In Paul's vice catalog describing last-days characteristics (2 Timothy 3:2-4), φιλόθεοι provides the sharp contrast: people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The compound (φίλος + θεός = loving + God) names the supreme allegiance that should order all others. Classical Greek employed it for pious devotion; the New Testament stakes everything on it. One's true beloved reveals itself through choices—whom or what receives our first affections? The positioning of this term opposite multiple disordered loves suggests love's zero-sum nature: we cannot serve two masters.