"STUBBORN CHARACTER OF HUMANS PART I" (2)
Fortunately some psychologists and psychiatrists are contesting the premise that man’s basic problem is low self-esteem. In a book written under the auspices of the Christian College Coalition, called Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith, David Meyers and Malcolm Jeeves give abundant evidence against that myth. In a chapter titled “A New Look at Pride,” they write,
Time and again, experimenters have found that people readily accept credit when told they have succeeded (attributing the success to their ability and effort), yet they attribute failure to external factors such as bad luck or the problem’s inherent “impossibility.” These self-serving attributions have been observed not only in laboratory situations, but also with athletes (after victory or defeat), students (after high or low exam grades), drivers (after accidents), and married people (among whom conflict often derives from perceiving oneself as contributing more and benefiting less than is fair). Self-concepts researcher Anthony Greenwald summarizes, “People experience life through a self-centered filter.” …
In virtually any area that is both subjective and socially desirable, most people see themselves as better than average. Most business people see themselves as more ethical than the average business person. Most community residents see themselves as less prejudiced than their neighbors. Most people see themselves as more intelligent and as healthier than most other people. ([New York: Harper, 1987], 130)
Later in the book the authors maintain that “the most common error in people’s self-images is not unrealistically low self-esteem but rather self-serving pride; not an inferiority complex but a superiority complex.” Even self-depreciation, putting yourself down, is but a thinly disguised attempt to get others to build you up.
The eighteenth-century preacher Samuel Johnson said, “He that overvalues himself will undervalue others. And he that undervalues others will oppose them.” Self-love alienates men from God and from each other. Self-love is the supreme enemy of godliness and of genuine friendship and fellowship.
1. The Context of the Phony - vs. 1a
Verb: γινώσκω (ginōskō), GK 1182 (S 1097), 222×. ginōskō means “to know, understand, recognize.” It has a variety of nuances. It can mean “to learn” or “to possess factual knowledge.” For example, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that he is sending Tychicus to tell them how he is doing, that they may “know” how he is (Eph 6:22; see also Mt 6:3; Mk 15:10; Jn 19:14; Rom 6:6; Phil 4:5; Col 4:8; Jas 5:20; 2 Pet. 1:20).
It can also refer to learning something by observation or noticing something. For example, when Jesus was twelve years old and his parents took him to Jerusalem, they did not “know” he was not with them on the return trip to Galilee (Lk 2:43). When Paul spoke before the Sanhedrin, he came to “know” (i.e., notice, realize) that some of them were Pharisees and some were Sadducees, and this observation provided him an avenue to introduce confusion into the meeting of his accusers (Acts 23:6; see also Lk 1:22; Jn 4:53; Acts 19:34; 21:24).
ginōskō can also refer to a kind of mental assent—to know God and his will is to acknowledge the claim he has on one’s own life (and to agree with that claim). It is to take God’s law and apply it to one’s own life in experience/obedience (Rom 1:32; 2:18; 7:1; 1 Cor. 8:2–3; cf., Jn 7:49). Paul utilizes a play on words in Rom 1 when he says that some “know” God’s just judgment (1:32), but they do not wish to “know” God (1:28). That is, the heathen have a knowledge of God that makes no difference in their activity; they have an intellectual awareness of his existence and perhaps even a belief that he exists, but they do not have a personal or intimate knowledge of him and do not have faith in him (Rom 1:21–28). Thus, there is a sense in which true knowledge (of God) leads to action in keeping with obedience (2 Cor. 10:3–6).
John especially has a rich view of what it means to “know.” When Jesus says he knows his sheep and he knows the Father, he is speaking of an intimate relationship that involves deep feelings of love (Jn 10:14–15). Such a relationship leads to obedience on our part (10:27). “Those who say, ‘I know him,’ but do not do what he commands are liars” (1 Jn. 2:4; cf. 3:6). In fact, Jesus defines eternal life as “knowing God and Jesus Christ,” which involves both faith in him and love for him (Jn 17:3). By contrast, John makes it plain that the world “does not know” God (Jn 17:25; 1 Jn. 3:1).
2. The Condition of the Phony - vs. 2-4
The key to understanding the list is the initial term, “lovers of themselves” (“utterly self-centered,” Phillips). When the center of gravity in an individual shifts from God to self, a plethora of sins can spring up. Self-love leads to materialism (“greedy for money,” Phillips). The accumulation of things becomes a means of gratifying self.
