Who do you love the most?

 “Lovers of God”

(2 Timothy 3:4 concluded)

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,

4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ...

Lovers of pleasure

If you don't believe in eternity, if you don't believe that there is any life beyond what you see, it is very understandable that you would live for the fading pleasures of this world. Christians are called to receive suffering for Christ in this life as something that God has granted to them as His gift.

This choice to suffer for the Lord's Name would make no sense if there were no life beyond the grave? That is why the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church that, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The problem is not being a love of pleasure per se, but a settling on lesser pleasures that are very temporary. As Paul writes in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Rather than

We are not seeking pain, but “solid joys.” Do you see the glory of heaven as greater than the glory of this fading world? Christ did. We look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

What do you love more?

Who do you love most?

Jesus was a lover of God. He was a lover of the ones that God has loved from before the foundation of the world.

Lovers of God

In the last days, people will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will learn to love most what should not be loved at all, and the One who should be loved above all will seem to them to be nothing.

What does it mean to love God? If you love someone, you are willing to suffer for His glory and good. We do that when we have come to see a true family connection that has become intimately connected with our own identity.

God is your Father. Christ is your Husband. Love your Father. He chose you in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Love your Husband. He died for your sins. You were saved because Christ was a lover of God rather than a lover of the fading comforts of the present age.