In a world obsessive about “more,” we’re ravenous for what truly matters.
Endless consumption and self-promotion define our culture, growing more with social media and the influencer type culture. A number of years ago, in 2017, a British First Choice study, young people were asked, “What do you would like to be while you grow up?” Over 70% answered with some form of fame and recognition online.
Our society continuously tells us happiness is present in having more—money, possessions, recognition, or all three. However, beneath the surface of a “me-centered” culture lies a spiritual eager for the things of this world can’t touch or satisfy. In the Gospel Coalition podcast, the hosts discuss how materialism and self-centeredness isn’t a cultural issue but a human one, revealing a deeper issue of the soul. When we give in to the selfishness and materialism of the world, we reject what really matters and can give us everlasting joy as a substitute of temporary, fleeting pleasures. Those pleasures don’t last and leave us empty.
Through Christ, God calls us to what is going to last, the advantages and rewards of substance and reality. And yet we live in a world bombarding us with a special message.
How can we live as Christians in such a selfish world? We must first expose the core problem.
The Choice of Self
It all began with the Fall. Adam and Eve’s disobedience was selecting self over God.
The first humans lived in perfect relationship with God within the Garden of Eden. Everything was provided, they usually had direct contact with the Creator and access to the Tree of Life—an emblem of Christ, the source of everlasting life (John 14:6, Revelation 22:2). Despite having all the things, Eve selected the serpent’s lie that she lacked something. She and Adam selected their very own understanding and desires over God, and humanity fell into the character of sin and death, severing the proper intimacy with the Lord they needed.
Along with losing their intimacy with God, they lost their created purpose. Made in God’s image, the Lord meant for them to be stewards of creation and spread his loving rule and reign over the remainder of the earth.
Satan had rejected God’s rule, in search of his own glory over the Creator, and the Devil enacted a method to shift Adam and Eve’s focus from God to themselves. He introduced doubt in God’s goodness (Genesis 3:1) and promised they may very well be equal to the Lord (Genesis 3:5), each great deceptions from pride. Adam and Eve disobeyed and placed their very own pondering and perception above God’s truth. This was greater than breaking an easy rule; by partaking within the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they declared their independence from God. They sought a success aside from God, which doesn’t exist. They selected the self over God, they usually received the results God promised. Sin and Death entered their lives, and the world suffers entropy in consequence. God solid them from Eden’s perfect paradise, from his presence and the Tree of Life that gave immortality.
Fortunately, God made one other promise, a plan of redemption to return the Tree of Life to humanity through Christ, restoring what was lost.
The Devil, the Flesh, and the World
From the Fall, all humans live selfishly, and this mindset rules the world and its systems. We have all been born into this world and have suffered from its effects. As a results of the Fall, the Bible says we face three predominant enemies, working together to guide people away from God and deeper into sin—the Devil, the flesh, and the world (Ephesians 2:1-3).
It begins with the Devil, the source, humanity’s oldest enemy. He has at all times tried to guide people away from God. Jesus called him “the daddy of lies” and a “murderer from the start” (John 8:44) due to his deceptions that result in death. Satan still operates this manner, tempting people to doubt God, query his goodness, and pursue their very own pleasures and self-glory as a substitute of the Lord’s. Satan not only tempts and influences individuals but entire cultures and governments with philosophies, false religions, and selfish living. Paul warns us how Satan “blinds the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4), keeping them from accepting the reality.
Humanity willingly participates in his from our nature and desires. When we act in accordance with lies, we elect to be children of Satan (also in John 8:44). Paul calls this the flesh, or the sin nature, and it’s hostile to God (Romans 8:7), and the flesh results in behavior that destroys life like sexual immorality, impurity, hatred, jealously, selfish ambition (Galatians 5:19-21). The “flesh” doesn’t mean our physical bodies but our wants and desires, what 1 John 2:16 calls “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” The Devil’s temptations work because our “flesh” craves to please itself, which matches against God’s rule and love. These destructive behaviors hurt us, others, and creation, resulting in cycles of death and harm.
The world, biblically, doesn’t confer with the physical planet earth. Rather, it means the systems and structures created by sinful humanity. Because persons are naturally self-centered, the societies we construct express and manifest selfishness. Governments, economies, entertainment, and social mores are sometimes influenced or infused with greed, power, and pursuing pleasures. Rather than in search of God’s Kingdom, we construct our own, symbolized within the Bible by the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and empires like Babylon. In these false, temporary kingdoms, justice is corrupted, truth is suppressed, and evil is defined nearly as good.
Thankfully, through Christ, we now have another choice. There’s hope.
