2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, …3without love, … not lovers of the good, 4… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power.…
Love misdirected creates a form of godliness without power. This passage points out many objects of love that do not bring godly power. Love can give the appearance of genuine relationship, but when it is misdirected, it will miss the mark. On a shooting range, no matter how carefully you aim at the wrong target, you will always miss the correct one. It may increase your neighbor’s score, but your target will come out unscathed. Love has to be directed at the right object for love to do its work. If we love ourselves, our money, or our pleasures more than we love God, we will in the end come up empty. We may look like loving people, but we will possess no power to really affect change in ourselves or in the world. And there are lots of people who look like they are doing good things, but in the end they have no power to win the battle of sin. Social justice without inner righteousness is love misdirected. Private prayers without a vital connection to a local church body is love misdirected. Go back and read these verses again. Look at the list of attitudes and actions. Boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, treacherous, rash, and conceited. Does this describe the kind of world in which you want to live? I don’t think so! And yet this is exactly the kind of world we have. That is because we have love misdirected. Love the Lord with everything first. Then love your neighbor as yourself. That is love correctly directed.
The Arnold Journey 