SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/11/2025 8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-9 “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;”
In today’s SD we start off by looking at revilers, and
then will move on to look at more of the terms that Paul wrote to Timothy
about. Now the word revilers translates blasphemos, which is where we get “blasphemous,”
and this carries the basic idea of being abusive and slanderous. It is inevitable that a person who is
contemptuous of others will then eventually revile them. MacArthur writes “When you elevate yourself,
you automatically lower and denigrate others.
Inner disdain will eventually find expression in outward slander,
because the tongue always follows the heart.
‘For from within, out of the heart of men,’ Jesus made clear, ‘proceed
the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting
and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and
foolishness’ (Mark 7:21-22).”
Next
we move on to disobedient to parents, as this is the next evil in Paul’s list
and is self-explanatory. All one has to
do is look around in our culture today to find out that being disobedient to
parents has become endemic, and the cause is not hard to find. Not only are children born with a bent to
self-will and disobedience, but the disappearance of mothers into the workforce
and the spiritual failure of fathers are exacerbated by the prevailing
philosophy of self-love that is promoted in modern society, including many
classrooms and even in churches, making being disobedient to parents all but unavoidable. MacArthur writes “Children who will rebel
against their parents will have no qualms about rebelling against anyone
else. It should be no surprise that a
generation whose natural, sinful self-love has been reinforced and justified by
society is not undermining the family, the church, and the permissive society that
has misguided it.”
MacArthur
continues in this list by writing “Like the previous sin ungrateful is
self-explanatory. The person who
elevates self above all others will feel he deserves everything good he receives
and therefore feels no need of gratitude for it. Although he may not put it into words, the ungrateful
person despises the very idea of grace, which denotes goodness received that is
undeserved. This is a particularly
noxious sin to God whose wrath is revealed against sinners for being unthankful
(cf. Rom. 1:18, 21)” “18 For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” “21 For even though they knew God, they did
not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their
speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Next
we look at the word unholy which translates anosias
and this carries the idea not so much of irreligion as of gross indecency. It was used of a person who refused to bury a
dead body or who committed incest.
MacArthur adds “The unholy person is driven by self-love to gratify his
lusts and passions of whatever sort, as fully as possible with no thought of
propriety, decency, or personal reputation.”
I
will look at one more of these terms and then will stop for today as perhaps
one needs to think about these terms that are looked at this morning, so I don’t
want to do too many of them all at once.
“Unloving
translates astorgos, a negative
adjective form of the very storge, which
commonly was used of family, social, and patriotic love. The noted theologian Benjamin Warfield described it as ‘that quiet
and abiding feeling within us, which resting on an object as near to us, recognizes
that we are closely bound up with it and takes satisfaction in its recognition.’ It is not natural for them to love their own
families. To be astorgos is therefore to be ‘without natural affection’ (KJV). Just as the self-loving person is without
common decency, he also is without common affection. He cares nothing for the welfare of those who
should be dearest to him. His only
interest in them is for what he believes they can do for him. To be unloving is to be heartless.
“Unloving
behavior is reported daily in newspapers and broadcasts. Husbands and wives abusing one another,
parents and children abusing one another—often to the point of murder—are so
common that they make headlines only if they are particularly brutal or
sensational. Tragically, the evangelical
church has its share of the unloving and heartless.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: Becoming a born-again believer over 50 years
ago does not mean that I don’t fight with my old self which is still in me
about doing the right things.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that God’s Holy Spirit will continue
to work in my life to overcome any of these negative things that I am now
writing about that Paul wrote to his son in the Lord, Timothy.
4/11/2025 9:26 AM
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