Intro
Welcome to another podcast. This is Dreamwalker1960.
Discussion
In this past week I have continued to run into different encounters with a type of selfishness. Each different according to who was involved, but still a type of selfishness. To confess there are even times when I suffer from this affliction. I was led to this verse as I asked the Lord for His guidance with these encounters.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 – You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
Does any of this sound familiar? Unless you live in a glass bottle it should. The very first example Paul gave to Timothy was that people would be selfish. The thing is the other examples he gives aren’t independent items. They are basically definitions of selfishness. They are selfish behavior. They are the spawns of selfishness, and since we are told to avoid those that live this way they are obviously living in sin.
In one encounter I had recently had the person said that in essence since God was in him then he was a god. Now in 1 Corinthians the Bible does say this.
Chapter 6 Verses 19-20 – Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
This verse is telling us not to treat our bodies in a way that will not sully God. By entering into any sin we make ourselves unclean and since the Holy Ghost is within us when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Our bodies become a temple unto to God.
Why was the temple made?
For humans to have a place to interact with their Creator, God. This interaction is facilitated with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like a cellphone to God, and since God is Holy the Spirit with which He uses to commune with us is holy.
When Christ died for our sins upon the cross the veil that divided the Holy of Holy’s from all of humanity was torn. So now we all have access directly to God through Jesus Christ who then sent to us the Holy Ghost. (John 15:26)
In our part of this relationship with God through His Son Jesus we are to actively seek Him out through prayer and understanding that can be found within the Bible, as well as to follow all the teachings that are within it. The Holy Spirit is who imbues us with this knowledge. As we grow in our relationship with God through the blessing of the Holy Ghost. God helps us in our everyday life.
As an example. Me, in my everyday job have to do some stuff that at times is difficult to accomplish. Yet I pray and suddenly I am given insight into a way to accomplish the goal in an easier manner. This is God speaking to me through the Holy Ghost that is within me.
I do not think I am god because I suddenly received this method to accomplish my goal. Yet as I mentioned before there are those that do think they are god or that god is within them and so they think they are greater than anyone else because of it.
That is not God that is ego, which is selfishness.
The very first commandment is not to place any other god before God. Yet on a daily basis that is what millions of people do. Many of which profess they are Christian. The moment someone beliefs that god is within them and in turn get a swelled head over it, they are breaking that commandment. As reflected in 2 Timothy 3:4.
Paul makes it clear that those that keep the faith and belief that God is God and that His Son is our Savior, who then sent us the Holy Spirit through His Father to allow us to commune with Him and His Father with the Holy Ghost, will suffer. And those that are false and selfish are the truly evil they will flourish. For only those of the world are rewarded of the world, and those of God are rewarded their due when God ordains. Some rewards may be here, but we are to strive to make it that the majority is in the eternal life we are promised by seeking not to be selfish in this reality we now live within.
This is what Paul instructed the Philippians:
Chapter 2:1-4
1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. 3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Our focus of our lives shouldn’t be around ourselves. We are to be humble never high-minded thinking we are greater than any other human in existence. For those that consider themselves greater than another human being are in actuality crowning themselves their own god. Placing themselves upon a throne made of straw that will burn into ashes when the time comes to stand before the Lord God Almighty who is the true God and only God, our Creator.
Time and again we are told within the Bible to not place ourselves first in anything we do. But to have the concerns of our fellow humans before our own. That is why it is so easy for those that live the lives as described in 2 Timothy, as they try to take advantage of those that try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and His disciples.
They are so wrapped up in their own lives that they are blind to the Truth. They see everything through their perspective, which is tainted with their lusts, desires and hatreds. They believe that all think as they do and find it impossible to think that others believe and think differently. Does any of this sound family?
That is not how those that have accepted salvation through Jesus Christ think.
I will end with this:
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God Bless