The Sixth Instruction of the Apostle Paul to Timothy — 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Introduction
The peace of the Lord be with all of us. We give thanks to the eternal God, the Almighty, for allowing us once again to present ourselves before His Word and under the power of His Holy Spirit. In this teaching we continue our study of the instructions the apostle Paul gave to Timothy in his second epistle, and we now arrive at the sixth of them.
Before entering the text, it is essential to understand the purpose with which Paul writes. This is not simply a set of general instructions meant to form a better minister or, as the apostle himself puts it in chapter 2, to make Timothy “an approved worker.” Paul’s central purpose is to make certain that Timothy will continue the ministerial and evangelistic labor to which he was entrusted through the laying on of the apostle’s hands.
Paul knew, as he himself declares in chapter 4, verse 6, that his days were drawing to a close; there he affirms that he is “ready to be offered.” This certainty of his imminent departure explains the concern the apostle expresses toward Timothy — a concern that is not observed in the same way toward another of his co-workers, Titus. We must keep in mind that when Timothy joined the apostle’s ministerial company he was merely a young man — it is estimated that he was between seventeen and twenty years of age — and that his entire ministry was carried out under the hand and direct instruction of Paul. They were never separated except for a few days or weeks at a time, while the apostle traveled to other regions; the rest of the time, Timothy remained at his side. Knowing that his final hour was approaching, and aware that Timothy had never had to sustain himself for long without his immediate guidance, Paul leaves him these instructions with a sense of urgency.
The Sixth Instruction: Persist in What You Have Learned
The sixth instruction is found in chapter 3, verse 14:
“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them” (2 Timothy 3:14, NKJV).
Of all the instructions studied thus far, this is the most extensive, occupying the entirety of chapter 3. This is significant when we consider the development of the epistle: in chapter 1, after the introduction, the apostle exhorts Timothy to stir up the gift of God that is in him; in chapter 2 we find three distinct instructions; but upon reaching chapter 3, an entire chapter of seventeen verses is devoted to a single instruction. This does not mean that it is the most important or the most forceful of all, but it does reveal that it is the one requiring the greatest attention and development, because it contains prophetic elements that, among other things, lay the foundation for understanding the message that will later be given to the seven churches of Revelation.
The instruction itself appears in verse 14, but it is preceded by thirteen verses that establish the urgency and context of the warning Paul wants Timothy to understand.
Perilous Times: A Prophetic Warning
The chapter begins in this way:
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1, NKJV).
This sixth instruction, then, begins with a prophetic warning. When the apostle speaks of “the last days,” he refers eschatologically to the end times — the very times in which each of us has been given to live. It is necessary to pause here in order to understand in what sense these will be perilous times, for this is not merely about the surrounding environment or the social situation the Church will face.
The central concern of the apostle Paul, in all his teaching, is faith. He himself confesses this when he declares, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, NKJV). And to the Galatians he writes: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20, NKJV). For Paul, the life of the man and woman who have surrendered their existence to Christ Jesus is summed up in faith: in the amount of faith they can develop, the faith they can produce, the life of faith they can live on this earth. This is why, when the apostle announces “perilous times,” we must understand that they are perilous precisely with respect to faith, because they will not be favorable times for faith to grow. Only in this light can we understand the question Jesus asked: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” In the last times, faith will be the virtue most difficult to live out and to produce.
The apostle points to two specific reasons why these times will be perilous for the faith: the subjects that are preached and the leadership that rises up within the congregations.
First Reason: The Subjects That Are Preached
The first reason these times are perilous for the faith has to do with the subjects that are preached. Today, impactful and impressive terms are coined, and many follow after them without ever pausing to examine their foundation. It is common to hear, for example, discourses about “leadership reengineering”: subjects that impress, but that in reality correspond to worldly methodologies that have been integrated and coupled to the preaching of the gospel, leaving out the Word and leaving out the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
We are already living in times in which men and women — and here we refer specifically to ministers — do not build their messages under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but instead hand over to artificial intelligence the very shaping of how they preach, the construction of their outlines, and everything that will be presented in a sermon. This practice is multiplying as though it were the most convenient thing for those whom God has chosen to minister in this time, and yet many, seeing it proliferate, have remained silent.
These are perilous times because the Word has been removed and the Holy Spirit has been left out, and where there is no Word there is no faith, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If the Word has been taken out of the messages that are preached, faith cannot be harvested, nor multiplied, nor sown.
