conduct.

Teaching, didaskalia simply means what it says, doctrine, teaching, divine truth, the basis of everything. He says, Timothy, you followed my teaching of truth, you followed my instruction, God’s revelation. You followed apostolic doctrine, you followed my doctrine. In chapter 2 verse 2, “The things you heard from me in the presence of many witnesses you are to pass on to someone else.” You learned from me, someone else needs to learn from you. The passing on of the apostolic doctrine was vital.

… When he taught, he taught what Paul had taught him. That’s what he was to do. The things you heard from me, teach faithful men and so they’ll teach others also and will keep passing down the unmitigated, unaltered truth. That was absolutely vital …

Secondly, he followed Paul not only in teaching but in conduct. That word agōgē means manner of life, pattern of behavior, lifestyle. It’s a simple word used only here in the New Testament, but it has to do with your daily living. Now, what was wonderful about Paul, and this is a good – good thought to keep in mind. What was wonderful about Paul was that his doctrine was in perfect harmony with his living. And that has such tremendous integrity that it has an overwhelming impact on someone. When you live what you teach, you have a powerful influence. And here was a man who taught truth and lived truth consistently. That is great integrity. Timothy followed the pattern of ministry.

Now ministry in its simplest way can be described in these two things. Your ministry is what you teach and how you live. Those are the – those are the duties of ministry, to teach truth and live truth, to teach what is right and live what is right. And Timothy followed Paul. He knew the pattern of how to teach truth and how to live truth. Those basic duties of ministry Timothy followed. And those things are essential in the patterning process.

… What any of us in leadership communicate to people, first and foremost, is what we teach and the way we live. And if there is disparity and inconsistency, there is tremendous confusion and chaos. A loss of integrity is tragic. So the bottom-line ministerial duty, the bottom-line duty in spiritual mentoring – if we can use that term – is to make sure your teaching and your living are consistent. Paul did that in front of Timothy. Timothy was doing that in front of others.

… not only did Timothy follow the pattern of ministry duty but of … personal qualities. Look again at verse 10. He says, “You also followed my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love,” those four things. You followed in my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love. Those are personal character qualities. You patterned your life after me. Now, let me show you what he means by this. Purpose, that’s the first quality to start with, motive. What’s in your heart? What’s the purpose? Boy, I’m telling you, this is what dictates a man’s life. What is the driving passion of his heart? The word purpose means that. The inner motive, the driving passion, the consuming desire of his heart.

What was it for Paul? I’ll tell you what it was, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 16 to 18, “Woe is unto me if I” – What? – “preach not the gospel.” Acts chapter 20. “I do not count my life dear unto myself, I want to finish the ministry Christ gave to me,” he says in Acts chapter 20. “I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.” My hands, as it were, “are clean from any blood, I have discharged my responsibility to proclaim Christ, teach God’s Word” …

Now, this is the thing that I want you to understand. That is the driving force from within that creates a life of truth and duty. When you look at a person and you see great spiritual integrity, you see a person who teaches truth and lives truth, you can know they’re driven by a great internal purpose, to be – to be to the glory of God, the honor of God, to do the thing that God has gifted, called, commissioned them to do …

The second thing he mentions in verse 10 is faith, my faith. It could be that he means here faith in God. That would be certainly a fair translation of pistis. It could mean that. It also could mean faithfulness or trustworthiness. The same term would be translated that way. And, usually, in lists that Paul makes, like Galatians 5, the list there, 1 Timothy 2:15, 1 Timothy 4:12. In the list it seems best to translate it faithfulness. So he may be saying you have followed my consummate faith and trust in God or you have followed my faithfulness, loyalty, trustworthiness with regard to the truth.

In either case, what he is saying is I never compromised, I never wavered in my trust toward God and I never wavered in my loyalty to His Word and His calling. You followed my faith, you followed my faithfulness. That’s a tremendous thought. Faith begets faithfulness, if you really trust God you’ll be faithful to His Word and His will. He stayed true to the purpose. So he says you followed my purpose and that meant you followed my faith and faithfulness. You stayed true to it because you were driven by that purpose.

