When the Lord Jesus came to
earth, He performed the most amazingly selfless act that this world has ever
seen. He voluntarily chose to take the sins of humankind upon Himself at the
cross. Nor were His sufferings in crucifixion merely physical and mental. In
some way that we are not able to properly understand, He also suffered
spiritually for sinful and doomed humanity.
Called to follow Christ in His unselfishness
As Christians, we are
called to follow in Christ’s unselfish footsteps. In Philippians 2:5-11, for
example, Paul instructs the Christians at Philippi
to imitate His self-giving for others. This is a command that certainly also applies
to every Christian today.
Unlike some sinful
tendencies which badly affect only some people, selfishness is something that
strongly affects every human being. Even after we are saved and receive the
Holy Spirit, and He rolls up His sleeves and gets to work purifying us morally,
it is surely true that before death not one of us will ever be free of a
significant tendency to be selfish. The problem is too deep seated for that.
To be unselfish is also to
act very differently from the average man or woman on the street. It is to put
the interests of God and others before our own interests, and the world simply
doesn’t act in that way very much. Even when people do things for others, the motive
usually includes a large selfish component. People’s main motivation for
helping others is often, for example, to be noticed by others or to feel good
about themselves.
For Christians to act genuinely
unselfishly, then, is to swim not only against a strong current inside
ourselves that is pulling us in the opposite direction, but also against
another parallel current that consists of the example of most of the people
around us.
Nevertheless, we are
commanded to be perfect (Matthew 5:48 ). So, impossible though that goal may be to
reach, we must pursue it as far as we are able. And that includes pursuing
perfect unselfishness.
Tempted to believe what we want to believe
One way in which we are all
tempted to be selfish is by believing what we want to believe.
I write articles on a range
of Christian topics, and I often look on the internet and elsewhere to see what
views Christians hold on various things. I am frequently pained, and not
infrequently appalled, by the shallow, simplistic arguments that professing
Christians so often make to support some case or other. Time and time again I
am left with the strong impression that people claiming to be Christians – and I
am sure some of them will be genuinely born again – are just believing what
they want to believe on a topic.
We are all under obligation
to put everything to the test to the best of our ability (1 Thessalonians 5:21 ). And whenever we find
that we believe something we want to believe, that is the time to be especially
careful. That is the time to examine our hearts to see if we might have fallen
into the trap of simply selfishly believing what we want to. That is the time
to make as sure as we can that the reasons we believe what we do about the
issue in question are strong and well grounded. Or, if we think that God has
spoken to us in some way, that is the time to ask ourselves if we are sure it
was the voice of God we heard and not something else.
I think many Christians
show a real lack of fear of God in this area. There is a sense in which
everything we do should be done in fear and trembling before almighty God (Philippians
2:12; Hebrews 10:26-31 etc.). We should be keenly aware that He sees what is
going on in our hearts at the deepest level. And we need to realise too that we
will have to give an account to Him for every single thing we do (Matthew 12:36 ).
People of the world often just
believe what they want to about things, and provide unconvincing arguments to
make their case. Christians need to be very different in this respect. If we
are really wrestling with issues unselfishly, we can expect to find that the
conclusions we reach are often uncomfortable or even painful. They will frequently
be ones that go against what we want.
Imitating the Lord
In the garden of Gethsemane 14:32 -36 etc.). However, unselfishly
He submitted His situation to His Father and reached the conclusion that He did
indeed have to choose to suffer what was coming. Despite the enormous cost, He didn’t
choose just to believe what He wanted to believe about the will of God for
Himself at that time, but said, “Not My will but Yours be done.”
Let us all, in some weak
imitation of what the Lord did at Gethsemane, resolve never simply to believe
what we want to believe about a decision we need to take, a controversial
issue, or anything else. Rather, let us do everything we can to believe what is
true, regardless of whether it is or is not what we want to hear.
See also:
