Biblical Principles: Living With Purpose Part 1
→ When Men Forget Their Purpose
→ The term “last days" is used in several different contexts within scripture.
At times it refers to Christ establishing his kingdom, other times it means the day of
Pentecost, and other times it has referred to the days of Jesus walking on earth.* Paul
“perilous times" will come in the last days. Since, Paul does not include a
reference to the Antichrist in this chapter; he can be referring to the days leading up to
and including the Tribulation.
→ In the last days, men will love themselves more than anything. The phrase is one word in
Greek, philautos, and is perhaps best described as selfish. Humanity will continually be
more focused on serving themselves. Ideals of sacrifice and service will become more
and more rare. Self esteem will be redefined and twisted to just mean a selfish outlook.
Men will become jealous, prideful, disrespectful, and ungrateful.
→ This Greek term, astorgos, refers to humane treatment towards others. There will be
no sense of kindness towards fellow men. They will be dishonest, cheats, and
incontinent (lacking self control).^ They will have no true convictions or beliefs. Man
will be rash in their thinking and quick to make assumptions or decisions. They will be
high minded (prideful) and love only pleasures of the flesh as opposed to God.
→ Men will take on a form of godliness. They will have religious practices. They will have
holy days, sacraments, professions of faith, and even prophets. However, it will only
be in accordance with their desires. They will be religious, but it will not be the true
God that they worship. They will deny his existence entirely. DO NOT BE DECEIVED!
→ Men will always be striving to gain knowledge and always be searching for answers.º
However, they removed the most important piece of the formula and will never be able to
make sense of life.
→ In Jewish tradition, the magicians who withstood Moses were named Jannes and
Jambres. They diligently sought to disprove Moses and refused to accept his signs. How
did they perform their signs? Was it sleight of hand? Or was it of the devil? Regardless,
they were resisting the truth that Moses spoke to them.
→ Despite all of their efforts and all of their passion, they will fail. Just as the Egyptian
magicians, God will ultimately show that he has dominion over all.
Without purpose, man is left to follow his own desires. It leads to nothing but godless, disrespectful, degenerate, ignorant, and manipulative men. A life without purpose is a life without direction.
