I wish to encourage you to live selfless lives for Jesus Christ.
It’s an indisputable fact, we live in a self-consumed society. Every form of selfishness pervades society’s values so much so, that it has become the norm for worldly morals. However, this is not true of those who live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ!
One of the most significant and publicly noticeable character traits of any Christian is that of selflessness. Jesus taught selflessness when He proclaimed the second most important commandment; “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31). The depth of God’s salvation is experienced “according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). One of the many visible evidences of genuine spiritual rebirth is that you will desire to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
You see, when Jesus Christ moves into a repentant sinner’s life as Lord, there is radical change, beginning with their own view of self. The world will observe you as a new believer putting “off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). This is what it means to be a Christian, a lover of Jesus Christ, a willing servant of the Lord.
Jesus manifested the greatest degree of selflessness when contemplating the sacrificing of His own life on the cross by praying; “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Likewise, we are to “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).
While selflessness is counter to our culture, it is central and intrinsically the desire of trustworthy Christian character. This is to be the deepest of our heart’s desire as those who dare to claim we love Jesus Christ as personal Lord. Having surrendered all your internal attitudes of indifference to God, the authentic Christian desires to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
I wish to encourage you to have the courage of faith to be different to the world, be selfless by extending the love of Jesus Christ to others for the glory of God. Remember, that when you put trusting faith in Jesus Christ, you were saying, like the apostle Paul; “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Together, let’s live selfless lives for Jesus Christ, and for the benefit of others.