Unselfishness

Where are the good works? Where the acts of service? What happened to that hospitality that we Christians were once famous for? What has happened to our eyes, that we are blinded to the needs around us? What’s become of our hearts, once so attuned to others and anxious to serve?

Where is the forgetting of ourselves that should be taking place, where we are no longer important but other’s needs are considered more important than our own?

“Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. ‘Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s sear; I am. Don’t run from suffering, embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Matthew 16.24-26, MSG)

Simple unselfishness is what’s it’s called. Simple is not what we have made it. Simple is the mindset given by grace that seeks continually the things above, not the things below.

“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ -- that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life -- even though invisible to spectators -- is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too -- the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.”(Colossians 3.1-4, MSG)

Who lives like this, really? Content with obscurity?? That’s ridiculous these days. First, do everything you can not to be obscure, and second, don’t be content until you’re well known! But that’s not the way of Christ, brethren, not even close.

“And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger.”

This is the way we have grown up into; materialism, greed, selfishness, self-preservation. The age of “me”, as my padre calls it. But we can’t just sit around partaking in this and blaming the world around us, we really can’t expect them to do anything different. But us, now we are the ones who should know better.

“It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ -- the Message -- have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives -- words, actions, whatever -- be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.” (Colossians 3.5-17, MSG)

Each of us has this responsibility and obligation on our lives, to live in love as a genuine response to what God has done for us. We owe Him everything….

The thing is, His way is better. It honestly is. Everything He’s ever instructed us to do, through commandments and scripture’s exhortation, is for our personal good as well as the good of the kingdom. We’ll be better off if we stop trying so hard to make our own way.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16. 25, NASB)