Today’s reading: Ezekiel 32; Philippians 2
The most selfish way for Christians to live is as selflessly as possible…
This is one of my favorite backwards truths of Christianity, and it’s true on so many levels. On the one hand, God says He will reward His followers in Heaven for their faithfulness on earth, and eternal rewards for a temporal investment will always be a better deal than we can really wrap our minds around. Imagine, for example, if you were offered $1000/day for the rest of your life for doing 30 minutes of hard work a single time. It wouldn’t matter how difficult the work was, the return would make it well more than worth it. In a very real sense, this life will barely register as a blip on the timeline of eternity, making it even better of an investment to live selflessly, even if there was no return on the investment in this life. However, as true as that is, living selflessly, even if it was for this life only, is still, ironically, the most selfish way we could live.
One way this is true, we talked about the other day, is God’s promise to bless us materially when we are generous. Like we talked about, while a lot of churches shy away from teaching that too boldly for fear of sounding like a predatory health and wealth church, the fact of the matter is that we are taught clearly and plainly that the more we show ourselves faithful stewards of God’s resources, the more of His resources He will entrust to us to continue to be faithful with. God doesn’t promise to give us more simply to enrich us, but so that we might have more to give. The fact of the matter is, the most foolproof way to ensure we always have enough is not having a large enough stock portfolio or sufficiently diversified investments, but is to be consistently and sacrificially generous, because that is when God Himself promises He will personally ensure all of our material needs are always met.
But another way this is true comes out of our reading this morning in Philippians 2. Paul tells us:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
We tend to get caught up in making sure our own needs are met, maybe willing to be available to others once we have our own ducks in a row first, but imagine a community taking what Paul says here seriously. If you have a need, big or small, who is better equipped to handle it, you operating alone, or an entire community of people, including you, operating together? Obviously, an entire community will be better equipped in skills, resources, experience, perspective, etc. to deal with really any issue or need than any single individual could possibly be. Especially because Paul doesn’t instruct his readers to ignore their own needs, but to not look out only for their own interests.
The fact of the matter is, for an individual, this is a risk. What if you decide to expend some of your time, energy, and money helping meet the needs of others, but nobody else does the same? On the one hand, we belong to the Lord who promises that He will not allow our needs to go unmet when the reason we are not able to meet them is because we have invested ourselves in what he has called us to, so that does mitigate some of the risk involved. But on the other hand, even if we are the first one, within our Christian community, willing to take this seriously, we cannot discount the Holy Spirit’s power and influence to draw others to recognize and follow our example. Plus, those who are served, having some of their needs met by others, are necessarily freed up to some degree to help others with less risk. And as this catches on in a community, the reality is that all needs and interests of those in the community can be met so much more easily, efficiently, and enjoyably than if everyone continues to selfishly focus only on themselves.
This is just another way in which, as a Christian, the most selfish way to live is actually to live selflessly.
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