SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/12/2025 9:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-10 “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;”
I
begin this SD by looking at the word irreconcilable and they are those who
refuse to change, no matter how desperate even their own situation becomes,
much less the situations of those they should care about. Those who are irreconcilable are determined to
have their own way not matter what the consequences are, even to the point of
knowingly destroying their own lives and also the lives of their families. They do not forgive and they do not want to
be forgiven. They are hardhearted,
beyond reasoning, and inevitably self-destructive. Now as far as they are concerned there is no
compromise, no reconciliation, no court of appeal. Their self-love is so
extreme and their egoism so massive that absolutely nothing matters except
doing as they please.
We
now move to the words malicious gossips.
Gossip is often thought of as being relatively harmless, but at best it
is unkind, harmful, and ungodly. Now malicious
gossip is a sin of an even more evil and destructive sort. MacArthur writes “Whereas the irreconcilable
person rends to disregard and neglect others, malicious gossips make a point of
harming others. Whether to promote their
own interests, to express jealously or hatred, or simply to vent their anger,
they take perverse pleasure in damaging reputations and destroying lives.
“Malicious
gossips translates diabolos, which,
even to the person unacquainted with Greek, suggests the severity of this evil,
with our English derivative ‘diabolical.’
Diabolos means ‘accuser’ and
is used thirty-four times in the New Testament as a title for Satan. Engulfed and blinded by self-love, malicious
gossips do the very work of Satan.”
“Adrates (without self-control) denotes
incontinence, in this context that of a moral and spiritual kind. When Jesus excoriated the hypocritical
scribes and Pharisees, He told them they cleaned ‘the outside of the cup and of
the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence [akrates]’ (Matt. 23:25).
“Without self-control describes the person who has
jettisoned inhibitions and shame, who does not care about what people think or
about what happens to them because of what he does. Like a driverless car, he careens haphazardly
and crashes into whatever gets in his way.
The lover of self eventually loses control of his own life and becomes a
slave of his passions and ambitions.”
One
shorter one and then I will stop for today, and pick it up tomorrow, Lord
willing. Perhaps only a couple more SD’s
on these verses and I will be done.
“Brutal
refers to savagery, like that of wild beasts, whose nature it is to attack
enemies and tear them in pieces.
Self-love that is not checked makes a person insensitive, malicious, and
eventually brutal.”
Spiritual
Meaning for My Life today: As I look at these different words that all
fall under “self-love” I suppose that at times I can relate to these, some more
than others, but because a little over 51 years ago the Lord saved me and has
given me a new nature, a born-again nature when I begin to do some of these
things that are described in these verses, the Spirit of God, through the Word
of God convicts me, and so I must do as John wrote in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord that He has a plan for the
illness of cancer that my wife now has to work things out for our good and His
glory.
4/12/2025 9:40 AM
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