“ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 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 such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). A young woman told me once that she loved herself and that was a good thing. She did not like it for the Bible to have it listed as a bad thing. How can we tell it is a bad thing? The other words in the list from 2 Timothy are characteristics of loving yourself. They are subsets of loving yourself. Let’s look at them. Lovers of money – loving yourself Boastful – loving yourself Proud – loving yourself Abusive – certainly not loving your neighbor as yourself Disobedient to parents – loving ...
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul tells him to flee and pursue . In his second letter, he says the same: flee and pursue. Let’s take a look at these letters: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness” (1 Tim. 6:10-11). “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22). It is very simple: we are to run away from love of and eagerness for money and the evil desires of youth. We are to run after righteousness, godliness, faith, endurance, love, gentleness, and peace. In both cases, fleeing and pursuing , we are running in the same direction. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not...