2 Timothy Chapter 3 Lovers Of Self

Lovers of Self, lovers of money
Boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents
Ungrateful, unholy, unloving
Irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self control
Brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless
Conceited
Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
Holding to a form—of Godliness; although they have denied its power.
Opposers of truth, depraved minds.
Rejected


A friend of mine once threw himself into the Grand Canyon. He was trying to escape the skin he was in; to escape the pain he was in. Paul writes that in the last days men will be…and then catologs their evil. Such depth of depravity, detailed, rips enough to cause me to hurl myself into an abyss or cast myself on the mercy of God.

If the soul of Satan were a dark star then chapter three would be the evil he filled it with. Oh to be a ‘lover of self.’ To live to please myself with no thought for the consequences. My fingers tremble on the keyboard as I type. From lover of self to lovers of money. Mega lotto anyone? What flows from the black hole; boastful, arrogant, revilers, haters of parents?

The self-seeking, self-soothing, self-filling boasts only in himself, but throws abuse; cursing, biting, bleeding blood from his lip as he shakes with rage. If you step back you see how it begins with disobedience to parents. He rejects this most basic authority. Ten more little steps to fullness; not the fullness in Christ who is the head, the richness of pleasure---the emptiness of God.

I scream with Paul, “Who will ransom me from this body of death?” Ungrateful, unholy, unloving. What a list! We are always right, you are always wrong; then the scariest phrase, ‘without self control.’

Those people that have hurt us deeply in violence and abuse, treachery and backstabbing; parents, wives, parishioners, brothers, sisters still have an echo in them of their creator, a glimmer of good that we can see past once we are in a safer place. ‘No self control’ is the moniker the monster wears as he seeks his pleasure. There is no hope for redemption there only a hunger and only the prey.

I see Paul typing away the blood coursing, coursing, coursing, pounding as he writes. Him who has gone the way of pure self shrieks in delight and emptiness. Sated on self he is rejected by men and god. There is no help. Where is the help?

He takes a deep breath and writes, “ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable…” Profitable to save from self and deliver into the hands of Him who created everything even the Grand Canyon.