Am I Selfish

By: David Hopkins

Tue, May 13, 2008

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." "This is the first and great commandment." "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Question, how can you keep the greatest two commandments of God listed in the scriptures above if you're always thinking about yourself?

The answer is you can't!

According to these verses you should be thinking about how to please and serve God all of the time and this includes splitting the time you think about pleasing yourself with thinking about and pleasing other people, which is also the second greatest commandment.

Some "Christians" have fallen for the idea that when the Bible says that the second greatest commandment is, "Love your neighbor as yourself.", it means that before you can keep this commandment, you must learn to love yourself.

This is not so, the real intent of the Scripture, then, is that, since you already love yourself, your love for your neighbor should be at least equal to this.

Imagine if you spent less time thinking about what you will eat, how you will pay bills, what you will put on, and things of this nature.

You would then have more time to think about serving God and helping others in conjunction with the tasks you already do for yourself everyday.

Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

The Bible also teaches that one should keep a humble opinion of himself. In Romans 12:3, Paul wrote, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought." and in Philippians 2:3, "...in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself."

God obviously doesn't like proud boasters and people who seek to build themselves up at the expense of others.

Therefore when you do good things for other people do not do it out of pressure or for you own personal gain but without thinking about yourself point out the good qualities of that person instead of comparing their qualities to yours.

Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.

Jesus said "deny yourself" in which I take to mean deny yourself of the pleasures of this world that are sin in order to live Holy.

It could also mean to refuse to believe in or accept your own ability to live a good life without Jesus and to give everything to God to take care of, which would be the appropriate way to live.

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

In conclusion if you want to be on the side of God by not being selfish its important to keep your mind off of your problems (Ph. 4:8-9). Equally consider the needs of others with your own needs (Mt.22:39) Take no thought for your life. (Mt. 6:25) Esteem others better than yourself. (Ph. 2:3) And to deny yourself by not giving in to the pleasures of sin. (Mt.16:24).