If there is one thing most
people are interested in today it is “me, myself and I.”
Humility has been
replaced with pride. Selflessness has been replaced with selfishness, and grace
has been replaced with works.
We are so in love with ourselves,
it runs the gauntlet from comical, to sadness, to frightening, to sickening.
I’m just going to pick a few things out of the air to show what I mean.
· A woman is being raped and beaten in front of a crowd
of people and nobody offers to help her.
· TV commercials teach us to not share our food that we
buy from so-and-so sponsor because it is just SO good.
· We say “we” beat some disease or illness, but give no
credit to God.
· “That’s my parking space, and you had better not park
there.”
· “I really need this 70 inch TV a lot more than you
poor saps need anything from me.”
· “I am so good God could never refuse a great catch
like me.”
· “My wants are more important than your needs.”
· “I don’t care what the Bible says, society says it is
okay. I think it is okay, and I don’t want to hear any more about it.”
· “We are the greatest nation the world has ever seen.
Nothing can bring us down.”
· “My job is more important than my family.”
· “The children will be fine with the divorce.
Everybody’s doing it.”
· “Why work when the “government” will keep me up?”
· “I’ll just satisfy my sexual desires and move on to
the next one.”
Well, that’s enough. You get
the point. We could go on ad infinitum. The point is most in our society only
think of “me, myself and I.” Thank goodness not everyone is in love with
themselves, but unfortunately most people are. If you can’t see it, you must be
one of the “me, myself, and I” people.
If anyone had a right to
consider only their own needs and desires, Jesus did. But instead He gave us
the example of absolutely pure unselfish motives. He temporarily gave up His
position in Heaven as God to take on our flesh and die for us. He alone made it
possible for us to have true happiness in Him. Through His sacrifice for us on
the cross, we can be saved, kept saved, have fellowship with Him, be adopted into
His family, and live with Him for all eternity; all this and more for a people
who are really not worth saving. Now that is humility, selflessness, and grace.
He showed us in John 13:5,
when He washed the disciples’ feet, how we should feel toward others. He wants
us to put others’ needs before ours, even if we are not required to do so. Now
I know that some church groups actually practice washing feet, but that is not
the point Jesus was making. We only have two sacraments in the Church, and they
are baptism and communion. He simply wants us to be humble toward others, and
that requires growing in love.
In Matthew chapter five
beginning at verse thirty-eight Jesus teaches us to not retaliate for selfish
purposes, but to go the extra mile in showing Christian humility and in so
doing, pride is vanquished.
He shows us His grace in
Colossians 2:14 by “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us,” when we come to Him by faith repenting and seeking the salvation only He
can provide. We learn that our works are futile.
He teaches us real love in
the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. This is a love that supersedes all
others, a love that can only come from intimately knowing Him. This love takes
our eyes off “me, myself and I” and focuses on others.
We see in the book of
Revelation, for example the first chapter, that Jesus is to be glorified, not
us. All glory is His, not ours. He earned it. He is Almighty. We who have come
to Him have been shown mercy by His marvelous grace.
Throughout the Bible we are
clearly shown that our works only produce judgment, while His grace gives us
mercy.
When our eyes are upon Jesus,
we forget about our own self-worth. When our eyes are upon Him, we care more
for others than we do ourselves. We then instinctively reach out to help those
who need a hand, those in trouble, those who are confused and lost, and even
those who aren’t so lovely. Why is that? It is so because now instead of me
living my life, Jesus lives in me and my attitude changes. No more “me, myself
and I.”
Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
