But know this, that in the last
days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such
people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into
households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins,
led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1-7 NKJV
I would suggest
that if you were to ask someone why they believe we may be living in
the end times their response would probably be to start talking about
earthquakes, hurricanes, superstorms, global warming, and just about
any other natural disaster they could think of. I too, see these
things occurring and believe they are indeed signs that we are
approaching the deliverance which the Church has longed for since
Jesus gave us His promise that He would return.
Yet while everyone
focuses on natural disasters, in this passage, and others, when the
Apostle Paul addresses the subject of the last days he tells the
reader they should look not at those things but rather the actions of
people and how they choose to live. Now when I first realized this I
admit I had to take some time to think about what Paul was trying to
tell us, and to sort of wrap my thoughts around what the world might
look like if the majority of people lived as Paul describes here. My
conclusion was that not only does it describe what could accurately
be called a “me first” society, it could also easily be
describing the country we live in today.
So I thought we
might spend a few weeks looking closer at the attitudes Paul
describes here, especially in the order that he gives them to us
because it seems to me that if you consider the order, it might
suggest that one follows another in what could be called a
progression of moral and spiritual decay. With that in mind, let's
look at what Paul describes first.
“For
men will be lovers of themselves,”. The
Greek word used here which translates to the phrase “lovers of
themselves” is philautos,
and
it means “loving
one's self, too intent on one's interest, selfish”.
Isn't it interesting that the very first attitude we find prevalent
in society in the last days is the complete opposite of what Jesus
commanded all of His followers to do?
"A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have
loved you, that you also love one another. "By
this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for
one another."
John
13:34-35 NKJV
For
all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this: "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself."
Galatians
5:14 NKJV
But
concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to
you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
1
Thessalonians 4:9 NKJV
For
this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should
love one another,
1
John 3:11 NKJV
Without question we
must acknowledge that as believers our first responsibility is to
focus on others and to demonstrate to them the love that God has
shown to us. Yet I wonder how many of us have taken the time to
consider “why” we are commanded to do so? I believe that the
passage in Timothy clearly shows that if we fail to take this first
step, what follows is a journey down the opposite path which
eventually results in the inability to be of any use to God and His
work. Instead of focusing on serving God by serving others we begin
to focus on ourselves and what we want from this life and how best to
get it. Rather than doing God's will and allowing Him to reward us
in His good time and ways, we make the decision to focus our efforts
on attaining whatever it is that we desire without concern of how we
accomplish that.
The
result of this decision is the second step we see in the passage from
Timothy, “lovers
of money,”. In
the times in which we live, does it not seem that the answer to the
question of how best to get what I want is to simply get more money?
How many people today have fallen for the lie that money will bring
you happiness? The Greek word used here is philargyros,
which translated means
“loving money, avarice.” Avarice
is most often translated as greed or covetousness, and what it really
means is that one becomes consumed by the desire to the point that it
becomes an obsession. The obvious problem with this is that when
this happens the result is that you can never get enough to satisfy
the desire. Therefore all of your efforts are focused on getting
more for yourself, and obviously not on serving God and others.
For
the love of money is a root of all [kinds of] evil, for which some
have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.
1
Timothy 6:10 NKJV
Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1
John 2:15 NKJV
What do you see
when you look at the society we live in today? Do you see a people
concerned with loving others more than themselves and doing what they
can for their fellow man, or do you see a population focused on
themselves and whatever they can get? Do you read words like loving,
caring, and serving in the news, or is it more like selfish, angry,
and entitlement? I asked the question last week “do you see what I
see?” Look around and ask yourself if Paul is describing to
Timothy exactly what we see today all around us. Whatever the world
has to offer will never satisfy what God can offer.
Jesus
answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will
thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall
give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life."
John 4:13-14 NKJV
In these times as life becomes increasingly difficult, it is hard not
to focus on taking care of our own needs first. Yet to do so is to
take away from serving others, and most of all not allowing God to
take care of us. As a body we cannot forget what God has called us
to do, and always remember our first concern is for others and not
ourselves.
Keep watching.
