There is nothing wrong with a balanced view of pleasures. Jehovah does not want us to practice severe self-denial or to abstain from wholesome activities that bring enjoyment. The Bible encourages faithful ones: “Go, eat your food with rejoicing, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart.” (Eccl. 9:7) Second Timothy 3:4 refers to a pursuit of pleasures that excludes God. Notice that the verse does not say that people would love pleasures more than God, implying that they would have some love for him. It says ‘rather than God.’ One scholar wrote: “This [verse] definitely does not mean that they also love God to some extent. It means that they do not love God at all.” What a sobering warning to those who are nurturing an inordinate love of pleasures! The phrase “lovers of pleasures” aptly describes those who are “carried away by . . . pleasures of this life.”​—Luke 8:14. w18.01 25 ¶14-15