SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/7/2025 9:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “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;”
Let
me begin by saying that I will be writing Spiritual Diaries on these verses for
a very long time as there is much in John MacArthur’s commentary that he has
written on these verses and I believe that the most is on verse two where Paul
writes to Timothy For men will be lovers of self. 34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus
had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them,
a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is
the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "’YOU SHALL
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH
ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The
second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two
commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 22:34-37). As you look at the answer Jesus gave to the
Pharisees you do not see anything about loving yourself, but first love the
Lord, and then loving your neighbor. Now
in Luke’s gospel the Pharisee then asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus went on to talk about what is called
the story of the good Samaritan in order to answer that question. This would make the Pharisee very mad for the
Jews disliked, or even hated the Samaritans.
“The
philosophy and theology of existentialism “a philosophical theory
or approach which emphasizes the
existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining
their own development through acts of the will.” have also contributed to selfism. Although some existentialists
genuinely believe there is a God and even that Jesus Christ is His Son and the
Savior of the world, they reject the authority of Scripture except in a
mystical way and claim that God is too far removed from man to be clearly
understood, much less be personally known.
Man is thrust back on himself to make of God and of life what he
can. Consequently, and regardless of any
protests to the contrary, man becomes in effect his own interpreter of
God. Because no outside absolutes are
recognized, personal beliefs and personal actions must be based solely on what
seems best at the moment. Rather than
unconditional submission to God, there is unconditional submission to self.
“Fortunately
some psychologists and psychiatrists are contesting the premise that man’s
basic problem is low self-esteem. In a
book written under the auspices of the Christian College Coalition, called Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith, David
Meyers and Malcolm Jeeves give abundant evidence against the myth. In a chapter titled ‘A New Look at Pride,’
they write,
Time and again,
experimenters have found that people readily accept credit when told they have
succeeded (attributing the success to their ability and effort), yet they
attribute failure to external factors such as bad luck or the p;roblem’s
inherent ‘impossibility.’ These
self-serving attributions have been observed not only in laboratory situations,
but also with athletes (after victory or defeat), students (after high or low
exam grades), drivers (after accidents), and married people (among whom conflict
often derives from perceiving oneself as contributing more and benefiting less
that is fair). Self-concepts researcher
Anthony Greenwald summarizes, ‘People experience life through a self-centered
filter.’…
In virtually any area that is both subjective and
socially desirable, most people see themselves as better than average. Most business people see themselves as more
ethical than the average business person sees themselves as more ethical than
the average business person. Most community
residents see themselves as less prejudiced than their neighbors. Most people see themselves as more
intelligent and as healthier than most other people.([New York: Harper, 1987],
130).
“Later
in the book the authors maintain that ‘most common error in people’s
self-images is not unrealistically low self-esteem but rather self-serving
pride; not an inferiority complex but a superiority disguised attempt to get
others to build you up.”
With
that I will end this fifth SD on “Lovers of Self.”
4/7/2025 10:47 AM
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