And even when things don’t go right, he says, you followed my patience, makrothumia. What is that? That is the spirit that endures persecution from people. The steadfast spirit that never gives up and never gives in. It means patience with people, even persecuting people. So he says, “Timothy, you followed my purpose, that resolute uncompromising devotion to do the duty God had given you, to preach Christ, exalt His name, extend His Kingdom with no thought for comfort, no thought for personal success. You did it; you were committed to doing it. Your faith never wavered, your faithfulness and loyalty was exemplary. And even when persecution came you endured that, you took it. You were patient with people, even to people who persecuted you.

Then he adds a fourth characteristic, my love you followed. You loved, you loved God in it all, you never lost your love for Him. You loved the church. That’s why you were willing to do it. And you loved the lost and you loved even your enemies who persecuted you. We can take love and stretch it at the most magnanimous point here. The agape volitional love of Paul was evident in every dimension. He loved God unwaveringly. He loved the world so much that his heart broke when he saw a city given to idolatry. He loved the church so much that he gave his life on their behalf.

And he loved even his enemies, even his enemies to the point where his desire for those who persecuted him was salvation. He had love in its widest broadest sense. Now, do you see the flow of qualities? When a man has a driving purpose to fulfill God’s will he will be faithful to that purpose. Faithful to that purpose even though he is persecuted and hated by those around him. And even though being persecuted and hated, never moves away from loving God, loving the church, loving the lost and loving even the persecutors. Virtue upon virtue marks out the greatness of the heart of Paul. And Timothy followed that. He patterned his life after that.

Paul reminds Timothy that he followed the Apostle throughout his persecutions in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, all of which he endured and from which God rescued him (verse 11).

Henry explains Paul’s message in that verse:

5. He knew that he had suffered ill for doing well (v. 11): “Thou hast fully known the persecutions and afflictions that came unto me” (he mentions those only which happened to him while Timothy was with him, at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra); “and therefore let it be no surprise to thee if thou suffer hard things, it is no more than I have endured before.” 6. He knew what care God had taken of him: Notwithstanding out of them all the Lord delivered me; as he never failed his cause, so his God never failed him. Thou hast fully known my afflictions. When we know the afflictions of good people but in part, they are a temptation to us to decline that cause which they suffer for; when we know only the hardships they undergo for Christ, we may be ready to say, “We will renounce that cause that is likely to cost us so dear in the owning of it;” but when we fully know the afflictions, not only how they suffer, but how they are supported and comforted under their sufferings, then, instead of being discouraged, we shall be animated by them …

MacArthur has more, picking up from ‘steadfastness’ or ‘perseverance’ at the end of verse 10:

Now Paul went through some very difficult experiences and Timothy understood that. He saw that. He learned from that. He benefited from that. The word “perseverance,” hupomonē, means patience with circumstances, not patience with people like the other word, makrothumia, but patience with circumstances …

… People can’t take it away, circumstances can’t take it away, it’s resolute, persevering, enduring. Timothy caught that virtue. He patterned his life after that. He learned that ability to endure negative circumstances, to live under it no matter how difficult. And he learned it from Paul.

And then he says you also followed my persecutions. That word, diōgmos from diōkō, to pursue, means persecution. This is defined here as pursuit, people who wanted his life, plots. He says in Acts 20 the Jews were always lying in wait to kill him, plotting against him, plot after plot after plot to take the life of the apostle Paul. It was a way of life, absolutely constant persecution …

… So he says you were there during my difficult experiences. You’ve learned from me ministry duty. You’ve learned from me personal quality. You’ve learned from me difficult circumstances and how to face them. And then he adds the word “my sufferings.” Sometimes the persecution actually became suffering. That was routine for Paul. The word used here has in it the root of the idea of pathos, suffering, sorrow. Sometimes Paul really got it. It wasn’t just persecution coming at him, it hit him. It hit him and it hit him hard. He suffered in his own body, “I bear in my body the marks of Christ,” he said. It happened not just once but a myriad of times …

So Paul reminds Timothy of sufferings and says, “Timothy, you know, you’ve been there, you’ve endured them, you’ve learned how to handle them with me.” So he says you have followed, in verse 11, all of these ending up with persecutions and sufferings such has happened to me. And then he reaches back at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.

Why? Let me tell you something. Why does he go back there? Because those three cities were in the province of Galatia and that was Timothy’s home province. Lystra was Timothy’s hometown. Now, that is also the first place where there was recorded hostility against Paul, so he’s simply going back to the beginning. And he says, “Such has happened to me at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra.” And that’s where the persecution began, on his first missionary journey, that’s the first record of persecutions coming against the apostle Paul.

