"in the last days"

In Scripture the "last days" are the days from Christ's resurrection until He comes back to the earth to claim His own and finish His work of redemption. Interestingly, we are now living in the last days, but so was the apostle Paul who lived 2000 years ago.

The Bible says in II Timothy 3:1 that "There will be terrible times in the last days." Verse 2 goes on to say that "people will be lovers of themselves," and the list that follows will chill you to the bone and explain why the circumstances that surround living in this world are so difficult.

I've read and heard these verses all of my life:

Matthew 22:36-40
"Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to them, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets."

There it is included in what Jesus quotes as the "great and foemost commandment." We should love our neighbor (the people in our lives) with the same intensity that we love ourselves.

How much do we love ourselves? With every grain and fiber in our being. We take care of, pamper, praise, justify, seek pleasure for ourselves. We meet our needs excessively, and turn away from the needs of others. We protect our time, our money, and our resources, and our hearts as if they were vessels of gold.

This is the fight of our lives as Christians. The Scriptures are full of admonitions to "think more highly of others than we do ourselves."

This is a daunting truth when we see ourselves as we truly are. We cannot stop this endless cycle on our own. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the heart of a believer that the work of selflessness can begin, and it takes a whole lifetime to work itself out in our hearts.

Our own selfish heart is the hardest thing we have to conquer.