What is a "great lover" really?

Many people believe that a great lover is found in the person that is "doing" the loving. I believe scripture has a different standard. A person may be a faithful lover, a skilled lover, a focused lover or even a selfish lover. When we use the term "great" we employ a word that carries a lot of weight. Great is defined as: "of an extent, amount or intensity considerably above the normal or average." Since we are all sinners, though having different gifts in life, when it comes to our abilities to produce moral qualities, no one is above what we call " normal" on their own. All of us live with a fallen nature. So is it possible to be a "great lover"? I believe the answer is yes. However, as Timothy shows us it is based not on the individual, but the object the individual is expressing love to. To be "great" we must love something or someone greater than ourselves. Since "things" are less than human, it cannot be a thing. Since, in comparison to what God would call “the norm”, it cannot be another human...not even ourselves! God’s “norm” is based on perfection – therefore there is only one Person that we can love that is Great. Notice what Timothy states:

2 Timothy 3:1–7 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 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, ⁵ holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

First, why in the “last days”? The reason is as time goes by; it is normal to just pass on the data not focusing on the “experience” of transformation. This is what happened to Israel as the generation of Joshua died out: 

Judges 2:6-10 When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten… All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.

Obviously the average Jew had the data on Jehovah...the exodus...red sea...Jericho...etc. Still, there was no intimate relationship with the Lord.

When that happens the soul, led by the flesh, seeks something or someone to love. Timothy shows us the range...from haters of good...unloving...to lovers of self and pleasure. Love is very much like “Faith” in its range. Think about it, there are those that believe in God so much that they dedicate their entire life and energy into sharing His message to people that have not heard it. Yet, there are those that have such firm faith that God does not exist they spend all their life and energy trying to disprove something they claim cannot be proven! What faith they have! There are those that love pleasure and themselves so much that they “only have eyes for the mirror”!

Sadder still, as Timothy points out, many continue to try and “look” as though they are lovers of God...which exposes their intensity of their love for themselves. They want to be appreciated by all...the world and the Church. The tragedy is they try to appear to be godly...imitating what the data states to do...yet, deny the One that does the true transformation. Some of these are so skilled at deception they even deceive themselves – and their end is a catastrophe!

 Matthew 7:20–23 “So then, you will know them by their fruits. ²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Do not be content with only the data of Who God is! Grab a hold of God and refuse to let go...He will honor your faith and open Himself up to you and you will Know Him, and knowing Him will set you free!