Fathers

2 Timothy 3

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But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be. But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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What the Fathers say

2 Timothy 3:13

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." Let none of these things, he says, disturb thee, if they are in prosperity, and thou in trials. Such is the nature of the case. From my own instance thou mayest learn that it is impossible for man, in his warfare with the wicked, not to be exposed to tribulation. One cannot be in combat and live luxuriously, one cannot be wrestling and feasting. Let none therefore of those who are contending seek for ease or joyous living. …

Homily on 2 Timothy 8 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Do not be troubled at all if they prosper while trials befall you: such is the order of things. Having stripped down for the struggle, you must exert effort. It is foolish to seek rest in the midst of a struggle. Even if they seem to succeed, in reality this is deception, not success. For the apostle, defining what evil is, said: deceiving and being deceived.

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗

Cyprian

These spirits, therefore, are lurking under the statues and consecrated images: these inspire the breasts of their prophets with their afflatus, animate the fibres of the entrails, direct the flights of birds, rule the lots, give efficiency to oracles, are always mixing up falsehood with truth, for they are both deceived and they deceive;

Treatise VI On the Vanity of Idols ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Make progress, make progress in well-doing, for, according to the apostle, there are certain people who go from bad to worse. If you are progressing, you are advancing. Progress in well-doing, progress in good faith, progress in good deeds. Keep singing. Keep advancing. Do not wander. Do not return. Do not remain stationary.

Sermons 256 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, but evil men and seducers shall grow worse and worse, he shows that evil men fall into worse evils, namely, of guilt. He says, evil, in themselves, because they cling to their sins: he will bring these evil men to an evil end (Matt 21:41) and seducers, namely, to harm of neighbor, inasmuch as they seduce them from the way of truth, which is the common way: by pleasing speeches and good words they seduce the hearts of the innocent (Rom 16:18). But these men are not satisfied with the injuries they inflict. …

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