In the last days people will be lovers of pleasure (see 2 Tim 3).
Is it wrong to love pleasure?
Think of a self-centred mother who completely neglects her child while she gambles and drinks; she loves her child less than she loves pleasure. She loves her child less than she loves herself. Her self-love is destroying her and her child.
A loving parent sacrifices themselves for the sake of their child. If we love people more than we love pleasure, we will sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others.
Our problem is not that we love good things and good people. Our problem is we don’t love others enough. When Paul (see 2 Tim 3) said that people will be lovers of pleasure he was saying that in the last days people will be self-centred. They will love themselves more than they love others.
There’s nothing wrong with loving pleasure. A healthy person loves pleasure. They like to do pleasurable things and be around pleasurable people. But a good person loves people more than they love things. Yes, they will do pleasurable things—they will even seek out pleasurable things to do—but not at the expense or neglect of others.
Jesus came to save us from ourselves and turn us to God. Only God can set us free from the prison called self.
When a person believes that God truly loves them,* they turn and follow him. They begin to trust and obey him. They might not immediately feel love towards some people, but they will start to treat them more kindly and try to be fair in their dealings with them—they we will even start to treat their worst enemies fairly. If they continue to put Jesus words into practice, they will start to feel differently towards those they once hated. They will still hate the awful things others do (in fact the more we love what is good the more we will hate evil behaviour), but they will begin to be more considerate, thoughtful, and caring. God will turn their heart of stone into a heart of flesh (see Ezek 36:26).
Only God can set us free from the things that enslave us. No evil can control us if we follow Jesus, not harmful substances, evil ideologies, or evil beliefs.†
The Bible says he who sins is a slave to sin. It is from sin we need saving.
Jesus came to set the captives free.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” ~ Gal 5:1
* The cross points to the character of God. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. God became a man and died for you. He loves you.
† Jesus was critical of the Pharisees because the Pharisees didn’t put people first. They put their traditions above the needs of others. The Pharisees looked good on the outside. They looked like they were being self-sacrificing because of their fasting etc, but they were actually being self-centred. Because they loved people less than their traditions they neglected others for the sake of those traditions (see Matt 23:1-4). Putting Jesus words into practice is no easy thing. It’s hard enough to follow Jesus as it is without adding man-made traditions to the things he asked of us.
One last word on the pharisees. It is true that the traditions (rules etc) cannot be found in the Bible. But many of the pharisees meant well. They added these traditions in order to make sure that people kept the Sabbath etc, but the rules that they added were not necessary in order to do the things that God had commanded. The rules became an unnecessary burden.