To this is added another reality: many who are devoted to praise and worship have not realized that numerous songs now circulating within congregations did not arise from the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but were composed — and are even performed — by artificial intelligence. How many people who follow social media pages have stopped to listen to or hold on to a song without realizing that it was not the product of the Holy Spirit’s manifestation, but the construction of an artificial intelligence. These are, many times, the very songs that today captivate people and lead them to join particular denominational groups.
These perilous times, far from belonging to some distant future — twenty-five, thirty, or fifty years from now — are already being lived out by us. The difference is that many of us live in a naivety, in a religious fantasy that keeps us blinded and prevents us from seeing clearly what we are exposing ourselves to. For this reason it is necessary to exercise great caution regarding the subjects that are preached, the songs, and even their lyrics, for much of what circulates today has been produced through artificial intelligence.
Second Reason: The Leadership That Is Rising Up
The second reason these times are perilous has to do with the leadership that is rising up and the congregations that sponsor it. This is contained in verses 2 through 7, where the apostle — guided by the Spirit of God, who included this very list also in his epistle to the Romans — presents a detailed classification of the kind of people who will lead the church in the last times:
“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:2-5, NKJV).
It is worth pausing over the meaning of these terms, because the Spirit of God would not have guided the apostle to include this list if it were not important for us to know it. Those who are “lovers of themselves” are egocentric, narcissistic people, for whom everything revolves around their own person. The “lovers of money” are not merely those who hoard, but those who love money and riches above all else. The “boasters” brag about their own accomplishments. The “proud” are haughty, believing themselves superior to others. The “blasphemers” — slanderers, according to the underlying sense of the term — bring accusations against others that they themselves have constructed.
Those “disobedient to parents” point to a problem of authority: if authority was never recognized within the home, the same pattern will play out in society as a whole. The “unthankful” are ungrateful, like the nine lepers who, having been healed by Jesus along with a tenth, never returned to give thanks; only the Samaritan came back, precisely to show that ingratitude would be one of the marks of the last times. To be “unholy” is to be unable to distinguish the holy from the profane.
To be “unloving” — without natural affection, according to other renderings — describes those who do not know how to build genuine interpersonal relationships and seek only their own benefit. The “unforgiving” are incapable of forgiving. “Slanderers” resort to gossip and accusation, evils that at times arise even within the congregations themselves. Those “without self-control” do not live according to the Word, but according to their own impulses and intentions. The “brutal” are intolerant and fierce; the “despisers of good” hate everything that exalts the justice of God.
The “traitors” are treacherous; the “headstrong” act without thinking. The “haughty” are conceited and proud. Those who are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” place their own interests first and God in a secondary place. And finally, those who have “a form of godliness” but deny its power are those whose religiosity is merely external, without real foundation in the Word or in the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is essential to note that the apostle is not describing people of the world who have never known Jesus; he is speaking to Timothy about leadership, about people who lead congregations and churches. This helps us better understand the message to the seven churches of Revelation, where the Nicolaitans are mentioned along with those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam, and where the Lord declares: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” It is, in the end, a prophetic message that the Spirit of God delivered through Paul, one that we, already living in these last times, see fulfilled in a leadership rising up with these very characteristics. Paul himself goes so far as to name some of these men: Alexander the coppersmith, in chapter 4; Phygellus and Hermogenes, in chapter 1; and Hymenaeus and Philetus, in chapter 2 — men who developed a damaging prominence within the Jewish-Gentile congregations.
The apostle continues describing the effect of this leadership upon the congregation:
“For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:6-7, NKJV).
The word “gullible” — or, in older renderings, “silly” — carries here a disparaging sense: it describes people, both men and women, who are susceptible to being impressed by any striking word or expression. These are not people seeking to grow in faith or to know the truth, but people going about in search of an idol to worship. It is enough to recall what happened at the foot of the mountain while Moses was receiving the law: the people, impatient, said to Aaron, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us,” and Aaron built a calf. In the same way, in the last times people are not seeking spiritual guidance, nor ministers to teach them the path God demands for their lives, but idols to worship. This is the terrible reality the apostle describes, and one we are already living.
How Can One Persist in What Has Been Learned? Three Counsels from the Apostle
Given this landscape, a necessary question arises: how can Timothy persist in what he has learned and been assured of? The apostle gives him three concrete answers, found in verses 10 through 17.
First Counsel: Follow the Example of a Genuine Ministry
“But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra — what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:10-12, NKJV).
