NOTES for Ti2 3:2-5

Describing the people of the last times, Paul may appear to be overstating things somewhat. Yet even in his own time everything he said was characteristic of the society in which he had to live, to one degree or another. And people of other eras who read Paul's letters surely thought that the last times had already come: they recognized their own contemporaries in the apostle's description. And, it must be admitted, they were not far from the truth.

The fact is that Paul may well have regarded, if not his own age, then at least the age that began soon after his martyrdom, after A.D. 70, when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and Judea ceased to exist as a Jewish autonomy within the Roman Empire, as the last times. This is exactly how the Savior Himself described the last times, mentioning the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Judea as essentially the final historical event after which, in His own words, "the end" would come.

This, of course, does not mean that He would return on the very day the Temple was destroyed, as third- and perhaps fourth-generation Christians thought when they became contemporaries of the events Jesus had foretold. But all subsequent human history unfolds within a different historical logic, one that can be called eschatological. And within that logic, one must first speak about the spiritual polarization of humanity, and all the processes taking place within it increasingly point precisely to the polarization mentioned by both Paul and John in his Book of Revelation. All who seek a godly life in Christ are persecuted, while those who do evil prosper. This is no surprise: the fallen world lies in evil, and the only question is how much that evil is visible in it and how much is hidden.

At times it looks as though there have been bright intervals in human history, as though not everything in it is so dark, and as though customs in some places were not at all like those described by the apostle. Indeed, a patriarchal, traditional society, at first glance, does not look as corrupt as the Hellenistic society described in the letter. Unfortunately, however, this is only a question of time: every society sooner or later stops being patriarchal and traditional and comes to resemble the one Paul described. But that is not the only point.

One can certainly lament the corruption of morals and the destruction of the good old patriarchal foundations, but they are not destroyed by accident. They are destroyed because the evil of the fallen world is present in them too; it is simply less visible. And when a world that seemed good and moral collapses under the pressure of alien morals and customs, it collapses not because it is being "destroyed" or "eroded," but because evil exists in it too, only before it was not so visible. Now what was hidden has become manifest, and events have begun to unfold in their own course. The logic of the eschatological age is universal, and the only question is where the polarization mentioned by the apostle will appear earlier and where later. But Paul has no doubt that it will happen.

Fortunate is the person who finds nothing in the list presented that belongs to him personally. To flee from oneself—that is the destiny set before us. Realizing that, amid the conditions of the last times and the expectation of the end of the world, one does not look very worthy is a severe trial. But after realizing this, it is far harder to decide to leave that self behind and become someone different—the person God sees in you.

In the days leading up to the beginning of Great Lent, we read passages from the apostles' letters that make us think about our spiritual and inner state. The Church prepares us for the daily reading of the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian, which wonderfully leads us through Lent along the path of confession and repentance. Almost every day we read a text of self-condemnation and a call to withdraw, step back, be watchful, and not fall into the nets of sin. As in the text of the Cherubic Hymn: "let us lay aside all earthly cares." So before Lent we too must somehow slow the pace of our life, pay proper attention to our condition and to what we are like as we stand before God. It is as if we were checking ourselves against what Christ and the Church call us to, and against what we are each day in our cares, desires, and thoughts.

Speaking of the "last times," Paul gives a sharply negative assessment of the people who will have to live in this era (vv. 1-5). Here the apostle, as can be seen, repeats what he has already had to write and say more than once: with the passage of time humanity does not become better, human nature is unchanged, and the course of history with each century only reveals its corruption more and more. Something else is notable: Paul advises Timothy to beware of such people (v. 5), as if he himself will have to see the "last times." The apostle's thought becomes still more obvious when he points to people acting as if these times have already come (vv. 6-8). Following Paul's logic, one has to conclude that the "last times" had already begun in his day. Still, the future tense in the text of the letter makes one think that they will last long enough, right up to the Savior's return, which the apostle did not expect very soon.

As can be seen, for Paul the "last times" began immediately after Pentecost, when the Kingdom entered the world. In that case one has to recognize that the matter is not simply some brief historical stage immediately preceding the Savior's return, but a whole era, the era of the advancing Kingdom, whose advance puts an end to the former, untransfigured order of things. If this era of the advancing Kingdom can be called the "last times," then not in the sense in which they are understood today, meaning the metaphysical and spiritual cataclysm that concludes earthly history, but precisely as the era of a changing world, when everything former is ending - ending not historically, for historical inertia is endless, but spiritually, partly, as far as possible, being transfigured and becoming part of the Kingdom, and partly passing into nonbeing. Of course, this process cannot be smooth and problem-free, for it concerns changes that are by no means organic to the untransfigured world. The Kingdom will never become "its own" for the world; only the world can become "its own" for the Kingdom, but only after complete transfiguration. And transfiguration does not happen painlessly; the world resists the advance of the Kingdom, and this resistance is carried out by human hands, which is no surprise: the Kingdom spreads in the world from heart to heart, and therefore it is most natural to oppose it precisely through the human heart, where choice is made, decisions are taken, and love and faithfulness dwell. That is why persecutions of the Church, about which Paul writes to his disciple (vv. 10-13), are inevitable.

Neither the Church as a whole nor individual Christians will ever be able to become "their own" for the world. Of course, the Church's conflict with the world does not always take the form of direct persecution, but a definite opposition always exists. Its absence is either an illusion or a sign that the Church has ceased to be the Church. And Paul, understanding this, reminds his disciple of what the Savior Himself said more than once to His disciples: salt that has lost its strength is good for nothing. Just like a Christian who has lost the Kingdom.