Selflessness: An Urgent Need

Note:  I’ll be back with you on Monday, December 5th

Chuckle: Advantage of aging -- "Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either!"

Quote: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." --Andrew Murray

"Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't (be conceited) think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing" (Philippians 2:3-4 NLT).

How would you describe yourself -- selfish or selfless? Here, Paul reminds us that nothing should ever be done or considered out of selfishness or conceit. Selfishness is placing undue emphasis on one's own interest at the expense of others. A selfish person seeks to assert one's own will as opposed to submission to God's will. Selfishness can ruin a church fellowship, but genuine humility and selflessness can build it up. We are to lay aside all selfish motives and treat others with respect and courtesy. Jesus would have us consider others above ourselves.

Conceit is boastful pride. It makes great claims for self and disparages others. It honors oneself by (1) valuing our own opinions rather than truth, (2) advancing our selfish agenda rather than the gospel of Christ, and (3) adding to our own importance rather than to preserving the peace of the church.

The solution to the problem of selfishness and conceit is the practice of genuine "humility." This word denotes a spiritual grace, the opposite of selfishness. It is self-forgetfulness. Humble people know and accept themselves and feel no need for self-aggrandizement. They recognize their own faults and are too busy dealing with those to find fault in others. Jesus said, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3 NIV). Jesus is teaching us not to judge our brothers and sisters but recognize our own faults and deal with them first of all. After we ask God to forgive our own faults, we will no longer notice the faults of our brothers and sisters.

The only rivalry which is proper in Christians is that which each seeks to outdo the other in esteeming the other. One is not to be concerned about receiving honors or advantages for himself. He is to be concerned that his brethren be honored and served. --Frank Stagg.

The true Christian spirit is self-renunciation, not self-assertion; it is concern for others, not concern for self and one's rights. Paul's exhortation reiterates Jesus' command: "As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34b). Living in a manner worthy of the gospel means that Christians maintain a healthy respect for, a authentic love for, and genuine interest in, one another.

Love, Jerry & Dotse