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