Wednesday, April 9, 2025

PT-7 "Lovers of Self" (2 Tim. 3:2-4)

 

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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