2 Timothy 3:2-5 NIV (emphasis mine)
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God -
having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Have nothing to do with them.
Paul's letter to Timothy concerns
issues in the church, as to believers.
So this shocking account probably refers to
believers!
That long list of sin flows from the first issue:
lovers of self . . . .
The Lover of God will never harmonize with
one whose lover ...
read remainder of article
2 Timothy 3:2-5 NIV (emphasis mine)
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God -
having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Have nothing to do with them.
Paul's letter to Timothy concerns
issues in the church, as to believers.
So this shocking account probably refers to
believers!
That long list of sin flows from the first issue:
lovers of self . . . .
The Lover of God will never harmonize with
one whose lover is self.
Separation - utter and unequivocal departure -
is the directive.
Have nothing to do with them.
Love is the great crisis of any life.
Love is the motivation of every life.
What you love determines who you are.
The object of your love becomes
the nature of your identity.
What you love becomes what you are.
Lovers-of-self, worship self by
serving and supplying every soulish whim,
so lovers-of-self become inbred monsters,
stealing everything from everyone to feed
the insatiable appetite of Adam,
the forbidden fruit.
The reason that worshipers of God
cannot and
will never
experience union in Christ with
worshipers-of-self is this:
lovers-of-self demand
the spotlight of the center,
consume the strengths of the strong,
the gifts of the gifted,
and take the throne from the King.
And the lovers of God - by absolute loyalty to Him -
must not - cannot - suffer any substitute in His place.
Previous/Next in Series
Copyright © 2002 Martha Blaney Kilpatrick
...
less article