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"For men will be lovers of themselves..."

Text: 2 Timothy 3:2

AN IMPORTANT OBSERVATION

What was it that the Apostle Paul sought to warn Timothy of when he wrote the following text?

“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.”
2 Timothy 3:2-4

1. Who were these people Paul was describing?

The descriptions are ominous. There are essentially only two options to be considered:-

a) They are people in the world.

i) But this is probably not the case.

ii) Paul had already described people in the world in the other epistles he had written.

iii) In Romans 1 and in Ephesians 2 he described people in the world.

iv) These do not know the Lord and their ungodly ways are typical.

b) They are people in the church

i) This is probably Paul’s focus.

ii) Timothy needed to know that though people may be in a church and may profess faith, they are capable of behaving poorly.

iii) If these people are church goers then they present a special peril to the church.

2. The descriptions in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 are deeply disturbing.

A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING NEEDED

What may be needed would be an understanding of how church-goers can turn out so poorly. Paul bracketed his categories of thought into two broad aspects:-

1. When people are “lovers of themselves”

a) They can become conceited.

b) They can become so self-preoccupied.

c) They become carnal.

2. When people love pleasures more than they love God

a) They pursue their own ideas of faith and religion.

b) Their adverse behaviour testify to the fact that they obviously are not filled with the love of God.