Introduction

There is a recurring biblical question beneath many of Scripture’s warnings about idolatry, pride, and rebellion: Who occupies the center? Scripture presents humanity as created to receive life, identity, purpose, and blessing from the Creator.

Yet again and again, we see the creature turning inward—seeking its own glory, trusting its own wisdom, pursuing its own desires, and eventually treating the self as though it were worthy of the allegiance that belongs to God.

This study follows that trajectory from the ambition of “let us make a name for ourselves,” to Paul's description of those who “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,” to the sobering portrait of people who become “lovers of self” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

Scripture exposes something deeper than isolated acts of disobedience. It reveals a contest of love, worship, allegiance, and identity—and asks what happens when the creature refuses to remain content being the creature.

I. Judgment That Confirms a Trajectory

Revelation 22:11 - “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

At first glance, this sounds almost shocking. Why would God say, “Let the evildoer still do evil”? The context is crucial. Revelation 22 is at the threshold of the final consummation. The angel has just told John, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.”

Then comes verse 11, followed immediately by Jesus' declaration:

Revelation 22:12 - “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.”

So verse 11 is not a command for people to become evil. It is a declaration of finality. There comes a point when the unveiling of God's kingdom no longer functions as an invitation to change one's allegiance. The person's settled character is revealed, and judgment confirms what that person has become.

Filthy - ῥυπαρός (rhyparos)

The basic sense is dirty, filthy, soiled, defiled, morally impure. It comes from ῥύπος (rhypos), meaning dirt, filth, uncleanness. But there is an interesting nuance here: ῥυπαρός can describe both literal dirtiness and moral defilement.

In Revelation 22:11, the context is clearly ethical/spiritual rather than merely physical. There is an especially important connection to James 1:21, where James uses the related noun:

James 1:21 - “Therefore put away all filthiness (ῥυπαρία) and rampant wickedness…”

So Revelation's “filthy” is not simply saying, “these people have behaved badly.” It carries the imagery of something contaminated or soiled that remains in that condition.

🧼 The connection to Revelation's “washing”

This becomes particularly striking because only a few verses later Revelation says:

Revelation 22:14 - “Blessed are those who wash their robes…”

Now put the two statements together: ῥυπαρός — filthy/defiled versus “wash their robes.” That creates a powerful contrast at the very end of Scripture: those who remain defiled remain defiled, those who are washed are blessed.

The issue is not simply external behavior. It is a person's moral/spiritual condition and trajectory. The adjective ῥυπαρός occurs only twice in the New Testament:

• James 2:2 — describing “shabby clothing” / dirty clothing
• Revelation 22:11 — “the filthy”

That James occurrence is useful because it demonstrates the concrete meaning: something visibly soiled or degraded. Revelation takes that physical imagery and applies it morally. And there is an even deeper word-picture when we place it beside:

Revelation 7:14 - “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

So Revelation's final contrast can almost be pictured as:

• ῥυπαρός — remaining soiled
  ⬇️
• washed robes — cleansed
  ⬇️
• white — purified
  ⬇️
• His name on their foreheads — belonging to Him

The person who insists upon retaining the self as the center ultimately remains defiled; the person who yields allegiance to the Creator is washed, identified with His Name, and brought into His presence.

🪞 The same pattern, earlier in Scripture

Paul describes something remarkably similar:

Romans 1:28 - “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

They reject God → God gives them over → their minds become corrupted → their behavior follows.

Three times in Romans 1, Paul uses the language of God “giving them over”:

• Romans 1:24 — God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts.
• Romans 1:26 — God gave them over to dishonorable passions.
• Romans 1:28 — God gave them over to a debased mind.

God's judgment is not merely God actively imposing evil upon them. It is, in part, God withdrawing restraint and allowing their chosen direction to reach its natural destination. And that sheds considerable light on Revelation 22:11.

⚖️ “Let them remain…”

Romans 1 presents the process, Revelation 22 presents the endpoint.

• In Romans: “God gave them over…”
• In Revelation: “Let the evildoer still do evil…”

The trajectory has reached its terminus. Romans 1 shows humanity progressively becoming what it has chosen, Revelation 22 shows humanity fixed in what it has become.

That makes Revelation 22:11 considerably more sobering than merely, “Some people will be bad at the end.” The picture is closer to: What you continually surrender yourself to, you eventually become.

🧠 The connection becomes even stronger through Romans 1:21–25

Paul gives the mechanism:

Romans 1:21 - “Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him…”

Then: knowledge → refusal → distorted thinking → idolatry → distorted desires → distorted behavior.

Romans 1:25 - “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…”

The fundamental problem isn't initially behavioral, it is allegiance. They exchange the Creator for creation. And once allegiance is misplaced, the rest of life reorganizes around that false center.

That resonates remarkably with the final chapter of Revelation.