In Acts 13 – look at it for just a moment – we’ll see a little bit of insight, tremendous insight into what happened. It says in verse 14 that they arrived at Antioch and “on the Sabbath day went to the synagogue, sat down after the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue official sent to them saying, ‘Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.’”

So here is Paul, he’s a guest in the synagogue. He’s obviously a teacher from the Jews. So they read the Scripture and they say, all right, we’ve got a guest rabbi, you stand up, you have something to say, say it. So he stands up and says what he has to say and what he has to say is about the Messiah Jesus. And so here he is in a Jewish synagogue preaching the gospel. And what happens as a result? Verse 42. “Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. And when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

“And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the Word of God but when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy, began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and they were blaspheming.” Drop down to verse 50, “The Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.”

Now this was the beginning. This was in Galatia, the province where Timothy’s hometown existed. So Timothy knew about this. This is way back to the early days, to the very spiritual roots of Timothy in terms of his experience with Paul. Then Paul went to Iconium, chapter 14 says, they came into Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. And again you have this tremendous hostility. Verse 5, an attempt was made by the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and stone them.

So they couldn’t stay in Antioch and now they can’t stay in Iconium, so they head to Lystra. They come to Lystra in verse 8. Paul heals a man there, a miraculous healing of a cripple. The people don’t like that. The response to that is that they stone Paul, verse 19, drag him out of the city supposing that he is dead, they throw him on the dump heap in Lystra. Now that, no doubt, was Timothy’s first meeting with Paul. He sees him heal this man. He hears him preach. He sees him stoned and thrown on the dump. Tremendously powerful impressions on young Timothy.

This is his first understanding of Paul. Now even though these events happened before Paul takes Timothy with him, before chapter 16 where Paul links up with Timothy, certainly Timothy was aware of these events. If for no other reason Paul no doubt filled him in on all the details. So Timothy’s first impression of Paul was as a man of tremendous courage, a man of tremendous resolution, uncompromising character who would give his life in the proclamation of the gospel.

That was Timothy’s first impression of Paul. What a tremendous legacy. What a tremendous legacy. He – he experienced Paul’s first sufferings vicariously and must have thought, “What a man. What an incredible man. What a strong man. What a courageous man!” And it’s Paul’s way of saying, “Timothy, you remember when in Lystra I was stoned. You can recall the kind of suffering I experienced from the start of your Christian life. You know what it’s been like all along and you’ve learned how to respond to that. You followed that kind of pattern. You know what it is to be courageous” …

And Timothy was there in some of them and vicariously there in all of them. So Paul reminds him of that. And then I love the way he closes, verse 11, “And out of them all the Lord delivered me.” Out of them all the Lord delivered me. You know that, too, Timothy. You know the Lord preserved me out of them all. And he quotes really from Psalm 34:19. That’s again his Old Testament background leaking through. Psalm 34:19, “But many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” He almost quotes it verbatim. The Lord delivered him out of all of his trials, but isn’t that what God promised to do? …

… That word delivered means to drag or rescue. God provided the rescue. So what is Paul saying? He’s saying, “Timothy, you have had a pattern to follow. You have a strong mentor relationship. You know the quality of life it takes. You know the ministry duties required. You know the inevitability of spiritual persecution and difficulty. You have had the ingredients to be a strong, strong defender of the faith.”

Paul goes on to say, prefacing his next statement with the word ‘Indeed’ — in other words, it’s a certainty — that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (verse 12). And, at that time, instructions had been sent from Rome throughout the empire that Christians were persona non grata. Because Christians believe that all are equal in Christ Jesus, the Romans feared a slave rebellion, the slaves outnumbering their masters. As such, Paul, having evangelised so extensively throughout the empire, was the authorities’ top target.

Henry says that persecution comes to the faithful in greater or lesser degrees:

… not always alike; at that time those who professed the faith of Christ were more exposed to persecution than at other times; but at all times, more or less, those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. They must expect to be despised, and that their religion will stand in the way of their preferment; those who will live godly must expect it, especially those who will live godly in Christ Jesus, that is, according to the strict rules of the Christian religion, those who will wear the livery and bear the name of the crucified Redeemer. All who will show their religion in their conversation, who will not only be godly, but live godly, let them expect persecution, especially when they are resolute in it.

