BAD BEHAVIOR IN THE LAST DAYS (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.

They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, (and) be reckless,

Stay away from people like that!

2 Timothy 3:1, 3b, 4a, 5b NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Misguided love directed towards everything but God.

Self centeredness where one degrades and disrespects everyone including God and the parents who brought them into the world.

These are the first two primary bad behaviors that will be prevalent among the people of the world during the “last days” before Jesus returns, days that will promote “very difficult times”. Think about a population that lacks compassion and caring while placing a premium on selfishness and you will have a great image of what it’s going to be like and as we see in today’s third message in this series, there will be terrible byproducts of this unloving, egocentric atmosphere. Look again at our scripture for today as Paul continues to write to Timothy in the third chapter of his second letter:

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.

They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, (and) be reckless,

Stay away from people like that!  2 Timothy 3:1, 3b, 4a, 5b NLT

A life lived outside of God, a life that will be minus a belief in Jesus and therefore a life void of the Holy Spirit, will fail to produce the fruit we find in the fifth chapter of Galatians:

...the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Vv. 22-23

Instead, people will display these qualities produced by following the desires of their sinful nature (aka the flesh):

Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Vv. 19-21

Within these passages, we find the origin of the bad behavior that will lead to very difficult times in the last days. It simply will be people living without the Holy Spirit, choosing instead to do what they want to do.

They will choose to slander others because they will desire to be hostile and stir up strife instead of opting for peace and kindness. Dissension will be more preferable to peace.

Self control won’t be present because the Holy Spirit is absent and this will result in reckless conduct. Ditto for love and goodness, leading to people to “be cruel and hate what is good”.

Finally, we will see people being only faithful to themselves and so betrayal will be common and acceptable, even among friends much like Judas was to Jesus.

It’s not a pretty sight, is it? It’s definitely not going to be a very pleasant place to be in and one that only Jesus will be able to remedy at His second coming.

Tomorrow, we’ll conclude the series with what will be at the core of all the previously mentioned bad behaviors.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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