🌳 Revelation 22 reverses the Romans 1 trajectory

There is almost a biblical bookend here. Romans 1 describes humanity moving away from the Creator: Creator → rejected → exchanged → corrupted → given over.

Revelation 22 describes humanity finally arriving at the restored presence of God: God → Lamb → throne → river of life → tree of life → God's servants → God's face.

And in that restored creation, there are two fundamentally different trajectories:

• “Let the evildoer still do evil…”
• “Let the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

God's final judgment doesn't just distinguish between people who have done good things and people who have done bad things, it reveals what kind of people they have insisted on becoming.

🔥 The frightening possibility: judgment as confirmation

This is where Revelation 22:11 and Romans 1:28 converge most powerfully. There is a kind of judgment in which God says, in effect: You have persistently refused Me. I will no longer attempt to guide you in the opposite direction.

Romans calls it παρέδωκεν — paredōken, “gave over,” “handed over.” Revelation's “let” carries the same conceptual force of cessation of restraint. And this is why Paul's warning is so severe.

God's grace does not mean that human choices have no consequences. Grace invites repentance; persistent rebellion progressively hardens the person against repentance.

✨ The danger is not simply doing something wrong, the danger is becoming someone who does not want to be made right. ✨

🪨 Compare this with Pharaoh

This also helps illuminate the complicated language concerning Pharaoh. Exodus repeatedly says both Pharaoh hardened his own heart and God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Those aren't necessarily competing explanations.

There is a terrifying biblical pattern: Repeated resistance → increasing hardness → divine judgment → further confirmation of the hardened condition.

God's judgment can therefore involve confirming a person in the direction he has persistently chosen. That is very close to Romans 1. And Revelation 22 represents the ultimate endpoint of that pattern.

🌱 But notice the other half of Revelation 22:11

This is easy to miss. The verse doesn't only say, “Let the evildoer still do evil.” It also says, “Let the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” The principle works in both directions.

What Romans 1 depicts negatively—God giving people over to the consequences of their trajectory—Revelation depicts eschatologically as the final establishment of identity.

The wicked are no longer moving toward righteousness. The righteous are no longer threatened by corruption. The holy remain holy. The trajectory has become permanent.

👑 And then Jesus says: “I am coming soon”

This is perhaps the most important contextual point. Revelation 22:11 isn't an abstract philosophical statement about human nature. It sits immediately before, “Behold, I am coming soon…”

Jesus' arrival makes the distinction final. There is an urgency embedded in the passage: Today there is still opportunity to repent. But Revelation is looking toward the moment when opportunity gives way to consummation.

That makes Romans 1:28 a warning for the present, while Revelation 22:11 shows the final horizon of the warning. The movement is sobering:

• Romans 1:28 - God gives them over. ⬇
• Revelation 22:11 - Let the evildoer still do evil. ⬇
• Revelation 22:12 - “I am coming soon.” ⬇
• Revelation 22:14 - Blessed are those who wash their robes.

The door of repentance is still open before the Judge arrives. And that makes the Christian proclamation profoundly hopeful rather than frightening: the answer to being “given over” is not trying harder to manage the symptoms, it is returning one's allegiance to the Creator.

II. 🪞 From Worshiping Creation to Worshiping Self

Romans 1:25 - “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

Idolatry is ultimately a transfer of glory from the Creator to the creature—and self-worship is the creature making itself the beneficiary and center of that stolen glory.

The Greek contrast is stark: τὸν κτίσαντα — ton ktisanta “the One who created” versus τῇ κτίσει — tē ktisei “the created thing / creature / creation.” The fundamental inversion is: The Creator exists for His glory; the creature begins acting as though the Creator's world exists for its glory.

That is precisely what makes self-worship so dangerous. The self is a creature. Therefore, when the self becomes the ultimate object of allegiance, the creature has effectively displaced the Creator.

🏗️ Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves”

Genesis 11 gives us an extraordinary concrete expression of Romans 1:25:

Genesis 11:4 - “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…”

Notice the possessive language: “ourselves,” “a name for ourselves.” Their project is not merely architectural. They are attempting to establish human significance apart from dependence upon God.

And the phrase “make a name” is especially revealing when placed beside God's dealings with Abraham. Immediately after Babel, God calls Abram:

Genesis 12:2 - “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great…”

Babel

• “Let us make a name for ourselves.”
• We will manufacture our own glory.

God to Abraham

• “I will make your name great.”
• Receive the identity and significance I give you.

That is the difference between self-exaltation and God-given identity.

👑 The issue isn't having a “great name”

This distinction matters. God isn't opposed to His creatures having significance, influence, beauty, achievement, reputation, or even a great name. He tells Abraham, “I will make your name great.”

The problem is who gets the glory and who gets the credit. Babel wants: Our name. Abraham receives: God's blessing → God's calling → God's reputation made manifest through him. This is why Scripture repeatedly redirects attention toward the Name of YHWH.

