SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2025 9:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-7 “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 have to admit that the following quote should have
been in the last SD. (My fault) It is the last paragraph from MacArthur’s
commentary that speaks of “lovers of money.”
I will quote this paragraph and then we will move on and look at “boastful,
arrogant.”
Such false teachers ‘must be silenced,’ Paul
declares, ‘because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they
should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain’ (Titus 1:11). They are consumed with self, which inevitably
leads to greed, ‘and in their greed they will exploit you with false words’ (2
Peter 2:3). It is a cycle of sin. Greed
leads to false teaching, and false teaching leads to future greed. The false gospels of self-love and prosperity
go hand in hand; they promote each other and feed on each other.”
Now
we move on and talk about the next word which is boastful, and “Being boastful
is the outward manifestation of self-love.
Boastful translates alazon, a
noun meaning ‘braggart,’ which Plato defined as a person who claims greatness
that he does not possess. Boastful persons
brag about their accomplishments, overstating the truth to the degree that it
has no basis in reality. They are
know-it-alls who try to deceive people in thinking they are brilliant. They love to see their names in print and
their faces on television. They
exaggerate their abilities, their accomplishments, their talents, their
reputations, and their value to society and to the church. They are always the heroes of their own
stories.”
“Like self-love and love of money, being boastful
is closely related to false teaching.
Boasters want ‘to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not
understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make
confident assertions’ (1 Tim. 1:7). The
boastful person ‘is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid
interest in controversial questions and disputes about words,’ and out of those
sins arise such companion sins as ‘envy, strife, abusive language, evil
suspicions’ (6:4).
“A person who is boastful is invariably arrogant.” Arrogant is the subject that we will be looking
at in the next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: I realize that at times that I can be
boastful, and I am thankful to the Lord for having Him step on my toes.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to give peace to my wife as
she is having some troubles, and I understand why, with waiting for the surgery
she needs to help get rid of the cancer she has. I ask the Lord to give her wisdom to find
another surgeon if that is His will.
Otherwise be patient in waiting on the Lord.
4/9/2025 9:41 AM
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