The apostle’s first answer is simple yet forceful: look to the example of the minister before you. Timothy would have no difficulty persisting in what he had learned, because he already had a living example to follow. For us, the counsel translates as follows: take hold of an example of ministry you can follow or imitate. Sadly, this is one of the most notable deficiencies within the people of God today: the lack of a clear example to imitate. Paul himself wrote to the Thessalonians: “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6, NKJV), and elsewhere he exhorted, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV).
The importance of having an example lies in the fact that we cannot build what we do not know how to build; the example teaches us the process. In his defense before the people, recorded in Acts 22:3, the apostle mentions having been “brought up in this city [Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel,” not as a mere rhetorical detail, but as an acknowledgment that he too needed a foundation upon which to build his life. There is today a notable difference between seeking a ministry to follow by its example and seeking idols to worship: upon these latter we can never build a faith that is firm and stable in Christ Jesus, for at some point they will lead us into error, deception, and fantasy.
Second Counsel: Study the Holy Scriptures
“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15, NKJV).
The second counsel is equally direct: study the Holy Scriptures. In them is the wisdom, the counsel, and the understanding that God wants to give us and in which He wants to establish us. When we do not walk in the Scripture, we cannot grow, and we often end up inventing our own solutions, relying on what we consider good ideas, without realizing that, because they are not grounded in the Word of God, those very ideas will end up leading us to ruin.
One of the realities we observe in these last times is that the Bible is disappearing from the belongings of the men and women of God. The cell phone, with its electronic Bibles, has replaced the physical copy of the Holy Scriptures; many, in their congregations, appear to be reading during the service, but at home they do not dedicate time to the Word. We cannot build a life of faith, nor, by extension, a ministry, if we do not know the Scriptures. Jesus Himself declared, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, NKJV), words that we often repeat without putting them into practice. This is another reason why these times are perilous: faith is neither sown nor harvested where the Holy Scriptures have been set aside, and this also explains why a leadership rises up that does not speak of God: simply because it does not know the Scriptures, has not read them, and has no interest in reading them.
A practical warning is also worth noting here: many people feel a particular attraction to the book of Revelation, but this is a book that cannot be understood without having read Genesis, the prophets, the psalms, and, in general, the Old Testament. The lack of that foundation produces interpretations that are often absurd, born from each person’s own invention rather than from the orderly study of the whole of Scripture.
Third Counsel: Seek in Scripture the Answer to Every Concern
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV).
The third counsel consists of seeking in the Word the answer to every question, every consultation, every concern. Often, when faced with our doubts, we prefer to ask one, two, or several people what they think or what advice they would give us, because we want the solution to be simple: for someone to lay out step one, step two, and step three for resolving our situation. But the apostle’s counsel does not work that way; instead, it points us to the Holy Scripture, given by inspiration of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that the man and woman of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is through His Word that the Lord speaks and shows us the path we must follow.
Conclusion
The apostle’s sixth instruction to Timothy can be summed up in his own words: “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.” Of all the instructions studied thus far, this is the most extensive, and the one that speaks prophetically about the last times. Paul establishes a clear foundation for Timothy to understand the reason for this exhortation: the last times will be perilous times, because men and women will arise who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, having a form of godliness but denying its power — a leadership that rises up, and a congregation that sponsors it. For this reason, faith will be difficult to sow and difficult to live by.
In the face of this reality, the apostle offers three concrete and sufficient counsels: seek out the example of a ministry that establishes a model of growth, of faith, and of spiritual guidance; study the Holy Scriptures, not merely as material for preaching, but as a source of wisdom for salvation; and seek in them the answer to every concern, so as to persist in what has been learned and in what we have been assured of. Let us remember, finally, that he who endures to the end will be saved. We may have accumulated and learned much, but if we do not persist in it and, halfway along the road, abandon it to adopt some other knowledge, we will not have secured the ability to say, as the apostle did: “I have fought the good fight of faith.” Only the one who persists in what has been learned, and in what he has been assured of, will attain the crown of life.
Review Questions
1. According to this chapter, in what sense are the last times “perilous,” and what are the two specific reasons the apostle points to in order to explain it?
2. What distinction does the chapter draw between following the example of a genuine ministry and seeking out an “idol” to worship? Why is this distinction so important for a life of faith?
3. Of the three counsels the apostle gives for persisting in what has been learned — following the example, studying the Scriptures, and seeking every answer in them — which one do you feel you most urgently need to apply in your own life?
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