The list consists of eighteen items in vv. 2–4, with a nineteenth added in v. 5. Five of the eighteen terms occur in the NT only here (φίλαυτοι,** ἀκρατεῖς,** ἀνήμεροι,** ἀφιλάγαθοι,** which has not been found elsewhere in ancient literature, and φιλήδονοι**), two occur elsewhere in the NT only in the PE (ἀνόσιοι** in 1 Tim. 1:9, τετυφωμένοι** in 1 Tim. 3:6; 6:4), and three others are found in the NT only here and in Rom. 1:29–31 (ἀλαζόνες** in v. 30, ἄστοργοι** and ἄσπονδοι** in v. 31). Four are shared with Luke-Acts (φιλάργυροι** in Lk. 16:14; ἀχάριστοι** in Lk. 6:35; προδόται** in Lk. 6:16; Acts 7:52; cf. Mt. 24:10; προπετεῖς** in Acts 19:36) and four occur several other times in the NT, two of them in Rom. 1:29–31 (ὑπερήφανοι 4x, including Rom. 1:30; βλάσφημοι 4x; ἀπειθεῖς 5x, including Rom. 1:30; Tit. 1:16; 3:3; διάβολοι 37x).
The first characteristic is that these men will be lovers of self. The pride of self-love is the pervasive deadly sin that grips the human soul and is the foundation sin of all the others. It might be called the sewer out of which the rest of these ugly sins are discharged.
Throughout church history, many Christians, both true and nominal, have been guilty of perverted self-love. Self-love always has been associated with worldliness, but heretofore it was never taught as a doctrinal tenet in the church, even in its most corrupt periods. It was universally acknowledged to be the sin it is. Even most neoorthodox theologians have recognized self-love, or pride, as the root sin of all others. But psychologists Carl Rogers, Erich Fromm, and many others strongly denounced that God-centered view and boldly claimed that lack of self-love and self-esteem is the root problem of man. That false and damnable twist has permeated the church to an alarming degree.
In his great theological work The Institutes of the Christian Religion the Swiss Reformer John Calvin said, “For so blindly do we all rush in the direction of self-love that everyone thinks he has good reason for exalting himself. There is no other remedy than to pluck up by the roots that most noxious pest, self-love.”
The list begins and ends with words expressing a misdirection of “love.” This suggests that what is fundamentally wrong with these people is that their life is misdirected and that the other vices flow from this misdirection.
Being boastful is the outward manifestation of self-love. Boastful translates alazōn, a noun meaning “braggart,” which Plato defined as a person who claims greatness that he does not possess. Boastful persons brag about their accomplishments, overstating the truth to the degree that it has no basis in reality. They are know-it-alls who try to deceive people into thinking they are brilliant. They love to see their names in print and their faces on television. They exaggerate their abilities, their accomplishments, their talents, their reputations, and their value to society and to the church. They are always the heroes of their own stories.
Like self-love and love of money, being boastful is closely related to false teaching. Boasters want “to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions” (1 Tim. 1:7). The boastful person “is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words,” and out of those sins arise such companion sins as “envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions” (6:4).
A person who is boastful is invariably arrogant. Those who are characterized by these twin evils are perpetually self-exalting and determined to have their own way. Huperēphanos (arrogant) has the literal meaning of placing above, hence the idea of superiority.
The arrogant are best illustrated in the New Testament by the Jewish religious leaders mentioned by Jesus “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). He proceeded to tell them the well-known parable of the Pharisee and the tax-gatherer, or publican, who went to pray in the temple:
blasphemos (βλάσφημος, 989), “abusive, speaking evil,” is translated “blasphemous,” in Acts 6:11, 13; “a blasphemer,” 1 Tim. 1:13; “railers,” 2 Tim. 3:2, RV; “railing,” 2 Pet. 2:11. See RAIL.¶
Note: As to Christ’s teaching concerning “blasphemy” against the Holy Spirit, e.g., Matt. 12:32, that anyone, with the evidence of the Lord’s power before His eyes, should declare it to be Satanic, exhibited a condition of heart beyond divine illumination and therefore hopeless. Divine forgiveness would be inconsistent with the moral nature of God. As to the Son of Man, in his state of humiliation, there might be misunderstanding, but not so with the Holy Spirit’s power demonstrated.
