Opposite of Selfish

The other day we were at the beach walking. As we walked, we became strung out—Mom and sister up ahead, me in the middle, and Dad back a ways—and I took the opportunity to reflect on the Creator while averting my eyes from common temptations that arise in such settings. Then my mind put together the concept that in all things, we under Christ’s new law (which is not really new, but eternal) should be selfless and God’s phrase in Genesis, “It is not good that man should be alone.”


The first concept, that all creatures which have choice should love other with their all their spirit, mind, and emotions, had no loose ends in the newly created world. That is, until the making of the man in flesh. The problem then arose of how could the man properly care for his flesh part without being self-serving and therefore defy the law of the universe?


Self-gratification is illegal in God’s eternal Kingdom, but serving and gratifying God and others is central to His way. I think the Lord God Himself is the personification of this law of love, and demonstrates it in literally everything He says and does, or doesn’t say or do. Silence and not acting at times is the most loving thing He can do for you. And this law transcends all levels of human trinity and Holy Trinity. And the order is always to be first spirit, then mind and emotion, and then lastly, body.


The primary, if not only way to make spiritual love happen is to obey the greatest commandment: Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That’s a whole series of blog posts in and of itself. The spirit is to be the ruler of all your other parts. The mind, emotions, and body should answer to the spirit, and the spirit should answer to God.


How to love God and others with your mind is in learning. Study the Word to know God, and hear and remember His testimonies. Meditate on them. Toward fellow people, learn them. What do they know that you can use to point them toward God? What experiences have they had that God has given them to be a light unto their path? Be mindful of their business, and not merely your own. Pray for them. The mind is to be the ruler of the emotions, and the body, but it is to be subject to the spirit as the spirit is subject to God. We are to lean not on our own understanding, but in all things acknowledge Him.


Also, we are to love God and others with our emotions. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. This I could do better at sometimes. When Jesus walked the earth He saw people and had compassion on them. We should be the same. My impulse too often is to turn away when I see someone who has suffered, not because I don’t care, but because I fear trying to feel it with them, and I feel helpless to do something about it. But sadness and despair are not the only emotions. Happiness and Joy serve the spirit and sometimes blow the mind (which is good for it) by reacting correctly to the faithfulness and goodness of God. The emotions rule the body, but are still subject to the mind and spirit, which is under God.


We come to the body. As you may have easily noticed, the way I’m trying to describe it here is completely the reverse of what goes on in the world today. This is because after God created man and his wife in the garden they disobeyed Him and brought into the world a corrupted natural order.


An appropriate word for this order is anti-christ (like an adjective, instead of like a noun). This is immediately apparent today in relationships. “Love at first sight,” is the norm, and then if they randomly arrive at a second date, some emotional ties may form, and then if they are very lucky, they may even learn how to live with one another for a while. (requires mental love) But without Christ, spiritual love cannot happen because, being under Adam who sinned, there spirit is dead. And being dead, it is bringing slow death to their mind, emotions, and body.


But under Christ, the spirit is being revived. And for a short time yet, while this world lasts, I believe a man and a woman together can prove the perfect will of God by fitting the law of love template over their lives together.


I think the original intent in the garden for the creation of woman was to make it possible for the body to be cared for without selfishness being allowed to disrupt the perfect order of the law of love. She was in fact his very own body. She was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. But, she was a separate person. Paul said this is a great mystery and that, “he who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” It is also true that, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” So, her body belongs to him, and also his body belongs to her.


Even (or especially) in small things they are to serve one another in their bodies. For example, she brushes his teeth because it is her job and privilege under the law of love to take care of his teeth. Or he can brush his own teeth (which are hers) under the law of love as a faithful steward of them so that her teeth which are in his mouth (which is hers also) will last as long as they can for her. In the same way all the actions that are taken between them are out of selfless care and love for the other—in body, but also in emotion, mind, and mysteriously, spirit. He should dress the way she wants him to gladly, and for her enjoyment. Likewise, she should dress the way he would enjoy. You can fill in the blanks with all the different ways this is to work in a relationship.


During my musings while walking, I also contemplated some examples of the breaking of the law of love that occur frequently. Not to go too far into this, just consider what’s happening when a man breaks the seventh commandment. He is believing a lie that says this is for him, and he’s stealing what has been given to some other man, but the center of it is that he is putting another god before the Lord God (namely, himself) and assuming the role of giver of all good gifts unto himself.


