The Oberlin Evangelist
February 1, 1843
HOLINESS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE PRESENT LIFE--No. 3
SELFISHNESS
Modernized by Cliff
Collins
“Israel empties his vine; he brings forth fruit for
himself.” (Hosea 10:1)
In this passage the Lord complains about the
selfishness of Israel; and it is my purpose today to look at,
I. What is not selfishness?
II. What is selfishness?
III. I will show that selfishness cannot co-exist
with holiness in the same mind.
IV. I will mention some examples of selfishness.
V. I will show that one form of selfishness is just
as inconsistent with salvation as another form of selfishness.
I. What is not selfishness?
1. Selfishness is not a desire for happiness, and a
dread of misery. This is perfectly
constitutional in all moral beings. We
know by our consciousness that our desire for happiness and our dread of misery
is involuntary, and therefore, it has no moral character by itself.
2. Selfishness is not the desire for approval. This desire, to whatever degree it may
exist, as long as it is a mere desire, is constitutional, involuntary, and
without moral character.
3. Selfishness does not consist in the desire for
any personal good, or in the dread of any personal evil. These are perfectly natural, and have no
moral character.
4. Nor does selfishness consist in any
constitutional appetite, passion, or impulse, or in what we generally call our
natural tendencies. Many people talk
about our selfish tendencies, as though our tendencies had moral character, and
we are to blame for simply having them.
But, this is absurd. There is no
such thing as a selfish tendency. All
our appetites, passions, and impulses are natural, and are naturally excited
whenever we come into a relationship to, or in contact with objects that excite
them. Our senses produce these
appetites, passions, and impulses. They
are not voluntary. They have no moral
character about them, as far as they themselves are concerned.
5. Nor does selfishness consist in any kind or
degree of mere desire. Now, I am
talking about desiring something.
Willing something is completely different than desiring something. I have often said that everyone knows the
difference between desiring something and willing something. For example; I may desire to go to Europe,
and strongly desire it, and yet, I probably will never go, because my desire
does not govern my conduct, but my will governs my conduct.
II. What is selfishness?
1. All human beings possess three important
faculties. They are the mind, the will,
and the emotions. Everyone is aware
that they have these three faculties.
2. Motives or reasons to do something that address
our will influences us. These motives
come either through our emotions, or through our mind. In other words, either our constitutional
desires and impulses or truth influences our will. Our mind then perceives our obligation to comply with that
truth. There is no other way in which
our mind or our emotions can influence our will. We must choose between gratifying our emotional impulses, and
gratifying the dictates of our mind.
3. Our reason, which is located in our mind, imposes
and reveals God’s law. We are, in a
certain sense, our own lawgivers; or, as Paul said, that we are a law to
ourselves, who show the work of the law written in our hearts. (See Romans 2:14-15) If the great principal of God’s law does not
lie revealed in our reason, outward precepts could never influence us. We could never see our obligation, simply
because we would have no standard of either truth or morality to use to
determine our obligation. We could not
know whether the Bible is the word of God or a collection of fairy tales,
because we would have no possible way of testing it. In short, if our reason did not reveal and impose the great principle
of God’s law, we would find that all religion and morality would be naturally impossible
for us to receive. Therefore, all
precept and instruction are really important for us, only because, when we read
about these things, our reason recognizes their truth, and imposes an
obligation to conform to them; and whatever our reason does not recognize as
true, we can’t be required to do. All
the commands and all the truths of God are addressed to moral beings through
their reason. I should perhaps say here,
that by reason, I mean that power of our mind that affirms all necessary and
absolute truth: or, in other words, our intuition. Therefore, all moral influences come to our will through our
reason, and all virtue consists in conforming our will to the requirements of
these moral influences.
