PT-4 "Lovers of Self" (2 Tim. 3:2-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/5/2025 10:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-4 “Lovers of Self”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:2-4

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;”

 

            Perhaps what I am about to write may seem a bit strange, but I believe it is true and so think about it before you think it is false.  “It is that it is widely claimed that a person cannot love God and others rightly unless and until he loves himself rightly, completely reversing what both the Old and New Testaments teach. As already noted above, Jesus said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’’ (Matt. 22:37-39).  Instead of taking the worst ‘as yourself’ as an assumption of self-love that is natural to sinful man, many interpreters not only take these words as a command but as the first and greatest command writes MacArthur!”  It seems that by loving God and others are the first thing a believer is to do, as loving self can certainly cause many problems.

 

            MacArthur goes on:  “Throughout church history, many Christians, both true and nominal, have been guilty of perverted self-love.  Self-love always has been associated with worldliness, but heretofore it was never taught as a doctrinal tenet in the church, even in its most corrupt periods.  It was universally acknowledge to be the sin it is.  Even most neoorthodoxy theologians have recognized self love, or pride, as the root sin of all others.  But psychologists Carl Rogers, Erich Fromm, and many others strongly denounced that God-centered view and boldly claimed that lack of self-love and self-esteem is the root problem of man.  That false and damnable twist has permeated the church to an alarming degree.

 

            “In The City of God, Augustine wrote, ‘Two cities have been founded by two loves, the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God.  The heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.  The former, in a word, glorifies itself, the later the Lord.’  IN his great theological work The Institutes of the Christian Religion the Swill Reformer John Calvin said, ‘For so blindly do we all rust in the direction of self-love that everyone thinks he has good reason for exalting himself.  There is no other remedy than to pluck up by the roots that most noxious pest, self-love.’’ 

 

            I believe that all one has to do is to go back to the Garden of Eden where it can be seen in the third chapter of Genesis that after sin entered into mankind that the love of self began, and so that is why it is sinful, because people put self before God, and all one has to do is look at the life of our Lord while on earth and see His love for His Father, for if He would have loved self (which was impossible for Him to do) then He would have not gone to the cross.  Going to the cross to pay four our sins was maybe the most selfless act ever seen on planet earth.  No not maybe, but for sure was the most selfless act ever to take place on planet earth.  Now if you are reading this and are not a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then you can take care of that by realizing that you were born a sinner, and you sin because you were born a sinner.  Once your recognize that you can then ask the Lord to come into your heart in order to save you, because Jesus died on the cross for you and so He will gladly forgive you because of what He already did for you.  Pray to the Lord and tell Him that you are a sinner in deed of His free gift of salvation.  Ro 10:9  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

 

            One more paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary and we will stop for today:  “The concept of self-love as a positive characteristic did not find its way into the church until the late twentieth century, and lamentably, it has spread quickly to broad portions of evangelicalism.  Contrary to the unambiguous teaching of Scripture and contrary to its clearly destructive consequences, the heresy of self-love continues to find acceptance among those who claim Christ.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I truly have to admit that when I do things for my own pleasure and leave God out of it, then I am sinning against the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and mind, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit who lives in me to follow Him who saved me.

 

4/5/2025 11:01 AM

 

             

PT-4 "Answered Prayer" (1 John 5:14-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2025 7:38 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-4 “Answered Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  1 John 5:14-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

 

            This is how I ended my last SD on these verses:  “Ok I am going to stop here because in the next SD I will quote what John MacArthur’s views are on what the sin leading to death was, or is.”

 

            “Evidently John and his readers knew what the sin leading to death was, since no explanation is given, but its exact meaning is difficult for us to determine.  Two possibilities present themselves.