Psalm 34:3 - “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together!”

• Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves.”
• Psalm 34: “Let us exalt His name.”

Those are competing orientations of the human heart.

🌟 “For the glory of God”

Paul eventually gives us the positive alternative:

1 Corinthians 10:31 - “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

That is essentially the antidote to Romans 1:25. Romans 1: Creature → glory, biblical worship: Creator → glory. And therefore the fundamental question isn't simply, “Am I worshiping an idol?”

It can be much more subtle: “Who is ultimately being magnified by my life?” Because a person can reject literal statues while still constructing a life around the exaltation of the self.

🪞 Self-worship can disguise itself as success

This is where Babel becomes particularly relevant to modern life. Self-worship doesn't necessarily look like standing in front of a mirror saying, “I worship myself.” It can look like:

• I need to be admired.
• I need people to recognize what I've accomplished.
• I need my name associated with something important.
• I need to win so that I can prove my worth.
• I need recognition to feel significant.
• I cannot tolerate being overlooked.
• My reputation must be protected at all costs.
• My desires must ultimately prevail.

The underlying issue is not achievement, it is where the achievement terminates. Does it terminate in: “Look what I have made of myself.” or: “Look what God has done.”

The first bends glory inward, the second bends glory upward.

🐍 Babel is an echo of Eden

The serpent offers humanity an existence that appears to be self-defined and self-exalting with the promise that, “You will be like God…” The temptation is not simply eat forbidden fruit.

Its, you don't need to receive your identity from God, you can seize it for yourself. That is remarkably close to Babel.

• Eden: You can become like God.
• Babel: We can make a name for ourselves.
• Romans 1: The creature is worshiped rather than the Creator.

The recurring temptation is: Move the self from creaturely dependence into the center of reality.

✨ Jesus models the opposite posture

John 8:50 - “Yet I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it, and He is the judge.”

Jesus possesses unparalleled glory, yet He does not grasp after glory for Himself. That is the exact opposite of Babel. And John repeatedly presents the orientation of the Son, Jesus, as directing attention toward the Father:

John 12:28 - “Father, glorify Your Name.”

John 6:38: “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”

• Babel: “Make a name for ourselves.”
• Jesus: “Glorify Your Name.”

🕊️ And then Jesus gives that same orientation to His disciples

Matthew 5:16 - “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to Your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus does not say: Hide your good works. Nor does He say, make sure nobody notices you. He says, Let them see. But then He specifies the destination of the attention: “give glory to your Father.”

This is the crucial distinction between visibility and vanity. You can be highly visible without being self-worshiping. The question is: Where does the glory go?

🌳 This also illuminates Revelation

And now we can connect this back to the examination of Revelation 22:11. Romans 1 depicts humanity exchanging the Creator for the creature. Babel depicts humanity saying, “Let us make a name for ourselves.” But Revelation ends with redeemed humanity doing precisely the opposite.

Revelation 22:3–4 - “His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His Name will be on their foreheads.”

• Babel: We will make a name for ourselves.
• New Creation: His name is upon us.

Babel attempts to ascend and establish humanity's name. Revelation presents humanity receiving God's Name. The Bible's grand movement is therefore not humanity finally becomes impressive enough for God.

It is: Humanity stops trying to manufacture its own glory and becomes the people who bear the glory and Name of their Creator.

👑 The deepest reversal

This may be one of the clearest ways to understand the biblical definition of humility, which isn't, “I am worthless.” Biblical humility is closer to, “I am a creature, and He is the Creator. My life finds its meaning, identity, purpose, and glory in Him.”

That is why self-contempt can actually remain self-focused. The self can be obsessed with itself through either self-exaltation or self-condemnation. Both can keep the spotlight on me. Biblical worship moves the spotlight.

Psalm 115:1 - “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your Name give glory.”

That is practically the antithesis of Babel.

Babel: “Our name.”
Psalm 115: “Your Name.”
Romans 1: “Creature rather than Creator.”
Revelation 22: “His Name will be on their foreheads.”

And that brings us back to the terrifying logic of Romans 1: when the creature insists on occupying the place of the Creator, God may eventually give the creature over to that inversion.

Revelation 22:11 is the final picture of that trajectory becoming fixed—while the redeemed have undergone the opposite transformation: they no longer live for the greatness of their own name, but bear and reflect His.

