Fathers

2 Timothy 3

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

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.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

2 Timothy 3:2

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Immediately he sets down the root and fountain, whence these and all other evils spring, that is, overweeningness. He that is seized with this passion is careless even of his own interests. For when a man overlooks the concerns of his neighbor, and is careless of them, how should he regard his own? For as he that looks to his neighbor's affairs will in them order his own to advantage, so he that looks down upon his neighbor's concerns will neglect his own. …

Homily on 2 Timothy 7 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

He immediately points out the cause of all evils as well: it is the concern not for the affairs of one's neighbor, but only for one's own. A self-loving person loves only himself, from which it follows that in reality he does not even love himself. For just as in the members of the body, harm inflicted on one spreads to the rest; or what happens in buildings, the same occurs in the Church: whoever despises his brother and cares only for himself, harms himself. …

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗

Oecumenius

Lovers of themselves. This is the root of wickedness, to consider only oneself. And those who are such, neglecting their brothers, first destroy their own. arrogant. From lovers of themselves are lovers of money. From these offspring are the boastful and the proud, then from these, blasphemers. For evil types cling to each other just as those who are good do. For all good proceeds from love. disobedient to parents. For arrogance is known to be carried even against nature. ungrateful. The greedy are also ungrateful. …

Commentary On 2 Timothy ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

There isn't anyone, after all, who doesn't love himself. But we have to look for the right sort of love and avoid the wrong sort. You see, anyone who loves himself by leaving God out of his life and leaves God out of his life by loving himself, doesn't even remain in himself but goes away from himself.… Listen to the apostle giving his support to this understanding of the matter. "In the last days," he says, "dangerous times will loom up." What are the dangerous times? …

Sermons 330.3 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

The cause of this is the abundance of iniquity, and because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold (Matt 24:12), because faith and charity will be annihilated and perish utterly: for the further away a thing is from its beginning, the weaker it gets. As a result faith and charity will fall away in those days, because men will be further from Christ: but yet the Son of man, when he comes, shall he find, think you, faith on earth? (Luke 18:8). …

Commentary on 2 Timothy ↗