Paul gives a warning to Timothy that the end-times will come, and they will come not with the world continuing to get better and better, but instead with people continuing to become worse and worse in their character.
He said this:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy
2 Timothy 3:2
This first phrase of the verse struck me because I think it speaks to the state of our world today. More and more we see this exact situation playing out.
“You can’t love someone else until you love yourself” is a type of refrain that you might hear and would be considered good advice by pop psychologists.
Even the rise of psychology over the last several decades as a “scientific” way to fix problems, even if it seems that the resolution rarely seems to come.
Or one product or service after the next that continues to rise up in an effort to give fuel to an industry the idea that the most important person is me. I am what I need to be concerned about. Bring the glory to me, create a legacy for myself, make my name great. Or my fulfillment, my riches, my desires…these are what are most important.
From this starting place comes all sorts of evil because instead of working for the other, for the good of the other person…instead of loving the other person, I love myself, and now we have a society, an entire world that is looking out for itself instead of the other, and this produces evil of all kinds.
Knowing this, I think it is no wonder that Jesus says that the most important command is to Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second one is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.
Instead of continuing to look to me, Lord, I pray that you help me to look to you. May you receive the glory. May you be the object of my love. May my life be about you and about your fame and not about me nor mine.