III. Lovers of Self, Rather Than Lovers of God

2 Timothy 3:1-5 may be one of the clearest New Testament descriptions of what Romans 1:25 looks like when the creature becomes the center of its own existence. Paul's phrase is remarkably direct:

2 Timothy 3:2 - “People will be lovers of self, lovers of money… rather than lovers of God.”

The contrast is not merely between good behavior and bad behavior, it is between two objects of love: self ↔ God

🪞 “Lovers of self” is the inversion

Paul begins his catalog with: “lovers of self” — philautoi. The word combines philos (“loving”) with autos (“self”). Then he moves through a whole constellation of self-centered loves:

• lovers of self
• lovers of money
• proud
• arrogant
• abusive
• disobedient to parents
• ungrateful
• unholy
• heartless
• slanderous
• without self-control
• brutal
• not loving good
• treacherous
• reckless
• swollen with conceit
• lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

✨ “Lovers of self” functions almost like the root system beneath the list. ✨

Once the self becomes the supreme object of love, everything else can be reorganized around satisfying, protecting, elevating, and gratifying the self. The problem isn't simply that they love pleasure, it is that pleasure has displaced God as the supreme object of love.

🏗️ Babel → Romans → Timothy

Now the biblical pattern becomes remarkably coherent.

Genesis 11 - “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

The creature seeks its own glory.

Romans 1:25 - “They worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

The creature becomes the object of worship.

2 Timothy 3:2–4 - “Lovers of self… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

The creature becomes the object of love.

These aren't three unrelated problems, but three expressions of the same fundamental inversion: the self moves from being a worshiper of God to becoming the center around which worship, love, desire, and identity revolve.

❤️ The issue is ultimately love

Whatever we love most will increasingly determine what we pursue, protect, sacrifice for, celebrate, and obey. Jesus had already identified this principle:

Matthew 6:21 - “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

And Jesus identifies the first and greatest commandments as:

Matthew 22:37 - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Biblical discipleship therefore isn't just the suppression of self, it is the reordering of love, from self to God, prioritizing His thoughts, His eyes, and His ways. It's an overhaul of perception and perspective. It's Metanoia at it's greatest depth.

1 Kings 11:38 - “If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to Me and do what is right in My eyes by obeying My decrees and commands, as David My servant did, I will be with you.”

Isaiah 5:21 - “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.”

Proverbs 26:12 - “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them.”

Proverbs 28:11 - “The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.”

Psalm 36:1-3 - “I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good.”

From a way that seems right in our own eyes to the way that is right in God's eyes.

⚠️ Notice the religious camouflage

Perhaps the most sobering statement in the entire paragraph comes in verse 5: “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” These aren't necessarily people who have abandoned religion altogether, they can have “an appearance of godliness.”

✨ Self-worship doesn't always look irreligious.✨

A person can use God-language while remaining fundamentally oriented around self. Religion itself can become another instrument of self-exaltation. God can become a means toward self-actualization rather than the supreme object of love.

🌿 This clarifies what Christian self-denial means

Luke 9:23 - “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

Deny himself, not hate himself. Christian self-denial isn't declaring, “I have no value,” rather, “I am not my own highest authority, highest treasure, or highest object of love.”

The self isn't annihilated, it is reoriented. Instead of: self → self → self, the disciple learns: God → others → self (rightly ordered beneath God).

And ironically, this is where the self becomes most genuinely human.

🌟 The great biblical reversal

We can now put the passages together:

And there is something almost poetic about where Scripture ends.

• Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves.”
• Revelation: “His Name will be on their foreheads.”

The final redemption of humanity isn't humanity finally succeeding at making its own name great. It is humanity finally becoming completely comfortable with God's Name being great. That is the opposite of self-worship.

And perhaps the simplest diagnostic question arising from all these texts is:

✨ Am I using God to make much of myself, or am I allowing God to make much of Himself through me? ✨

Conclusion

Taken together, these passages reveal a remarkably consistent biblical trajectory. Babel declares, “Let us make a name for ourselves.” Romans 1 describes humanity exchanging the Creator for the creature. 2 Timothy 3 describes the resulting orientation as becoming “lovers of self” and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

The wedding banquet then gives us a sobering picture of someone who wants to participate in the King's celebration while refusing the garment the King provides. Revelation brings the trajectory to its final boundary: “Let the filthy still be filthy,” while those who have been washed and belong to the Lamb enter the fullness of God's presence.

The common thread is therefore deeper than behavior. It is what—or whom—we love, serve, glorify, and ultimately belong to. Self-worship is the creature attempting to occupy the Creator's place: seeking its own name, its own glory, its own pleasure, and its own terms.

Biblical worship moves in the opposite direction. “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your Name give glory.”

✨ The goal is not the destruction of the self, but its restoration to proper order: the creature gladly receiving its identity from the Creator and using its life to reflect His goodness rather than manufacture its own greatness. ✨

And Scripture's final image is especially beautiful when placed against Babel's opening declaration. Babel wanted to make a name for itself. Revelation ends with God's servants seeing His face, and “His Name on their foreheads.”

The story moves from the creature grasping for glory to the creature bearing the Creator's Name. What humanity tried to seize for itself is ultimately received as a gift.