MacArthur tells us:

Now, let me take that statement apart for just a moment. All will be persecuted. All Christians? No, not all Christians, all who desire to live godly. If you’re a disobedient, weak, uninvolved, unconcerned, apathetic, inconsequential Christian, you may never be persecuted. You’re not a problem. Satan’s not going to waste his time with you; you’re not doing anything. But if you desire to live godly, the “who desire” there is literally a participle, the willing ones, the ones willing to live godly. Not that you’re going to be perfect but that’s your cry, that’s your desire. If you desire to live godly, you’re going to get persecuted …

And by the way, if all you want is to be godly and you’re not concerned about Jesus Christ, you may never get persecuted either because you’re no threat to the system. You’re in the system. Yours is paganism. And paganism doesn’t persecute paganism usually, although sometimes the demons get a bit confused about that. But the point is, “all” qualifies itself, “who desires to live godly,” qualifies itself, “in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Because when you desire to live godly by virtue of your union with Christ Jesus, then you are a threat to the system and you are a threat to the kingdom of darkness and you will be persecuted. That’s a future passive, you will be persecuted. That’s a guarantee, that’s a promise.

So if you look at your life and you’re not having a lot of persecution, maybe you haven’t got a compassion for being godly. Maybe you’re not desiring to be godly or maybe you’re not in Christ Jesus. Now it doesn’t mean you’re going to be persecuted all the time at the maximum level. There will be varying times and seasons and varying degrees of persecution. But anyone who seeks to confront an ungodly society with a godly life in Christ Jesus is going to get some negative reaction. There will be hostility.

Jesus said in John 15, “If they hated Me they’ll hate you. In this world you shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The Sermon on the Mount, all the way back when Jesus was first articulating the principles of salvation, “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, persecute you, say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of me, rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Count it a joy to be persecuted. They put you in good company. And the world will react to a godly life. They have to. The persecution is going to come, Timothy, he says. You ought to be ready for it. You’ve had a pattern to follow, you know how to handle it. It’s going to come on you and it’s going to come on everybody who seeks to live godly in Christ Jesus during these last days.

Paul says that, while godly Christians are being persecuted, evil people and impostors go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (verse 13).

Henry says:

Observe, As good men, by the grace of God, grow better and better, so bad men, through the subtlety of Satan and the power of their own corruptions, grow worse and worse. The way of sin is down-hill; for such proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Those who deceive others do but deceive themselves; those who draw others into error run themselves into more and more mistakes, and they will find it so at last, to their cost.

MacArthur says that Paul is referring to the false teachers he discussed earlier in the chapter:

Verse 13, “Because evil men and impostor – impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” By the way, the evil men and impostors are the group described in verses 1 to 8. Verses 2 to 4 describes their evil. Verses 5 to 8 describes their impostoring. They are evil. That’s ponēros. It’s used of Satan in Matthew 13:19, they’re as malicious and wicked as he is. And then the second word translated here as “impostors” is translated many ways in Greek writing. Diviners, wizards, magicians, sorcerers, swindlers, cheaters. It refers to the crafty tricky deceitful people like Jannes and Jambres in verse 8, who tried to deceive the people with their tricks into believing that what Moses was doing was not of God.

These are the oppressors of the church. And because there will always be the wicked and the fakes and the frauds and the charlatans and the phonies and the swindlers, there’s always going to be the persecution. And it says – please note this – they proceed from bad to worse. They advance toward the worse. Verse 9 says their work doesn’t advance, it’s limited. It won’t progress where they’d like it to, God puts a boundary on their work. They’ll not destroy His work. But internally, they get worse and worse and their influence gets worse and worse.

MacArthur explains their moving from bad to worse:

Now, Bible scholars debate over this – this idea of proceeding from bad to worse. Does this mean the evil men and the impostors internally get worse and worse or does it mean that cumulatively their effect gets worse and worse? And I take it that the answer is yes to both of those. The future tense means that in the future they are going to degenerate internally and they’re going to have a degenerating deteriorating impact externally. Evil men get worse and worse and worse internally. Why? Because as they continue to live evil lives, the evil accumulating adds a degenerating element to their existence.