The law of love does the opposite. It says “I love the Lord God and I believe He is good and is the creator and giver of all good things.” It says “That woman is not mine to look at, but has been given to another man, and I am glad for that man for the good gifts God has given him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.” The selfless body watches against covetous eyes. The selfless emotions might laugh for joy at that other man’s happiness, and the selfless mind might ponder the mysteries of God displayed between them. The selfless spirit might thank God for the privilege of seeing them and their testimony, and hope in God for the fullness of all joy between them.

Jobs Available

What if every human life is a Job story?


This is an idea that has bounced around in my head for a while, sometimes the only thing that keeps me from giving up in some way. It’s the idea that in some completely unique way, unrepeated by previous lives, or ones that come afterward, we each by our behavior prove something to the heavenly realms about God.


If this is the case, then it would make sense that during the data gathering phases of this divine experiment, we, the guinea pigs, would be kept unawares. It wouldn’t be good science if we were allowed to corrupt the findings by knowing about the particulars of the experiment. Of course, there may be some who are allowed in on it to varying degrees, like the well-known prophets and men of God of the Bible and church history. The parameters of each experiment would naturally depend on the specific nature of the question it seeks to answer.


I would love to experience many of the fancy things of the Spirit like dramatic healings, words of knowledge, pinpoint accurate prophecies, and room silencing wise teachings. I would like to hear audible voices from God to make my life decisions easy, or at least undeniable circumstantial confirmations, but alas these sweet touches have been dishearteningly few and far between. I’m sure I can find a way to blame myself, but I’ve also heard of others who despite their errors, still had the privilege of hearing from God in powerful ways. But then I think, “Well, maybe Father is seeing what one of His will do if he has only the testimony of scripture, and life experiences to go by.” If an evil and perverse generation seeks after a sign, does that mean I should be ashamed of hoping for miracles and demonstrations of His power?


I am feeling a little bit frustrated and hurt from seemingly missing out on a lot of the good stuff, but I can still take my cues from Job and acknowledge that He is God and I am not. I am for Him, in Christ, and not the other way around.

Lord, I am available for You and as ready as I know how to be.

A Little More on Humility

A person cannot arrive at humility by striving to be humble. Possibly some of the people that strive for humility the most are the Tibetan Buddhists, who prostrate themselves on the ground thousands of times for payment of one sin, and spend lifetimes in the selfless pursuit of a higher reincarnation. Yet for all their great effort, it will not succeed. True humility only happens by drawing near to the Lord Jesus, for humility is the appropriate human response to Truth.


Moses was the most humble person of his day. The word that we are looking at can be described, “meek, lowly, or poor.” He’s the one of whom God said, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold.” He’s the one who was allowed to be put in the cleft of a rock while the Lord God passed by so he could get a glimpse of His form. This is the question: did he get to draw nearer to God because he was humble, or did drawing nearer to God cause him to become humble? The answer is yes! This is where we discover Truth, and where we are discovered by Truth. Jesus Christ is the fixed point. He is the Truth that will not be moved. When anything is drawing near to Him, He is drawing it. When you call out to Him, He is already calling out to you. Conversely, when you deny Him, He has already denied you.


“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”


To the degree that you are in agreement with the Light, you are humble. Moses was so humble that God used him as His agent to bring the Holy Scriptures into being. Whether he actually wrote them, or was given the insight to compile them from pre-existing documentation or oral tradition doesn’t matter. God chose to use Moses to bring together the precepts, the teachings, the Torah. If sin means “missing the mark,” the Torah means “hitting the mark.”


So, how do you have humility? It's by knowing what's true about your right place under God. How do you know that? It's by knowing the truth about Christ Jesus’ authority over you. (“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”) How? “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”


Put away your TV shows, football idols, music fanship, and any other hobbies that distract you from full on attention to the Lord your God.

Contradictions

Next day. Well, not exactly. Next YEAR and next day:

Something that has intrigued me for years is the apparent contradictions in the Bible. Normally when you hear the phrase "contradictions in the Bible," it's something that has come out of the mouth of a skeptic. And I would bet that the person who utters such a remark has not actually studied the scriptures and found it to be true, but is merely repeating what he has heard somewhere before from some other unbeliever.

But I am not a skeptic. I believe what the Bible says is true. It is inspired by God in its entirety, even the parts that I don't understand and can't fathom how they could be possible. By virtue of the nature of God that has been proven to me, I choose to trust that the scriptures are the incarnation of the Word of God (in written form; Jesus is the human form) and if something must bend for me to understand it, then that something should be me, and not the scriptures.

So it strikes me as important to consider the special relevance of passages which by taking them in plainly, seem to make nearly opposite statements.


Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force."
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ."
Galatians 6:5 "For each one will bear his own load."


John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."
I Corinthians 9:27 "but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. "

Perhaps in coming days we'll be able to take a closer look at some of these.