 

            “First, the sin in question may be that of a non-Christian leading to eternal death.  In that case it would be a final rejection of Jesus Christ, such as that committed by those who attributed His miracles to the power of Satan (Matt. 12:31-32).  Such ultimate apostasy is unforgivable, as Jesus declared:

 

31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

“Praying for the restoration of such people to the fellowship from which they have departed (1 John 2:19) is futile, because ‘it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame’ (Heb. 6:6).  John did not forbid prayer for such people, sin it is impossible to know who they are.  The apostle merely stated that prayer for them will not be answered; God has already made the final decision about their future.  Supporting the view that John is referring to unbelievers is the present tense of the participle hamartanonta (‘sinning’; the Greek text literally reads ‘If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin…’); John elsewhere in this epistle uses the present tense to describe the habitual sins that characterize unbelievers (e. g., 3:4, 6, 8; 5:18).

 

            “Another possibility is that John is not referring to an unbeliever but to a believer.  According to this view, the sin leading to death refers to a Christian’s sin that is so serious that God takes the life of the one committing it.  He put to death Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit in front of the church (Acts 5:1-11).  Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning those who were abusing the Lord’s Table, ‘For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep [have died]’ (1 Cor. 11:30).  The sin is not one particular sin, but any sin that the Lord determines is serious enough to warrant such severe chastisement.”

 

            When one studies the Bible and kind of gets stumped over a passage like this one it is best to look at other Scriptures, which is what MacArthur did in explaining his views on this particular verse.  I am not sure which view is correct of if either one is correct, but both of them make since to me, so perhaps both are true, one for the unbeliever, and one for the believer.

 

            MacArthur has two more shorter paragraphs in this section and so I will quote them in order to finish this section. 

 

            “Both of the above views reflect biblical truth, and it is hard to be dogmatic as to which one John had in mind.  In either case, John’s point is that prayer for those committing a sin leading to death will not result in the outcome that might otherwise be expected.

 

            “Although God mercifully does not immediately punish every sin with death, every sin is nonetheless a serious matter to Him.  All unrighteousness is sin, John reminded his readers, even sin not leading to death.  Every sin is a violation of His law and an affront to God, and is to be confessed (1:9; Ps. 32:5), forsaken (Prov. 28:13, and mortified (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5).”

 

            Lord willing we will look at “Victory Over Sin” in our next SD, and this comes from 1 John 5:18.

 

4/4/2025 8:03 PM

PT-3 "Lovers of Self" (2 Tim. 3:2-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2025 8:57 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-3 “Lovers of Self”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:2-4

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;”

 

            In this section of Paul’s second letter to Timothy Paul uses a lot of words, words that describe how mankind will be acting in the last days, and so we will begin to look at the first words “Lovers of self” in today’s SD and see how many of these words we can look at this morning.

 

            I continue to look at “Lovers of self” in this SD.  I first want to quote from the last paragraph that I looked at yesterday in order to set the tone for what we will be looking at this morning.  “In the present passage, it is not the kind of love that is evil but the wrongly elevated object of that love, namely self.  Whenever love for self is raised, love for God and the things of God is lowered.  For that reason, misdirected love always engenders vice.  It was first from Lucifer’s and then from Adam’s and Eve’s love of themselves over the Lord—and from the similar self-love of their descendants—that every other sin has issued.”  Now the opposite of this is true when I think of the Lord Jesus Christ for God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son into the world in order to die on the cross to pay for our sins, however one must first realize that they are sinners, born sinners and that is why all sin.  Next they must confess to the Lord that they are sinners, and realize that they can do nothing on their own about it.  Next accept the forgiveness that God offers you through Jesus’ death on the cross.  If you are sincere realizing that that is the only way to be saved, then the Lord will save you.  Now the proof of this will be a changed life, a life that desires to serve the Lord, to read His Word and to be around His people.

 

            MacArthur goes on by writing “I is for that reason that the most frightening development within the contemporary church is the wide acceptance and enthusiastic proclamation of self-love, not only as being allowable but as being the basic virtue.  Turning God’s truth completely on its head, the source of all evil is touted as the source of all good. An on the other hand, the lack of self-love and its many derivatives—such as self-esteem, self-worth, self-fulfillment, and positive self-image—have been imported almost unchanged into the church from antibiblical secular psychology.”  Now I want to make sure that you understand that the gospel message I put at the end of the last paragraph is not where I picked up writing from the quote from MacArthur’s commentary. 

