Nothing is more unknown to man than himself. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
One of the most deceitful things about the human heart is self-love. The windings of the hearts and the deep crevices that hide the motives and intents of the heart are full of the love of self rather than the love of God. It seems so right to the human heart that all things should revolve around self, its own interests, and its own desires. So when the human makes excuses for sin because it is what self desired and what self wanted, it makes perfect sense to the human and it wonders why others don’t accept its excuses.
II Tim 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Philippians 2:21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.
In the first passage (II Tim 3:2-3) the love of self is seen as the first bookend and not lovers of God is the other. Why do men love money? It is because they love what money does for self rather than being lovers of God. Whey do men boast? It is because they are lovers of self rather than lovers of God. Each of the points in that passage demonstrate what happens when the love of self is ruler of the soul rather than the love of God.
In the second passage above, we see why ministers fail so much regardless of the numbers involved. The context of the passage (Philippians 2:21) is that Paul was wanting to send them a minister, but he had no one to send. He then spoke of the many who sought after the things of self rather than the things of Christ. When a person seeks after the things of self in the ministry rather than the things of Christ, that person is not fit to be a minister. But then again, that person is not fit to think of him or herself as living as a Christian. A minister that lives after the things of self can be a lover of money rather than a lover of God. This can include raising money for so-called ministry, but that can be for a building that the minister wants as part of his name and honor. It can include being boastful of being conservative or many things, but the person is not truly seeking the things of Christ.
The heart that loves self rather than Christ, which is to also say that it may love Christ for self rather than self for Christ, is capable of almost anything. The list in Philippians speaks of those who love self rather than God as unloving, brutal, and treacherous. How unknown to self is that heart that is driven by self-love. How deceptive to self is that heart that is driven by self-love. The self can be very and even extremely religious, but it is religious because of self rather than because of Christ. So the core love has never changed and will not change. This is one reason why so many religious people are so deceived. They are deceived into thinking that they are lovers of Christ because they are devoted to morality and religious activity. But when the interests of self come into conflict, for example, with things like money and sex, self will win one way of the other. The interests of self may be seen as being found in the money or sex, or the interests of self may be seen as resisting those things. Either way, however, the choice will be made on the basis of self rather than on the basis of love for Christ and His glory.
This shows how so many people are deceived in terms of knowing their own hearts and how they are so easily deceived by sin and most anything else. They view all things through the lenses of self rather than the lenses of His glory. They are religious and moral out of love for self and as such they are deceived by their religion and morality because it is all for self. Many are deceived about the nature of sin and don’t see that all of their religious activity is nothing but idolatry because it is done for self rather than the glory of God. They don’t see that their love for self is to make them an enemy of God and a violator of the Great Commandment in all they do. That horrible love of self is actually strengthened in religion that is not truly focused on God and His glory. Instead of denying self to follow Christ, they follow what they think of as Christ and the self is strengthened. Instead of dying to self they live more and more out of love for self as they follow a religious path. How horrible it will be on judgment day when people like that see their own hearts and their deception is brought to light and it becomes known.
God Loves... Himself 
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