Have you ever turned on the TV to find
scores of self help ads? Guess what they sell? You guessed it. Did you
go to psychology class in high school or college and learn about one of
the prime motivators being self-actualization? What does that teach?
Self is being taught all around us in every venue imaginable except one…The
Holy Bible. We read in 2 Timothy 3:2,3 about the most hedonistic
generation ever who happen to live in the “last days” quote- “For
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters.
Proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection…”
Many books could be written on this
verse and it’s correlation to our generation alone. Do any of the
other vile traits mentioned in the passage look familiar to you? Please
note that the apostle Paul began the verse with “lovers of their own
selves” then went on to list the fruit that such love brings.
Covetousness, boasting, pride, thanklessness etc. these are all the
fruits of self love. Of all the bad fruit generated by self love the one
I would like to point out most is- “without
natural affection” Please allow me to paraphrase-”unable to love
others”
Dear reader, are you beginning to see
the relation between the material presented here and Christian dating?
The prevailing wisdom of the day is
that we cannot love others if we do not love ourselves. The inferred
premise being that we do not love ourselves, that we hate ourselves.
Ephesians 5:29: "For no man yet hated his own
flesh…" The problem is that we love ourselves too much. God had
it right (obviously) in Philipians 2:3: “…in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves”
Mother Teresa was asked once “how
much money she made helping the sick, and dying” Her reply was very
interesting, she said- “I would not do it for any amount of money…
but for love I will do it”
In second Timothy 3:2 God is telling
us that if we feed self we will become self-absorbed and unable to love
others in the healthiest sense.
If we are to establish those desired
deep relationships we must lose this infatuation with self and love
others as we love ourselves. There must be a parity. Love of self must
not overpower our love for others. Christian dating really demands this,
as it is one of God's commandments.
What are the signs of selfishness?
Well, one is gratification or in more modern parlance, instant
gratification. People want their MTV and they want it now.
Another outward manifestation of
selfishness is materialism. Materialistic people are selfish, and
selfish people are materialistic. MTV appeals very much to the
materialistic self. Vulgar gangster rappers are somehow held up as icons
to our youth. No other culture would have made them as tremendously
wealthy and famous as our self-centered, and materialistic pop
sub-culture. These rappers personify superficial selfishness in the
extreme with their big gold chains, expensive cars, and luxurious
mansions filled with servants, and let’s not forget the scantily clad
groupies. You couldn’t come up with worse role models from any other
generation in all history. On this point our generation is again
unfortunately unique from all others before us.
SELF-ESTEEM = SELF LOVE
One of the most damaging buzz words
being crooned and crowed from the ivory towers of academia is “self-esteem”
The academic “elite” know full well that when it is administered in
heavy doses to immature minds the resulting outcome will be self-love.
The children have been well indoctrinated as the previous story about
the high school aptitude test (explained a few pages back) illustrates.
So, what can we learn from the example
of the high school aptitude test? Self-esteem transformed them into
braggarts, unable and unwilling to identify their own ignorance. The
apostle Paul put it well when he wrote about the “last days”
generation in Romans 1:22. “Professing themselves to be wise they
became fools” Does this sound like the indoctrinated students above?
So what does this have to do with
our Christian personals service primer? We must be deprogrammed from the "wisdom of the
world", which is foolishness to God. It will become a trap for an
unsuspecting and wicked generation.
What wickedness? Let us shift into
a higher gear, and see through the glass more clearly.
"To cont. your Christian
personals service primer click here."
