Blinded, Part VII

One of the key elements to love is sacrifice and selflessness. Jesus Christ crucified proves this. Salvation is through Christ only but it is up to us to realize that He does not provide the gift without an expectation of service to His Kingship. How do we serve? Spreading the love that He commanded us to spread on all those we can. Love is the commandment we live by and no other for all else (if there be any other law) it is fulfilled in Christ and we are free from the law of Moses.

Selfishness or self indulgence is the enemy of our heart. Our heart turns to bitterness as time goes on without the presence of love in our heart that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. However, the Spirit is not going to force you to love... it can only influence. The choice is still ours as Christians. God will never violate our free will by forcing us to do what we do not desire to do.

Selfishness is the seed of hate, turning the heart to stone. Making us unable to bear fruit for God's glory and blinding us to the truth of His light.

^{Matthew 23:25}

²⁵"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Blinded, Part VI

Jesus says that there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends. Indeed, there is no greater love than this. Love is easy to recognize because it usually costs us something. Sacrifice is a true expression of love. Jesus being the perfect picture of love in that He sacrificed His life for ours shows us what true love is.

Selfishness on the other hand blacks out the heart. We become so consumed by our desires, goals, and happiness that we overlook the needs of others. We become blind to love. We become incapable of love. God does not want us to be that way but as Paul describes He wants us to be prepared for every good work. Preparation is in the sanctification of the Christian. Setting aside our own personal goals, ambitions, desires, pride, and happiness to seek out the needs of others. This is how we become ready and prepared to produce fruit for God. Sacrifice, patience, kindness, humility, weakness, and mercy are all components of God's true love.

The ironic thing is that as we spend our energy and lives on others we feel like we leave all hope of ever having any true happiness or joy in our own lives but in actuality we learn over time that this is the only way to attain happiness and true joy. You will never be happy until you decide to stop spending so much time making your life what you want it to be and instead (in humility) start to live life for other people. We are not just simply individuals but a body and a community.

^{Isaiah 42:16}

¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.

Blinded, Part V

Selfless actions and sacrifices for others are part of the essence of love. God's love is plainly seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is important as Christians that we grow in this principle. To forget self for a minute and think on others is what we should be motivated by. Did Christ not do this for us? Jesus gave up all for us and then commanded us to shine the light of that love on others. The evidence of this is our good works toward the brotherhood of man.

It is about community and being part of something bigger. Selfishness blinds us to this love. We aimlessly (almost unaware) don't even realize the needs of others all around us. Self indulgence white washes compassion... hardening the heart. Gradually, we may become bitter, envious, resentful, mean, depressed, anxious, and hateful of others. Sadly, for some, it becomes their life obsession to belittle others and even think of ways to scheme against others and slander them. Selflessness has a great deal to do with humility which is why it is so important.

As a matter of fact, selflessness, humility, patience, forgiveness, peace, and faith are all elements of love. They are all interconnected. They are evidence of our love or expressions of our own love for God. Hate is the opposite of all these things. Arrogance, pride, selfishness, competition, revenge,vanity, greed, and malice are all forms of hate.

Luke 17:33

33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Blinded, Part IV

It is clear from the Bible that the word of God is teaching us about community and not individuality. It promotes the ideal of love. The same love that Jesus and God the Father has for us. It is a love unconditional that is patient, kind, and selfless. This is proven in what Jesus did for us on the cross, dying for us and in our place as an act of sacrificial love. In this example, more than any other, we see God's will and desire for our lives.

We come to understand that this is the light that He is talking about sharing with others. Love is going to take some sacrifice of your time, attention, heart, money, and energy. It is changing your mind and going in a different direction. Changing your mind to stop feeding your lusts and satisfying your cravings and to turn towards living for others.

James 3:13-18

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Blinded, Part III

As we talked about in the last post (Blinded, Part II), selfishness without self-control is evil. Selfishness is necessary for our survival and the urges that we get (such as hunger) are there for our good. God designed us to be selfish to a certain extent for the furtherance of our species. It is when selfish desire becomes something other than what God intended that it becomes dangerous.

At some point selfishness and our constant desire for more of what we do not have hurts others or is against others. We should be content with the basic necessities of life and Paul mentions this in his writings. To overindulge beyond this ideal is dangerous and eventually spawns emotions like jealousy, hate, malice, pride, arrogance, survival of the fittest, independence, and at the worst point can even lead people to have thoughts of murder.

When you see the news these days, do you ever wonder how someone in the news could have killed their children or their wife or their co-workers? You do not really want to know the answer to that question because many of them (except in some extreme cases) were once just like you and me. Murder started with a small chain of events. An selfish motive. It may have (and often does) started out very innocent and seemingly harmless but what it becomes is evil at his climax. This is why Paul begs us to stay rooted and grounded in love because love is patient, kind, and compassionate.

Philippians 2:1-4

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.