Becoming Lovers of God In Age of Lovers of Self

We are living in rather wistful times. People are concerned with their pleasures, passions, and pursuit of power and influence. Few if any seem to be seeking God. The words of the Psalmist echo like a pipe in a deep cavern, "The LORD looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!" (Psalm 14:2-3). Plenty of people talk about the Lord, and even give him homage on Sundays, but seekers, lovers of the Triune God are few. Jesus Christ our Lord prophesized this day would come, "And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other," (Matthew 24:10) and "I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?" (Luke 18:9). Christ also gives us glimpse at how this falling away will come to pass, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." (Matthew 24:12). This is very insightful, for lawlessness is indeed what we are seeing today in society, where no moral law is allowed to stand, but it also points to coming of the Lawless One (2 Thessalonians 2) better known to us as Man of Sin and The Antichrist. In the process of lawlessness, people's love grows cold because God is love, "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8). The apostle Paul then follows these conclusions via the Holy Spirit to give us a even more detailed glimpse of what life will be like in last days, "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). Paul foresees via The Holy Spirit that the lawlessness Christ speaks of, and love growing cold stems from a new attitude of being "lovers of self, lovers of money, not lovers of good, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."

Christ Jesus gave us model for love in the two great commands, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40). But Christ and Paul warn us that "love will grow cold," and "they will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." I believe the love Christ means will grow cold is a love of God, but also of others because we see that the 'love' Paul lays out in his second letter to Timothy is not love, because it is not a love of God or people, and God is love (1 John 4:8). Thus since people are not plugged into source, origin, and generator of love, who is God the Trinity, then people are incapable of love. Lawlessness naturally increases at people try to justify their passions and need for pleasure at expense of real love and godly morality. As a result all order, stability, and safety in a society breaks down until it collapses into a despot of crippled civilization. Love of God and others prevents this, because the Fear (reverence) of the Lord and Knowing Him is wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), and if you care about others you do not seek them harm and you build them up in God's love. It is lovers of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that create a world where people can live and feel safe. But the lovers of God has abandoned their God for pleasure (2 Timothy 3:4) and now we have generations that know not how to love God, nor love their neighbor or anyone else for that matter.

From the moment the Trinity made man (Genesis 1:26) there was a plan for him and her to love, be loved, and create more love (children). In Eden, mankind would love God, love one another, love creation, and take care of it. But something disrupted this purpose, a serpent in garden deceived them into wanting more, wanting what they were not designed for, a chance to play God and run the show, when our very identity and design by God was never to be in charge of "discerning good from evil." (Genesis 3:22). Now man wants power, to decide for others what is right and wrong, sometimes even flipping these upside down and cause a moral plurality that makes the minds of many dizzy. We were meant to be lovers of God and lovers of each other (Matthew 22:36-40). There is much about Augustine of Hippo that I dispute with, His notions of meriting salvation, his mystical experiences of light, and more are  easily refuted by Scripture. But before the 'great theologian' went astray, he said something quite startling, "Augustine argued the first sin corrupted all humanity. This corruption is so radical that no one naturally desires to follow Jesus Christ." (Timothy Paul Jones, PhD, Christian History Made Easy, page 55). While certainly these seems contradictory to Christ calling the Disciples, "Jesus said to James and John "follow me," and they put down their nets and followed Him." (Matthew 4:21-22). The point Augustine is driving at is that people are conditioned by original sin to be "lovers of themselves" rather than "lovers of God." Augustine is pointing out there is struggle when a follower must face the cross (crossroad) when Christ begins to remove their love of self and pleasure (original sin).

It is easy to love and seek after Christ when he does miracles in your life, gives you revelations, you experience charismatic and third heaven moments, and more. But when Christ takes up the cross and hands it to you, you must take deposition, "I count all things lost but knowing Christ, I discard everything, counting it as garbage, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8). If you won't take up your cross, you cannot be disciple of Christ, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me," (Matthew 10:38), "And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple," (Luke 14:27), and "Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23). This is when love is tested. Will you really love God now that in place of a cured disease He hands you a cross? Jesus is not asking anything He has not already done. He loved us so much He died for our sins, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). Our Savior and God endured great suffering for the sake of His love for us! He asks for love in return, but will you? It is easy to pledge that you will be lover of God (Matthew 22:36-40) when everything is easy and Emmanuel blesses you with healing, prosperity, and happy days. But what about when the times comes for you to love Him back? To take up your cross? To "deny yourself," is very fitting because it counters what Paul said the wicked people will be like "lovers of themselves." To "pick up your cross" is the counter to "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Bearing a cross is painful, it contains your faults, struggles, and specific stumbling stones () that you must through Christ and following Him get through. Perhaps that is why there is so much enmity in America and China towards the cross. People who are "lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" do not want to be reminded that they have discarded God and the eternal path. They are offended by cross because it spells "love God rather than yourself, love others rather than your own pleasure."

Will you be a lover of God? The Bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9-11)? Will you choose to be life Five Virgins who kept their wicks trimmed, their lamps lit and were ready at any moment to receive the Returned Christ? (Matthew 25:1-10). Without the Trinity, Father, Son/Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, three but One God, there can be no love, for God is love (1 John 4:8). Love cannot be apart from the Lord Jesus and so if a person is no a lover of Him, they have no capacity to love, and they can love no one else. This is why marriages are failing, two people wed who "love themselves, love money, and lover pleasure rather than God" and so they really do not love one another, nor are they plugged into the only source of Love, God The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Choose to be lovers of God rather than lovers of pleasure, self, and money. Start by "confessing Jesus Christ is God (LORD, Jehovah), and believe in your heart God raised Him from dead and you shall be saved." (Romans 10:9, see Colossians 2:9). From there you are first plugging into the source of Love, but if you are already a believer and have felt yourself go astray, now is a time to repent, to ask God to restore you to your first love, "But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." (Revelation 2:4-5).