SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/8/2025 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-6 “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 mentioned in my last SD that this section of verses,
especially the first part of verse 2 where Paul talks about men being lovers of
self is what will take up most of the things that are found in MacArthur’s
commentary on these verses. He mentions “The
eighteenth-century preacher Samuel Johnson said, ‘He that overvalues himself
will undervalue others. And he that
undervalues others will oppose them.’
Self-love alienates men from God and from each other. Self-love is the supreme enemy of godliness
and of genuine friendship and fellowship.
“What a contrast self-seeking love is to the self-giving love that God requires. ‘Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,’ Paul adjures, ‘but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interests of others’ (Phil. 2:3-4).” Now as I look at these verses from the letter to the Philippians this is where Paul then goes on to write about the Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme example of the One who had no self-love, but love for mankind. I will quote those verses at this time to help us see this example of our Lord Jesus Christ so that we then can follow it through the power of the Holy Spirit. “5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
MacArthur
then goes on to write “If the heavenly Lord had that attitude in His
incarnation, how much more ought we to humble ourselves, empty ourselves, and
become unselfishly submissive to God to the point of death.
“A concomitant of being lovers
of self is being lovers of money, a term which represents materialism,
the craving for earthly possessions of whatever sort. It is being covetous, as the Greek word is
here rendered in the King James Version.
“Paul
is not speaking of the rightful earning and use of money to feed, clothe, and
otherwise provide necessities for ourselves and our families. ‘If anyone will not work,’ the apostle said
in another letter, ‘neither let him eat’ (2 Thess. 3:10). But as he explains in the first letter, to
Timothy, ‘If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content’ (1 Tim.
6:8). Those who are not content with
those essentials and want ‘to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and
many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and
destruction. For the love of money is a
root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from
the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang’ (vv. 9-10). Because ‘wandered away from the faith’
Ephesus was a wealthy city, it is likely that Paul had in mind specific members
of the church there who had ‘wandered away from the faith’ because of their
love of money.” We can see that we have
moved on from lovers of self to lovers of money seen in verse 2, and so I will
quote one more paragraph on the love of money and then Lord willing take up
from there in the next SD.
“Because false teaching always leads to wrong living, it is not surprising that many false teachers, such as those who promote the so-called health and wealth gospel, ‘suppose that godliness is a means of gain’ (1 Tim. 6:5). It is the inordinate desire for money and for the things money represents that has made this perverted gospel so popular in the church today. If follows logically that a Christian who thinks first of himself has no problem in expecting God to provide not only necessities but luxuries, to believe that because he is a child of the King he should live like a prince. ‘Godliness actually is a means of great gain’ Paul goes on to say, but only ‘when accompanied by contentment’ (v. 6, emphasis added).”
It
was back in 2011 when I began to study the book of Job, and then following that
I moved right into the study of Psalms that contentment was something that was
on my mind, and since I just recently finished going over my study of Job, and
now have begun Psalms that I look at being contentment each day at the end of
each of those lessons. I would suppose
that age has been a good teacher of being content with what the Lord has given
to my wife and I. She has little problem
with contentment, and I suppose that is because she is a lot smarter than I
am. Speaking of her I have mentioned in
a number of my SD’s that we just learned that she has cancer and is to have an
operation at the end of this month, and we would appreciate your prayers for
her, and for me too, as I have to deal with this too.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I desire to be an example like the Lord is as
seen in the passage from Philippians chapter two.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I
desire to pray that my wife and I receive wisdom from the Lord on how to handle
this situation we have before us, and that follow these wonderful words Paul
wrote to the Romans: “And we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
4/8/2025 10:22 AM
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