Revilers translates blasphēmos, from which we get “blasphemous,” and carries the basic idea of being abusive and slanderous. It is inevitable that a person who is contemptuous of others will eventually revile them. When you elevate yourself, you automatically lower and denigrate others. Inner disdain will eventually find expression in outward slander, because the tongue always follows the heart. “For from within, out of the heart of men,” Jesus made clear, “proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness” (Mark 7:21–22).
apeithes (ἀπειθής, 545), akin to A, No. 1, signifies “unwilling to be persuaded, spurning belief, disobedient,” Luke 1:17; Acts 26:19; Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:16; 3:3.¶
Note: In 1 Tim. 1:9 anupotaktos, “insubordinate, unsubjected” (a, negative, n, euphonic, hupo, “under,” tasso, “to order”), is translated “disobedient” in the KJV; the RV has “unruly,” as in Titus 1:6, 10; in Heb. 2:8, “not subject” (RV), “not put under” (KJV).
Disobedient to parents is the next evil in Paul’s list and is self-explanatory. The disobedience of children to parents in our day has become endemic, and the cause is not hard to find. Not only are children born with a bent to self-will and disobedience, but the disappearance of mothers into the work force and the spiritual failure of fathers is exacerbated by the prevailing philosophy of self-love that is promoted in modern society, including many classrooms and churches, making being disobedient to parents all but compulsory. Children who will rebel against their parents will have no qualms about rebelling against anyone else. It should be no surprise that a generation whose natural, sinful self-love has been reinforced and justified by society is now undermining the family, the church, and the permissive society that has misguided it.
Like the previous sin, ungrateful is self-explanatory. The person who elevates self above all others will feel he deserves everything good he receives and therefore feels no need of gratitude for it. Although he may not put it into words, the ungrateful person despises the very idea of grace, which denotes goodness received that is undeserved. This is a particularly noxious sin to God, whose wrath is revealed against sinners for being unthankful (cf. Rom. 1:18, 21).
Unholy translates anosias, which carries the idea not so much of irreligion as of gross indecency. It was used of a person who refused to bury a dead body or who committed incest. The unholy person is driven by self-love to gratify his lusts and passions of whatever sort, as fully as possible with no thought to propriety, decency, or personal reputation.
1. astorgos (ἄστοργος, 794) signifies “without natural affection” (a, negative, and storge, “love of kindred,” especially of parents for children and children for parents; a fanciful etymology associates with this the “stork”), Rom. 1:31; 2 Tim. 3:3.
Unloving translates astorgos, a negative adjective form of the verb storgē, which commonly was used of family, social, and patriotic love. The noted theologian Benjamin Warfield described it as “that quiet and abiding feeling within us, which, resting on an object as near to us, recognizes that we are closely bound up with it and takes satisfaction in its recognition.” It is not natural for people to love God or the things and people of God, but it is natural for them to love their own families. To be astorgos is therefore to be “without natural affection” (KJV). Just as the self-loving person is without common decency, he also is without common affection. He cares nothing for the welfare of those who should be dearest to him. His only interest in them is for what he believes they can do for him. To be unloving is to be heartless.
Unloving behavior is reported daily in newspapers and broadcasts. Husbands and wives abusing one another, parents and children abusing one another—often to the point of murder—are so common that they make headlines only if they are particularly brutal or sensational. Tragically, the evangelical church has its share of the unloving and heartless.
aspondos (ἄσπονδος, 786) lit. denotes “without a libation” (a, negative, sponde, “a libation”), i.e., “without a truce,” as a libation accompanied the making of treaties and compacts; then, “one who cannot be persuaded to enter into a covenant,” “implacable,” 2 Tim. 3:3 (KJV, “truce-breakers”). Some mss. have this word in Rom. 1:31.¶
Note: Trench (Syn. Sec.lii) contrasts aspondos with asunthetos; see Note under COVENANTBREAKERS. Aspondos may signify “untrue to one’s promise,” asunthetos “not abiding by one’s covenant, treacherous.”
The irreconcilable are those who refuse to change, no matter how desperate even their own situation becomes, much less the situations of those they should care about. They are determined to have their own way regardless of the consequences, even to the point of knowingly destroying their own lives and the lives of their families. They do not forgive and do not want to be forgiven. They are implacable, beyond reasoning, and inevitably self-destructive. As far as they are concerned, there is no compromise, no reconciliation, no court of appeal. Their self-love is so extreme and their egoism so massive that absolutely nothing matters except doing as they please.
diabolos (διάβολος, 1228), “an accuser” (cf. ACCUSE, B, No. 1), is used 34 times as a title of Satan, the Devil (the English word is derived from the Greek); once of Judas, John 6:70, who, in his opposition to God, acted the part of the Devil. Apart from John 6:70, men are never spoken of as devils. It is always to be distinguished from daimon, “a demon.” It is found three times, 1 Tim. 3:11; 2 Tim. 3:3; Titus 2:3, of false accusers, slanderers
Gossip is often thought of as being relatively harmless, but at best it is unkind, harmful, and ungodly. Malicious gossip is a sin of an even more evil and destructive sort. Whereas the irreconcilable person tends to disregard and neglect others, malicious gossips make a point of harming others. Whether to promote their own interests, to express jealousy or hatred, or simply to vent their anger, they take perverse pleasure in damaging reputations and destroying lives.
