THE COLLAPSE OF CHARACTER - PART 3

MEN SHALL BE LOVERS OF THEIR OWN SELVES

When Self Becomes Supreme

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves…” 2 Timothy 3:2 

Paul now moves from describing the age to exposing the heart. The first sin he names is not violence, immorality, or blasphemy. It is something far more subtle and far more foundational. He begins with the inward turn of the soul: “men shall be lovers of their own selves.” Everything else in this list flows from this source.

This is not a casual observation. It is a diagnosis. Paul identifies self-love as the root system of last-days corruption. Before society collapses outwardly, it caves inwardly. Before men reject God openly, they enthrone themselves quietly.

The phrase Paul uses describes an excessive, consuming affection for self. It is not the biblical recognition of human worth as God’s creation, nor the proper stewardship of one’s life before the Lord. Scripture commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, not instead of God. What Paul condemns here is something altogether different: self as centre, self as authority, self as final reference point.

This inward turn is the exact opposite of biblical faith. Jesus said plainly, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The call of Christ begins with self-denial, not self-discovery. Yet the last days reverse that order. They teach self-expression, self-affirmation, and self-exaltation as virtues. The cross is replaced with comfort. Submission is replaced with self-assertion.

Scripture has always warned against this drift. In Romans 12, Paul exhorts believers not to think of themselves “more highly than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3). Proverbs cautions that “every way of a man is right in his own eyes”(Proverbs 21:2). When self becomes the measure of truth, correction is no longer possible. Pride seals the ears.

Charles Spurgeon once warned that self is a tyrant that never rules gently. He observed that when self-love governs the heart, God is tolerated only insofar as He serves personal comfort. That is not faith; it is idolatry with religious language. The idol simply wears a mirror instead of a statue.

This self-love manifests itself everywhere in our age. Identity is now treated as something to be asserted rather than received. Authority is resented unless it affirms personal desire. Moral standards are rejected not because they are unclear, but because they are inconvenient. The question is no longer, “Is it true?” but, “Does it validate me?”

Paul warned Timothy elsewhere that a time would come when people would “heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3). That itching does not come from a hunger for righteousness; it comes from a craving to be told that one is already right. Self-love does not seek truth—it seeks affirmation.

Even within the church, this danger presses hard. Worship can become performance. Ministry can become platform. Service can become self-expression. The language remains biblical, but the centre quietly shifts. Paul warned the Philippians of those who “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s” (Philippians 2:21). That danger did not disappear with the apostles. It has simply become more refined.

Winston Churchill once remarked that nations fall not merely through external attack, but through internal decay—when personal interest eclipses shared responsibility. Though spoken in a civic context, the principle is deeply spiritual. A people absorbed with self cannot stand together, sacrifice together, or endure hardship together. Self-love fractures everything it touches.

The tragedy is that self-love promises fulfilment but delivers isolation. It elevates feelings above faith, desire above duty, and comfort above character. It leaves people endlessly focused inward, yet perpetually dissatisfied. Scripture tells us why: “He that loveth his life shall lose it” (John 12:25). Self was never designed to be the source of meaning.

For the believer, this demands sober self-examination. The last days do not only reveal sin around us; they expose temptation within us. Self-love rarely announces itself loudly. It whispers. It justifies. It reframes obedience as extremism and compromise as wisdom. It asks, “What about me?” when Scripture asks, “What about Christ?”

Paul begins his list here because nothing corrupts faster than a heart turned inward.

When self is enthroned, God is displaced. When God is displaced, everything else begins to unravel.

The last days are marked by this tragic exchange:God-centred living traded for self-centred existence.

And once self takes the throne, the appetite only grows.