Ungodly People In The Last days

Difficulty In The Last Days

The last days that Paul is referring to are the days between Jesus first and second coming. These are known as the days of grace. It is in these days that people still have time to be saved. This is a time when the church needs to be very active in making disciples. The world needs it now more than ever. There are coming days when church will be nothing more than a gathering of people that need to feel good about themselves and will not tolerate sound doctrine. They want to come to church. Hear a message that makes them feel good and then go home and live life the way they want to without any regard for God.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

This appears to be what is happening in several churches even today. There are so many churches that teach about why people are so important to God rather than why God is so important to people. They want to make them feel good rather than address the issue of sin and need for salvation. Some churches even propagate health and wealth as the ultimate blessing of God.

Churches need to teach the wholeness of scripture unashamedly. They need to lift the name of Jesus Christ above everything. We cannot be afraid of sharing truth for fear of being politically correct. The truth is not politically correct!

Characteristics Of Ungodly People

Paul states that in the last days ungodly people will be leading in churches. How can we identify them? he gives several characteristics of ungodly people.

Lovers of self - The reason this is first on the list is not by accident. People that are lovers of self will typically demonstrate the rest of these attributes. A person that is a lover of self has tremendous pride. The are self-centered and selfish. They care very little about other people.

Lovers of Money - These are people that place their value on how much money they have. They will often tell you! These are people that value stuff over relationship. This becomes apparent at the settling of an estate.

Boastful and Arrogant - These are people that love to tell you what they have achieved in life. They seem to always be better than you.

Revilers - People that slander others. They try to destroy them by spreading gossip and lies about people they don’t like.

Disobedient to Parents- Kids that are disobedient to parents will be disobedient to any form of authority in their life. When they choose to rebel against mom and dad, they will also choose to rebel against bosses, police, and any other authority figure.

Ungrateful - When a person is full of themselves they believe that they deserve everything they have and even some things they don’t have. They are not grateful for what the Lord has blessed them with.

Unholy - gross indecency. They have no limits on their wickedness

Unloving - Unable to love others unconditionally. they pretend to love for what they can get.

Irreconcilable - The irreconcilable are those who refuse to change, no matter how desperate even their own situation becomes, much less the situations of those they should care about. They are determined to have their own way regardless of the consequences, even to the point of knowingly destroying their own lives and the lives of their families. They do not forgive and do not want to be forgiven. They are implacable, beyond reasoning, and inevitably self-destructive. As far as they are concerned, there is no compromise, no reconciliation, no court of appeal. Their self-love is so extreme and their egoism so massive that absolutely nothing matters except doing as they please

John F. MacArthur Jr., 2 Timothy, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 114–115.

10. Malicious Gossips - A level of gossip that is on the level of Satanic lies

11. Without Self-Control - Does whatever they want without regard for other people.

12. Brutal- Like a savage beast destroys its prey. A brutal person destroys peoples lives.

13. Haters of good - Those that call bad good and good bad.

14. Treacherous - Those that turn on their own family and friends

15. Reckless -negligent.

16. Conceited - Justifies everything they do.

17. Lovers of pleasure rather than God - It should be noted that pleasure, especially in this context, is not limited to the desire for comfort, fine food, sexual satisfaction, and other indulgences normally associated with hedonism. As already mentioned, a self-centered person also derives perverse pleasure from such things as malicious gossip, brutality, and treachery. His satisfaction comes, in part, from the pain and misery he sadistically inflicts on others, including parents and supposed friends.

This depraved pleasure is not loved more than God, but rather than … God. In other words, the true God has no place at all in the thinking and living of a false teacher or of anyone who is self-centered. Jesus told Nicodemus, “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil” (, emphasis added).

Those who love pleasure rather than … God cannot possibly obey either the first or the second great commandments. They cannot truly love God or their neighbors, and have no genuine desire to do so. Jesus made clear that a person can have only one god, and for the self-lover, self is god. Satan has never had a shortage of false gods with which to tempt man, and by far the most useful to his cause is the god of self. Lucifer fell from his exalted and magnificent state in heaven because he became his own god, and since that time he has endeavored to entice fallen mankind into the same form of idolatry.

John F. MacArthur Jr., 2 Timothy, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 116–117.

Wicked Men With A form Of godliness

This means a leader that has the outward appearance of of being Godly, but are phony and fake. They can impress you with their Bible knowledge and quote scripture, but have very little evidence of living it. This is the person that shares what you should do, but is not living it them self.

These are leaders that use human philosophy to detract from the truth of scripture. They use human logic and reason to persuade people rather than truth. They do not have the life-giving power of the true gospel. They water it down so not to offend someone. They preach a gospel without sin and repentance.

The Bible says to avoid men like these. They will lead you astray and often times take advantage of you.

They go into weak women’s houses to capitalize on their guilt and shame that they bear. A false teacher will never help them overcome their guilt and shame but instead will keep them in it and add to it. They never point them to the redeeming power of Jesus Christ.

Jannes and Jambres

These two are not found in the Old Testament, but history tells that they were magicians from Pharaoh, that convinced the people of Israel to make the golden calf. They are people that did not believe in God and tried to lead those that did astray.

This is the way it is going to be in the last days. Church leaders are slowly going to get away from the truth and begin teaching and preaching to draw crowds and build bigger churches.