Malicious gossips translates diabolos, which, even to the person unacquainted with Greek, suggests the severity of this evil, with our English derivative “diabolical.” Diabolos means “accuser” and is used thirty-four times in the New Testament as a title for Satan. Engulfed and blinded by self-love, malicious gossips do the very work of Satan.
Akratēs (“without self-control”) denotes incontinence, in this context that of a moral and spiritual kind. When Jesus excoriated the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, He told them they cleaned “the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence [akratēs]” (Matt. 23:25).
Without self-control describes the person who has jettisoned inhibitions and shame, who does not care about what people think or about what happens to them because of what he does. Like a driverless car, he careens haphazardly and crashes into whatever gets in his way. The lover of self eventually loses control of his own life and becomes a slave to his passions and ambitions.
1. anemeros (ἀνήμερος, 434) signifies “not tame, savage” (from a negative, and hemeros, “gentle”), 2 Tim. 3:3. Epictetus describes those who forget God as their creator, as resembling lions, “wild, savage and fierce” (anemeroi) (Moulton and Milligan, Greek Test Vocab.).
Brutal refers to savagery, like that of wild beasts, whose nature it is to attack enemies and tear them in pieces. Self-love that is not checked makes a person insensitive, malicious, and eventually brutal.
Next in their downward spiral, self-lovers become haters of good, hating what should be loved and loving what should be hated. They sink to what amounts to an animal level; but unlike animals, they know what is good yet choose to despise and oppose it. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil,” the Lord warned the wicked; “who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20). Haters of good remain under God’s judgment.
prodotes (προδότης, 4273) denotes “a betrayer, traitor”; the latter term is assigned to Judas, virtually as a title, in Luke 6:16; in 2 Tim. 3:4 it occurs in a list of evil characters, foretold as abounding in the last days.
Lovers of self eventually become treacherous, turning against even their own families and friends. Treachery comes naturally to a person who loves money, who is boastful and arrogant, ungrateful and unholy, unloving and irreconcilable, a malicious slanderer who has lost self-control, and who is brutal and hates what is good.
Jesus warned the Twelve that “brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name” (Matt. 10:21–22; cf. 24:9–10). Whenever the church has suffered persecution, true believers have been betrayed into the hands of the oppressors, often by members of their own families who value safety and prosperity above devotion and fidelity. Feigned love and friendship become means of treachery. That is also the time when genuine loyalty proves itself, often at a high price.
propetes (προπετής, 4312) lit. means “falling forwards” (from pro, “forwards,” and pipto, “to fall”); it is used metaphorically to signify “precipitate, rash, reckless,” and is said (a) of persons, 2 Tim. 3:4; “headstrong” is the appropriate rendering; (b) of things, Acts 19:36, RV, “(nothing) rash” (KJV, “rashly”)
The reckless person is careless, negligent, and rash. This characteristic is not as serious as most of the others and often is manifested unconsciously. The self-centered person is so preoccupied with his own interests that he simply does not notice people and things around him that are not related to those egotistic concerns.
tuphoo (τυφόω, 5187) properly means “to wrap in smoke” (from tuphos, “smoke”; metaphorically, for “conceit”); it is used in the passive voice, metaphorically in 1 Tim. 3:6, “puffed up,” RV (KJV, “lifted up with pride”); so 6:4, KJV, “proud,” and 2 Tim. 3:4, KJV, “highminded.”
It goes without saying that the self-lover is conceited, having a much higher view of himself than is justified. Tuphōo (conceited) has the root meaning of being enveloped in smoke, or beclouded, so that what is outside one’s circumscribed world of self cannot be seen.
In our context it is sinful behavior that denies the power of godliness. By referring to power Paul is thinking at least of the essential nature of the gospel, which includes the call to holy living and the close association between right belief and right behavior emphasized throughout the PE. But the opponents have replaced the true gospel with quibbling about words, the arrogant teaching of myths and fables, and a refusal to have their behavior controlled by the gospel. Hence their religiosity is an empty shell devoid of the power that comes from God that is meant to effect change in Timothy’s life and others (cf. 1 Cor 4:20).
