In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 2 Peter 3:3 (NIV)
This is what the first Christians experienced; it’s what we experience today; and it will be the experience of the church until Christ comes.
When the New Testament refers to the “last days,” it includes all the days between Jesus’ first and second coming (see Acts 2). So, don’t be surprised by antagonism toward the gospel. By nature we do not seek God, we do not love God, and we cannot please God.
Rejecting God’s Word (scoffing) and choosing your own way go together. If you want to follow your own desires, you have to reject God. You have to put yourself and your own agenda in first place in your life. The sinner would prefer a world without God, because he wants to be his own god. Paul says, “men…suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom. 1:18 NIV).
Unbelief and rebellion are the default position of the human heart, “The sinful mind [i.e., the nature we are born with] is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires” (8:5). The idea that sinners really love God and are seeking after Him, if only they could find Him, is completely false.
Peter has been telling us that in Christ we have “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). That means we need to find in Christ the strength, patience, wisdom, and grace to live in a world that does not see His glory, does not believe His Word, and does not follow His way.
Are you prepared to follow Jesus in this Christ-rejecting world?
