As we conclude our inductive study of 2nd Timothy 3 let me suggest one final application. We should always love God and others.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He answered, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
If you obey this commandment you are a “lover of the good.” You are also a “lover of God” (Verses 3-4). John pointed out in 1st John 4:19-21, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
This is critical to remember while we live in a sin sick world, characterized as “lovers of themselves, lovers of money…without love…not lovers of the good…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” No wonder one of the last commands Jesus gave His disciples before His death was, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).
Making this application to our lives is absolutely essential if we want to make an impact for God on the lives of the watching world, if we want to run to win.