 

            I have to say that I am going to be looking at these verses for a fairly long time as this is just a warning to you, but I have always tried to make sure that what I write and what I quote are truth about the Word of God as I do not to ever led any astray from my writings.  My desire is to write things from the Word of God in order to first of all bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, by telling the truth about His Word, so that those who do not know Him in a personal way can understand how they can, for those who know Him to grow in their faith.  At the end of each SD that I post I pray that the Father will bless those who read them, and that the Father will be blessed by those who read them.  Next that the Holy Spirit will give an effectual call to those that the Lord chose in eternity past, followed by believers who read these to grow in their faith, then receive revival for those who read them.  Next I ask the Holy Spirit to continue to send them around the world, and from the looks of the stats He surely is answering that prayer.  Lastly I pray that if it is God’s will that the Spirit of God would give the very last effectual call to save the very last person in the Church age so that the Rapture of the Church would take place. 

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I trust the Lord that the things that I write in my Spiritual Diaries will be used by the Spirit of God to further the kingdom of God on earth.

 

My Steps of Faith For Today:  I trust that the Lord will give my wife and I the right direction to go in order to cause her to be cancer free.

 

4/4/2025 9:26 AM    

 

PT-3 "Answered Prayer" (1 John 5:14-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2025 9:19 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-3 “Answered Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  1 John 5:14-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

 

            I ended up last night’s SD by writing “Praying according to God’s will also mean confessing sin.  The psalmist wrote in Psalm 66:18, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear’

 

            Now I will look at MacArthur’s commentary on 1 John where he writes “Again, the Lord’s promise in John 14:13-14 affirms the requirement of praying according to God’s will:  ‘Whatever you ask in My name that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.’  To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray consistent with who He is, with the goal of bring Him glory.  It is to follow the pattern of His model prayer:  ‘Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:10), and His example of humble submission to the Father’s will when He prayed in Gethsemane, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done’ (Luke 22:42).  The goal of prayer is not to gratify our selfish desires (cf. James 4:3), but to align our wills with God’s purposes.”

 

            Now if a believer is praying according to God’s will not only bring glory to the Son, but it will also bring joy to believers, so let us look at John 16:23b-24:  “Truly, truly, I say to you if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.  Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”  Now when obedient believers delight themselves in the Lord, He will plant the desires in their hearts for what glorifies Him (Ps. 37:4 and those desires will control their prayers.  God’s answers to those prayers will glorify Him, bring believers’ will into line with His purposes, and fill them with Joy.

 

            Now as we look at verse 16, then at first glance it appears to introduce an abrupt change of subject.  But upon further consideration, the connection of verses 16 and 17 to verses 14 and 15 become clear.  Now let us look at these verses again in the order that I have written above:  “16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”  ““14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”  MacArthur writes “By giving one important exception, John illustrates in a contrasting manner the extent of God’s promise to answer prayer.  When a believer sees a brother (a real or professing believer) committing a sin not leading to death, the apostle writes, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin leading to death. On the other hand, there is a sin leading to death, and the apostle did not advise Christians to make request for this sin.”

 

            Ok I am going to stop here because in the next SD I will quote what John MacArthur’s views are on what the sin leading to death was, or is.

 

4/3/2025 9:39 PM

 

           

 

 

PT-2 "Lover's of Self" (04-03-2035)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2025 9:00 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “Lovers of Self”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:2-4

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;”

 

            In this section of Paul’s second letter to Timothy Paul uses a lot of words, words that describe how mankind will be acting in the last days, and so we will begin to look at the first words “Lovers of self” in today’s SD and see how many of these words we can look at this morning.