Christ, the New Creation, and the Kingdom
When we repent, we return to the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ, and that is the one solution to humanity’s separation from God. Christ transforms us and provides us a special path than Satan, the flesh, and the world.
First, through repentance, we trade the source from Satan to Christ. Our repentance rejects the Devil’s rule, and we embrace Christ as our source of identity, truth, and life. Jesus said, “I’m the way in which, the reality, and the life,” the one method to the Father (John 14:16). Christ doesn’t only say true things, he’s truth. When we follow him, he frees us from the lies and brings us into the sunshine of fellowship with God (John 8:12) as a substitute of darkness. Now we take heed to God’s voice as a substitute of the enemy’s lies.
Second, now in Christ, we trade our sinful nature for the indwelling Spirit. We don’t just get forgiveness; Christ makes us recent creations. “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a recent creation; the old has passed away, behold, the brand new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The flesh used to manage us, enslave us, but now in Christ, we get a recent heart and the Holy Spirit to empower us to live and follow the divine.
Being born again isn’t being a greater person, it’s a supernatural and miraculous transformation. The old self dies. We kill selfishness, embracing self-sacrifice like Jesus, and with the brand new self in Jesus, we discover a recent, everlasting life that satisfies us with intimacy and purpose, all we long for. The battle against temptation still exists, but God invites us into Christ’s victory over sin and death (from the crucifixion and resurrection), living completely reliant upon him.
Third, God’s redemptive plan has a goal, not individuals but a people. The original design was for a people, Adam and Eve in a growing family of affection and righteousness, people made in God’s image. Now we now have the Kingdom of God, heaven expressed on earth through a people we call the church—gathered born again believers who are actually God’s home. Upon repentance, we turn into spiritual children of God, residents and inheritors of a recent, everlasting kingdom (Philippians 3:20).
As residents of heaven, we don’t conform to the selfish patters of the world (Romans 12:2). Instead of chasing power, control, wealth, and pleasures, we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he guarantees to then look after all our needs (Matthew 6:33). As our goals shift from our being self-centered to following Christ in obedience, we turn into ambassadors of the Kingdom, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to a world in darkness. We love others, see others free of the oppressions of the Devil, the flesh, and the world. Such freedom is just present in Christ.
How and Why Do We Live Selflessly?
All this sounds great, right? But how can we practically live for Christ in such a dark and selfish world?
First, we die to our self to search out real life. Jesus made it clear. To follow him, we must deny ourselves. “If anyone desires to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross day by day, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) This means rejecting our natural desires and submitting to God’s will, understanding he alone is sweet and his will results in one of the best. As Paul said, “I even have been crucified with Christ, and I now not live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) The world teaches self-preservation. As my mentor used to say, even a roach tries to flee getting squished by a shoe. But after we hand over our life, we go contrary to the death of the world and find the lifetime of the Kingdom.
Second, this takes humility. Pride seeks its own way, but humility willingly bows to God and trusts his provision. We trust him to preserve and supply for us as a substitute of our own abilities. Paul teaches in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others higher than yourselves. Each of you need to look not only to your individual interests but additionally the interests of others.” Jesus set the instance. Though he was God, he became human and lived as a servant, humbling himself even to the death on a humiliating cross (Philippians 2:5-8). As the Son of God didn’t claim his own rights but gave to save lots of others, how rather more should we? In this, we may even reap the identical endlessly and resurrected rewards as little children of the Father.
Third, we must walk by the Spirit. When we live by the Spirit, he leads us to obey God and resist our lusts. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you may not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit gives us power to decide on love, joy, and righteousness over sin. We must follow his lead moment by moment, listening to his voice. As we walk with him, he produces fruit through us to assist others.
Fourth, this fruit comes from living selflessly and modeling Jesus’ love and generosity. Christ gave his time, healing and bringing relief of every kind to those in need. He ultimately gave his life, not out of some form of love of pain but so others could live and be reconciled to the Father. He calls us to do the identical. “Love each other as I even have loved you.” (John 13:34) We don’t have to save lots of up our resources or seek attention or affection because God loves and provides for us from his heavenly resources, allowing us to be radically generous and loving.
Fourth and eventually, we live selflessly because God rewards those that do. Because of obedience, God gave Jesus “the name above all names.” (Philippians 2:9) At the identical time, God guarantees to reward those that serve him. In this life, he gives us his peace, a purpose, and provides for our needs. For eternity, he makes us inheritors of his kingdom in a recent heaven and recent earth (Revelation 22). We live selflessly knowing God is with us now, helping us endure, and waiting for what he’s promised.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/AaronAmat
