The word “selfish” has taken new meaning than what the church has called it.

To me, selfish means concern only about myself. To feed myself only, to put my needs above the needs of others. To take care of myself first then take care of everyone else.

To people I know at work, however, “selfish” means to take from other people. To see what could be had that someone else has and to actively take it. “Selfish” means “stealing.”

Therefore, to be selfLESS also takes another meaning.

To God, being selfless means giving up all you have. Jesus was a pure example of this.

But to our friends and coworkers, selfLESS means to simply passively live and let live. Because, if you’re not taking things from other people, then you are not being selfish. Therefore you are selfLESS.

For example, it is viewed in our culture that if you have a wifi-enabled computer, you are free to take and use your neighbors’ connection, without asking, and as much as you like. The reasoning for this is: “it doesn’t hurt him.” While this depends on whose opinion you get, the example holds true because as long as you do as much as you want and are not injuring your neighbor, go for it.

Using neighbor’s stuff without permission: selflessness.

However, God gives a very different example of this in sending Jesus to the earth, emptying himself of his amazing-ness and powers. This is his view of selflessness.

Giving up all we have to the neighbor: selflessness.

What it boils down to is that people generally believe that by living a life unto themselves, we are being selfless. This makes no sense! Rather, giving of what we have to others is truly selflessness.

By contrasting the two views we see that people think that they are achieving a sort of godliness by living insulated lives unto themselves, and then hoping they have enough left over to give to someone.

Just some thoughts.

Basically, the canyon between giving and selflessness is not so grand as we generally believe.

“selflessness itself has mistakenly been viewed as a method to achieve self-approval”: this is a very good observation. I might even add that (false) selflessness has been used as a method to achieve self-approval. Maybe the overabundance of false selflessness is the reason that we are skeptical of genuine selflessness?

It looks like I’m gonna have to go for something less bulky than cinder blocks…

And oh man do I need some more space. How does Macleod do this?

So many Christians will be baffled to read this because you are not quoting Bible verses. Does our faith really lie beyond the quotations we memorized as children?

So many I know engorge themselves in so-called church activities, or starve themselves in self-deprecation through building walls and sanding legalistic lines.

If only the gospel made sense in the way that math makes sense. Perhaps then everyone would understand. It takes something greater or someone higher to lift our understanding to get this thing you call “gospel.”

For, in this country, selflessness itself has mistakenly been viewed as a method to achieve self-approval. It is discarded.