2 Timothy 3

2 Timothy 3:1-17 . COMING EVIL DAYS: SIGNS OF EVIL ALREADY: CONTRAST IN THE DOCTRINE AND LIFE OF PAUL, WHICH TIMOTHY SHOULD FOLLOW IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS EARLY TRAINING IN SCRIPTURE.

1. also--Greek, "but."
last days--preceding Christ's second coming ( 2 Peter 3:3 , Jude 1:18 ). "The latter times," 1 Timothy 4:1 , refer to a period not so remote as "the last days," namely, the long days of papal and Greek anti-Christianity.
perilous--literally, "difficult times," in which it is difficult to know what is to be done: "grievous times."
shall come--Greek, "shall be imminent"; "shall come unexpectedly" [BENGEL].

2. men--in the professing Church. Compare the catalogue, Romans 1:29 , &c., where much the same sins are attributed to heathen men; it shall be a relapse into virtual heathendom, with all its beast-like propensities, whence the symbol of it is "a beast" ( Revelation 13:1 Revelation 13:11 Revelation 13:12 , &c. Revelation 17:3 Revelation 17:8 Revelation 17:11 ).
covetous--Translate, "money-loving," a distinct Greek word from that for "covetous" cognate Greek substantive ( 1 Timothy 6:10 ) is so translated, "the love of money is a (Greek, not 'the') root of all evil."
boasters--empty boasters [ALFORD]; boasting of having what they have not.
proud--overweening: literally, showing themselves above their fellows.
blasphemous--rather, "evil-speakers," revilers.
disobedient to parents--The character of the times is even to be gathered especially from the manners of the young [BENGEL].
unthankful--The obligation to gratitude is next to that of obedience to parents.
unholy--irreligious [ALFORD]; inobservant of the offices of piety.

3. truce-breakers--rather as the Greek is translated in Romans 1:31 , "implacable."
false accusers--slanderers ( 1 Timothy 3:11 , Titus 2:3 ).
incontinent, fierce--at once both soft and hard: incontinently indulging themselves, and inhuman to others.
despisers, &c.--"no lovers of good" [ALFORD]; the opposite of "a lover of good" ( Titus 1:8 ).

4. heady--precipitate in action and in passion.
high-minded--literally, "puffed up" with pride, as with smoke blinding them.
lovers of pleasure . . . God--Love of pleasure destroys the love and sense of God.

5. form--outward semblance.
godliness--piety.
denying--rather as Greek, "having denied," that is, renounced.
the power--the living, regenerating, sanctifying influence of it.
turn away--implying that some of such characters, forerunners of the last days, were already in the Church.

6. of this sort--Greek, "of these," such as were described ( 2 Timothy 3:5 ).
creep into--stealthily.
laden with sins--( Isaiah 1:4 ); applying to the "silly women" whose consciences are burdened with sins, and so are a ready prey to the false teachers who promise ease of conscience if they will follow them. A bad conscience leads easily to shipwreck of faith ( 1 Timothy 1:19 ).
divers lusts--not only animal lusts, but passion for change in doctrine and manner of teaching; the running after fashionable men and fashionable tenets, drawing them in the most opposite directions [ALFORD].

7. Ever learning--some new point, for mere curiosity, to the disparagement of what they seemed to know before.
the knowledge--Greek, "the perfect knowledge"; the only safeguard against further novelties. Gnosticism laid hold especially of the female sex [ESTIUS, 1.13.3]: so Roman Jesuitism.