The final sinful characteristic of dangerous false teachers given in this extensive but not exhaustive list is their being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Lovers of pleasure translates the single Greek word philēdonos, a compound of philos (loving) and hēdonē (pleasure), from which we get “hedonist” and “hedonism.” Along with all his other sins, the false teacher is a self-loving, pleasure-mad hedonist.
It should be noted that pleasure, especially in this context, is not limited to the desire for comfort, fine food, sexual satisfaction, and other indulgences normally associated with hedonism. As already mentioned, a self-centered person also derives perverse pleasure from such things as malicious gossip, brutality, and treachery. His satisfaction comes, in part, from the pain and misery he sadistically inflicts on others, including parents and supposed friends.
This depraved pleasure is not loved more than God, but rather than … God. In other words, the true God has no place at all in the thinking and living of a false teacher or of anyone who is self-centered. Jesus told Nicodemus, “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19, emphasis added).
Those who love pleasure rather than … God cannot possibly obey either the first or the second great commandments. They cannot truly love God or their neighbors, and have no genuine desire to do so. Jesus made clear that a person can have only one god, and for the self-lover, self is god. Satan has never had a shortage of false gods with which to tempt man, and by far the most useful to his cause is the god of self. Lucifer fell from his exalted and magnificent state in heaven because he became his own god, and since that time he has endeavored to entice fallen mankind into the same form of idolatry.
3. The Caution about the Phony - vs. 5
arneomai (ἀρνέομαι, 720) signifies (a) “to say … not, to contradict,” e.g., Mark 14:70; John 1:20; 18:25, 27; 1 John 2:22; (b) “to deny” by way of disowning a person, as, e.g., the Lord Jesus as master, e.g., Matt. 10:33; Luke 12:9; John 13:38 (in the best mss.); 2 Tim. 2:12; or, on the other hand, of Christ Himself, “denying” that a person is His follower, Matt. 10:33; 2 Tim. 2:12; or to “deny” the Father and the Son, by apostatizing and by disseminating pernicious teachings, to “deny” Jesus Christ as master and Lord by immorality under a cloak of religion, 2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 4; (c) “to deny oneself,” either in a good sense, by disregarding one’s own interests, Luke 9:23, or in a bad sense, to prove false to oneself, to act quite unlike oneself, 2 Tim. 2:13; (d) to “abrogate, forsake, or renounce a thing,” whether evil, Titus 2:12, or good, 1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Tim. 3:5; Rev. 2:13; 3:8; (e)“not to accept, to reject” something offered, Acts 3:14; 7:35, “refused”; Heb. 11:24 “refused.”
3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.“Form” refers to outward shape or appearance. Like the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, false teachers and their followers are concerned with mere external appearances (cf. Matt. 23:25; Titus 1:16). Their outward form of Christianity and virtue makes them all the more dangerous.
The summary contains two elements. First, the heretics maintained a “form of godliness.” They affected its outward appearance but lacked its essence. They enjoyed arguing about religious trivia (1 Tim 1:6–7) and practiced asceticism (1 Tim 4:3), assuming that being religious proved that they were also righteous. Paul’s vigorous denunciation of such hypocrisy provides a shocking warning for modern purveyors of religion who deny God’s moral claims but use religious jargon.
Thus Paul is saying that many, among whom are the false teachers, are professing to be Christians and engaging in a form of Christianity without knowing its reality.
That false teachers hold to a form of godliness, that is, an outline of Christianity without substance, makes them all the more dangerous, because immature members in the church will accept their paganized Christianity as the true faith.
There are three guidelines for judging whether a teacher or preacher is from God. The first thing to measure is his creed, the specific beliefs and ideas he propounds. Is Scripture, the whole of Scripture, the basis for everything he believes and does, or does he use certain Bible passages selectively to bolster unbiblical ideas? If his creed does not measure up to Scripture, or if he belittles the importance of doctrine, nothing else about him matters, because he obviously does not speak for God and has not been sent by Him.
The second guideline to examine is personal character and its reflection in his lifestyle. Even if a person’s professed doctrine is orthodox, ungodly living betrays a godless heart. Godly belief always produces godly living.
A third measure of a godly leader is his converts, his most ardent followers. If his devotees are weak, confused, or unconcerned about doctrine, and if their living does not reflect biblical standards, the leader himself almost certainly is not godly, because godly leaders will not claim or be satisfied with ungodly converts. Christ-honoring, Scripture-loving teachers and preachers will produce Christ-honoring, Scripture-loving converts. Religious charlatans, on the other hand, will produce converts in their own image.