 

            “Lovers of self translates the single Greek word philautos, a compound of the verb phileo (to have great affection for) and the pronoun autos (self).  Phileo is not a wrong kind of loving, and the verb is frequently used positively in the New Testament.  In John 16:27, it is used both of the Father’s love for believers and of the believer’s love for the Son.  It is used of Jesus’ love for John (John 20:2) and is used once even of the Father’s love for the Son (John 5:20).  In the present passage, it is not the kind of love that is evil but the wrongly elevated object of that love, namely self.  Whenever love for self is raised, love for God and the things of God is lowered.  For that reason, misdirected love always engenders vice.  It was first from Lucifer’s and then from Adam’s and Eve’s love of themselves over the Lord—and from the similar self-love of their descendants—that every other sin has issued.”  Now look at this highlighted portion of this last sentence of this paragraph and think about it as what MacArthur is saying that all sin began with the selfishness of first of all Lucifer, and then passed on to Adam and Eve and then to every person born on planet earth.  Loving one’s self is how sinfulness began on planet earth and it is still going on today.  There was only One Person born on planet earth that did not possess this sin or any other sin, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ who did not have an earthly father, but His humanness was conceived by the Holy Spirit to a virgin named Mary.  We have to go back to the third chapter of Genesis in order to help explain this.  “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’”  This is Genesis 3:15 and the Lord is talking first to Satan and then He states that through the woman’s seed will come the Messiah and the Messiah will be the One who will destroy Satan.  Now this has not totally happened yet, but Satan does not have the power that he had before the cross, and then after the end of the Tribulation Period Satan will be thrown into hell along with the Antichrist and the False Prophet, but after that 1000 year period Satan will be let out of hell for a little while in order to do more damage using unbelievers from the Millennial Kingdom who turned down the offer of Salvation through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.  The war will be short and then Satan will return to hell where he will be there for eternity.  After that the Lord will destroy the earth and all the universe and all believers will then go into the place where the Lord has built for us, the New Jerusalem and I believe there will also be a new earth.  Take a look at the 21^st chapter of Revelation to find this out.  I think that it would be best for me to just quote the 21^st chapter of Revelation as I close this SD.

 

            1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."   

            9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. 18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

            There is a lot of information in this second to last chapter of the Word of God and what is here is the future for all of those who have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as they realized that they were a sinner and so the confessed to the Lord that they were a sinner and then they came to the Lord Jesus Christ as realized that His death on the cross was for them and so they accepted that forgiveness that Jesus Christ offered them and thus became a born-again believer and this 21^st chapter of Revelation show the destination of all true believers.  Think about that if you have not trusted Christ as your personal Savior and Lord and do it today.

 

4/3/2025 9:39 AM

 

PT-2 "Answered Prayer" (1 John 5:14-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2025 9:52 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-2 “Answered Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  1 John 5:14-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

 

            “14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. 16 If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death (NLT).”

 

            I have put the verses from the NLT in order to help me better understand them a bit better.  I mentioned that these are very important verses that John writes here and so it is very important for me to take my time and not put too much onto these Spiritual Diaries so that they can be thought through, that the Holy Spirit will be the One who causes us to understand them.

 

            I will begin with a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary this evening:  “The sure promise of God is that when believers boldly and freely come to Him with their requests, He will hear and answer.  If we ask anything according to His will, John wrote, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.  Hearing in this context refers to more than merely God’s being aware of believers’ requests; it also means that He grants the requests which we have asked from Him.  That is nothing less than a blank check to ask God for anything, but it comes with one important qualifier:  the request must be according to His will.”

 

            Now looking at the last sentence it causes me to think about the things that Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, as He asked His Father to take this cup from Him, and then says “Not my will but yours be done.”  Jesus knew why He was sent to planet earth, and that was that He came the first time to take care of the sin problem, and the only way that He could have done that was by going to the cross and die for the sins of the world, by going through the most difficult things that He every went through, and I believe that the first one was to be separated from His Father for those three hours, and then becoming sin for us, the One who knew no sin in order to pay for our sins.  So the bottom line was that Jesus asked to have that cup taken away from Him, but then said “not My will but yours be done.”

