2 Timothy 3:

• What does it look like to love God? Vs. 4 gives us a hint. It says that loving pleasure is at odds with loving God. I don’t think that it means that you should not enjoy pleasure. Rather, pleasure should not drive our desires, our actions, our commitments! There is a pleasure that is found IN loving God. This pleasure drives and defines all other pleasures. It’s when the source of our pleasure is indifferent to, or at odds with, the pleasure that is in God that we settle for a much more temporal and damaging pleasure than God designed for us.
• This list (vs. 2-5) is a horrible list that Paul says will be characteristic of this godless love in the “last days.” There will be “deceivers” who themselves are “deceived” (vs. 13) as they lead astray and damage people’s uninformed and misinformed faith. (vs. 6-7)
• Yet, Paul tells us how to guard against the pressure of deception from without and the pressure of desire from within. Stay familiar with the Scriptures! (vs. 14-17) It is here that we find comfort and correction, directions and instruction; even Salvation! (vs. 15)
  • Holy Spirit, make Your Words so sweet to me that I cannot help but seek them. Let Your Word be a fountain of pleasure for me. May my love for You increase daily as I gradually see more and more of my infinite God. Make Your Word do its work in my heart and my life.