You know what I’m saying? A 20-year-old wicked seducer isn’t nearly as vile as a 70-year-old wicked seducer. Why? Because the constant compounding of that wickedness degenerates his own heart down, down and down. But on the outside, it is also true that the more wicked the men are, the more wicked the influence they have is. So there is an internal and an external accumulating vileness expressed here. And because men are getting more and more wicked, they’re getting more and more hostile. And because the environment is more and more influenced by their wickedness, the environment gets more and more hostile.

So the longer we go toward the Second Coming of Christ, the more the mystery of iniquity unfolds and the worse it gets. The godly are suffering through this church age and their suffering will escalate even until the terrible suffering that comes toward the end because evil men are getting worse internally and, collectively, their impact is worse externally. And then he says of them they are deceiving. That’s what they’re trying to do. Impostors misleading, deluding, leading people astray. And at the same time being deceived because their own sin, their own wretchedness blinds their own minds. Their own increasing evil makes them self-deceived and deceivers of others.

These are dangerous times, dangerous times. The closer we come to the time of our Lord’s return, the worse men get and the worse their influence … gets. And the accumulation of all the lies and false teaching mounts and escalates and we’re in dangerous times.

MacArthur preached that sermon in 1987, by the way: 36 years ago.

He concludes:

… dangerous times call for strong people. What kind of people is it going to take to stem the tide, to stand against it? Great champions for the truth. And what are the ingredients that make people strong?

First ingredient, they have strong mentors to follow as their spiritual models. And so what I can say to you as we draw this to a conclusion, beloved, is make sure that you’re patterning your life after spiritually strong people, who with uncompromising resolution stand as defenders of God’s truth. And some people will criticize you. In fact … they may criticize you somewhat relentlessly not only outside the church but even inside the church. But you know that the call of God is on the church to defend the faith, to guard the faith, to hold the treasure to pass it on to the next generation.

And we live in a day when the Church is sloppy in its self-defense, sloppy in its ability to stand against the tide of false teaching. It is not discerning. In some cases it doesn’t even care to be discerning. It just opens its mind to every kind of thing. And the church has a soft belly in which Satan can plunge the knife and bring about a severe wound. We need strong men, strong women who defend the faith who are discerning and resolute and uncompromising. And Paul says, “Timothy, you’ve got it going for you because you patterned your life after me.” What a tremendous privilege.

I write this post just days after YouGov took a poll of Anglican clergy for The Times. The former BBC presenter John Humphreys has more on the devastating findings of a group of notionally religious men and women called to defend the faith:

The survey uncovered high levels of stress among priests, many of whom feel over-stretched under the “pressure of justifying the Church of England’s position to increasingly secular and sceptical audiences”. They fear that the church’s efforts to arrest the decline in attendance will fail and this may ultimately lead to its “extinction”. Asked whether they think “Britain can or cannot be described as a Christian country”, only a quarter answered: “Yes”. Almost two thirds said Britain can be called Christian “but only historically, not currently”. The most glaring finding, according to The Times, is that is that “the foot soldiers” of the established religion believe that Christianity has been marginalised as a social force in this country.” Seven in ten believe that it’s a thing of the past.

This defeatism extends to the clergy’s individual working lives. Almost a quarter have considered quitting the priesthood because of overwork. Most are now faced with having to run more than one church, and some as many as ten. Disillusionment with a “remote church hierarchy” is widespread. Some priests described a “profound lack of support from their bishops.” There was a “strong desire” among the clergy for significant changes in church doctrine on issues such as sex, sexuality, marriage and the role of women to bring it into greater line with public opinion. Most priests want the church to start conducting same-sex weddings and drop its opposition to premarital and gay sex.

I have news for those priests. Paul’s epistles and the Book of Acts show time and time again that preaching about Jesus Christ was always difficult, even life threatening. Furthermore, Jesus Himself was hounded by His enemies throughout His three-year ministry, pursued unto death. What makes these priests think that their job should be easy? They are to defend the faith, not water it down to meet the world’s satisfaction. The Church is always opposed to the world. That is its holy purpose.

St Paul knew that. St Timothy knew that.

More importantly, Jesus told the disciples — and us — through the Gospels that this would be the case.

There is something deeply wrong with Anglican seminaries if they are teaching future priests and deacons that their road will be an easy one. It is not, not an easy road at all.

Next time — 2 Timothy 3:14-17