THE REMEDY FOR SELFISHNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along.

I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the Good News.

I hope to send him to you just as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me here. And I have confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon.

Philippians 2:19-24 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As I look at society today, it’s extremely troubling to see how self-centered we have become as a people. Instead of what was a “we and us” culture, we have digressed into a “me and I” one where looking out for number one (yourself) has replaced looking out for others. Charity has been replaced by selfishness.

Unfortunately, this attitude has crept into the church as well. Instead of congregants within a body of Christ caring for one another with the love of Christ, we too often find segregation and competition as people seek to find and keep power by position. Even pastoral care, once the hallmark of good church leadership after sound preaching, has gone by the wayside. Ministers can’t seem to find it within themselves to spend time with the afflicted members of their flock anymore, behavior that is beyond Christ-like.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a twenty-first century issue as we see in our scripture passage today drawn from the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. For within his praise for Timothy, the young man who Paul mentored in the Gospel ministry, we find the Apostle make this statement:

All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. v.21

This is a very strong testimony to the state of affairs among the people of Paul’s day and it obviously was as much a concern for him as it should be for us today.

So what’s the solution?

How can we hope to turn things around and get back to being the people God intends for us to be, a people who are self sacrificing and not self serving?

Go back to verse 21 and we find Paul providing the answer.

For if the people in his day were caring only for themselves because they refused to do what mattered to Christ Jesus, then our way back to unity and loving kindness toward one another is to make sure we are living as Christ Jesus did for this is what matters to Him.

Think about it. If you profess yourself to be a believer of Jesus Christ, then you are a Christian and this means that you are to be Christ-like in the way you live and that means life isn’t about you but rather what you can do to help others.

If Jesus was self centered, He would have never been willing to lay His life down to save us from our sins. Instead, He would have carried out the urgings of those who told Him to save Himself. But our Savior wasn’t like that. It was always more important to care for others first, even if it meant dying for them.

Friends, our only hope to solve the issue of selfishness is Jesus. Let’s all commit ourselves to better do whatever matters to Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com