 

            MacArthur goes on:  “To pray according to God’s will assumes first of all being saved.  God is not obligated to answer the prayers of unbelievers.  He may choose to do so when it suits His sovereign purposes, but God does not obligate Himself to any unbeliever.  John illustrated this principle when he wrote earlier in this epistle, ‘Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.’ (3:21-22).  The Lord Jesus Christ made a similar statement, recorded in John 15:7:  ‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you [the definition of a genuine believer], ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you’ (cf. v. 16).  Only believers, those who obey God’s commandments, can have the certainty that He will answer their prayers.

 

            “Praying according to God’s will also mean confessing sin.  The psalmist wrote in Psalm 66:18, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear’ (cf. 1 Peter 3:7).”

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

 

4/2/2025 10:20 PM

 

PT-1 "Lovers of Self" (2 Timothy 3:2-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2025 9:17 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “Lovers of Self”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:2-4

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;”

 

            It was the other day that I was working on my Spiritual Diary from 1 John and I wrote some things in it that have to do with what are in these verses.  You can look up that SD from 03-30-2025 as there are some similar things in it that go along with our verses for today.

 

            I begin with a quote from John MacArthur:  “Paul’s description of these seasons of danger is specific.  In this context, men does not refer to mankind in general, or to the unsaved world but to members, especially leaders, in Christ’s church, men, who not only claim the name of Christ but claim to be His ministers, His prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists.  These men are apostate leaders in apostate churches.  As Paul will shortly point out, the hold ‘a form of godliness, [but] have denied its power (v. 5) and they pose an immeasurable threat to the spiritual health, safety, and power of the entire body of Christ.  In these three verses, Paul lists eighteen characteristics of ungodly, apostate men and doubtless women, who have corrupted and will continue to corrupt the church of Christ until He returns.”

 

            Now in that quote we pretty much have the outline of what we will be looking at as we move through these verses.  So the first characteristic is that these men will be lovers of self.  This has to do with the pride of self-love which is the pervasive deadly sin that grips the human soul and is the foundation sin of all the others.  It might be called the sewer out of which the rest of these ugly sins are discharged.

 

            I have seen people throughout my walk with the Lord who are selfish, and also people who are selfless, which is a far better thing to be.  I have to say that my daughter is one of those selfless kinds of believers, and perhaps it gets her into “trouble” because she is always doing things for others.  She became a believer at a very young age, went to a Christian school, then a Christian college and has always been involved in other people’s lives. She is a Spanish teacher at the school where we all go to church; the volleyball coach of that school, the mother of four children, one will graduate this year, the oldest one who was adopted from Kyrgyzstan when he was around a year old.  Then they had three more children after that.  She and her husband are involved in many ministries in our church.  Now my son is a bit different, but I have to say that he is a selfless person too.  I remember not too long ago I ask him to work on the front brakes of my car and he patiently work on it for about 6 hours as we had some problems.  He never got upset but just kept working on that job even when we tried to start it and the battery was dead and so we had to go and get another one.  I have to say that I am blessed with two very great children.  It seems to me that we are all selfish even thought we are now believers but like my children they work on doing the right things.  I’m still working on that and right now the Lord is teaching me about being selfless as I am trying to take care of my wife who has cancer, something that I have mentioned, and ask for prayer for her.  Cancer is a terrible disease and we are attacking it by a change of diet for her as I get up and fix for her fruit smithies and also a combination of apple carrot juice which we read will help in the fight against cancer.  Our lives are difficult at this time, but we know that the Lord is in control and are doing our best to trust him in this storm that we are going through.  Looks like I will begin writing about “lovers of self” in my next SD.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life today:  Learning to be content, learning to love, and learning to be selfless, most of all learning to trust the Lord in difficult times of my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord as we go through this storm in our lives, and praying that we will bring glory to the Lord as we go through this storm.

 

4/2/2025 9:48 AM