SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2025 10:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Turn Away
from the False”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: 2 Timothy 3:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, truce breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors,
heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (AKJV).
I think that I had better give an introduction to
what I am going to begin this morning, as at this time I am using the
commentary of Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe to look at the first nine verses of 2
Timothy chapter three. He titles this
section “Turn Away from the False,” and there will be a short introduction and
then I will begin to look at the first sub-section under this main
section.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes “From such turn away’ (2 Tim. 3:5b). A faithful believer should have nothing to do
with the people Paul described in this section.
It is important to note that these people operate under the guise of religion: ‘Having
a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof’ (2 Tim. 3:5). They are ‘religious’ but rebellious! Paul discussed three facts about these
people.”
I
will begin looking at the first fact which comes from 2 Timothy 3:2-5, and see
how far that I can get this morning.
“Their
characteristics (vv. 2-5): At least
eighteen different characteristics are listed here, and Paul probably could
have listed more. There is an emphasis of
love: ‘lovers of their own selves,’ lovers
of money (‘covetous’), ‘lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.’ The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. God commands us to love Him supremely, and
our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 22:34-40); but if we love ourselves supremely,
we will not love God or our
neighbors.
“In
this universe there is God, and there are people and things. We should worship God, love people, and use
things. But if we start worshiping ourselves,
we will ignore God and start loving things and using people. This is the formula for a miserable life; yet
it characterizes many people today. The
worldwide craving for things is just
one evidence that people’s hearts have turned away from God.
“Of
course, if someone loves and worships himself, the result will be pride.
‘Ye shall be as gods’ was Satan’s offer to Eve (Gen. 3:5), and the
result was that people ‘changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and
served the creature more than [rather than] the Creator’ (Rom. 1:25). Man became his own god! The creature is now the creator! ‘Boasters, proud [arrogant], blasphemers
[given to contemptuous and bitter words]’ (2 Tim. 3:2).
‘Disobedient
to parents’ suggests that this apostasy
reaches into the family. Children are ‘unthankful’
and do not appreciate what their parents have done for them. They are ‘unholy’ in their attitude toward
their parents. ‘Honor thy father and thy
mother’ is not widely taught or respected.”
I
realize that I have gone over these things earlier, but getting a different
perspective from Dr. Wiersbe is to me, a really good thing. I have mentioned that Warren Wiersbe puts the
cookies on the shelf where they can be reached, and he has a lot of cookies to
share with us as we go through his commentaries.
4/16/2025 10:53 AM
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