4. Our ability to feel or perceive always encourages our will to seek satisfaction from those objects that awaken our ability to be affected by deep emotions. For example; as soon as I become aware that some tasty food is present, my appetite for food will awaken; and whenever some tasty food awakens my appetite, and to whatever degree it awakens my appetite, it motivates my will. The impulse to satisfy my feelings will be strong or weak depending on how much my feelings are excited. The stronger my feelings, the more my will wants to satisfy my feelings. The same is true with all our appetites, as well as all our desires and passions. We know by our own consciousness that this is true.
5. There are two, and only two, directions and
causes of every human action, and our will must decide between these two
causes.
(1.) The law of our reason requires us to exercise
pure unselfish love. In other words,
the law of our reason requires that we exercise supreme love for God, and equal
love for our neighbor. It requires that
this should be our ultimate intention or goal in life. This love should be the supreme choice of
our will.
(2.) Our ability to feel or perceive encourages us to gratify our desires in spite of the law of our reason. Our ability to feel is naturally blind. Our ability to feel pressures us to act towards every object that awakens our ability to be affected by strong feelings, simply because it will provide satisfaction, and for no other reason than that it will provide satisfaction. Now everyone knows by his own consciousness that he has a reason, he also knows he has feelings, and he must choose between them.
I am now ready to define selfishness.
6. Selfishness is willing or choosing to gratify our
feelings. Selfishness is consecrating
our heart and our lives to the demands of our feelings in opposition to God’s
law, which He has placed in our reason.
It is a desire to gratify self instead of seeking a higher and a holier
goal. Selfishness is a state of our
will. Selfishness, as a state of our
will, is totally different from selfish feelings or emotions.
7. A selfish ultimate intention will automatically
produce selfishness. The selfish person
chooses self-gratification as his goal or his purpose in life. The selfish person prefers
self-gratification, in some form or other, to everything else. It is not selfish to be able to be
gratified; gratification all by itself is not selfish. Animals have senses just like people do, and
when the demands of their awakened feelings are met, they are gratified, but
there is no selfishness in animals, nor are they capable of selfishness,
because they have no reason to impose on them a higher law than the mere impulses
of their senses. Instinct regulates
these impulses in animals. However,
moral beings have a higher faculty that reveals to them a higher purpose in
life, and imposes on them an obligation to choose that higher purpose. It requires them to regard all personal
gratification as a means, and not an end, and therefore, we must hold all
personal gratification in perfect submission to the law that our reason imposes
on us. The Bible only repeats the
demands of everyone’s own reason, when it says, “Whether you eat or drink, or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”.
(1 Cor 10:31) In other words,
hold all your appetites, desires, and passions, with a steady rein, and under
perfect control. Now selfishness
consists in preferring self-gratification to the demands of this higher
faculty, that is, selfishness consists in making personal gratification your
goal, your ultimate goal in life.
8. This is what the Bible calls a ‘carnal mind’, and
‘walking after the flesh’. That is, a
carnal mind consists in a mind that chooses gratifying fleshly senses and
appetites as the goal it pursues. I
have already said that sinners desire every object they desire, for its own
sake, that is, because it is capable of gratifying them. Therefore, selfishness consists in choosing
desired objects simply because they desire them; or they choose an object to
satisfy themselves rather than choosing that object as a means to glorify God.
III. Selfishness and holiness cannot exist in the
same mind at the same time.
1. In my last lecture, I showed that holiness, or
true virtue consists in unselfish love.
In other words, holiness consists in willing every interest according to
how important we think that interest is.
Unselfish love must be our supreme choice, or our ultimate goal or
purpose in life; for if true love wills every interest according to how
important he thinks that interest is, there is nothing else in the universe
that love can will. If we will every
good for its own sake according to how important we see that it is, it is
naturally impossible to will anything beyond that, or aside from that. If you say that you can will anything beyond
that, you contradict yourself. You
might as well say that you can will every interest according to how important
you think it is, and not will it at the same time.
2. Now, what is selfishness? As I mentioned earlier, selfishness is also
an ultimate purpose in life. In other
words, selfishness prefers self-gratification over the law that God places in
our reason, that is, selfishness prefers self-gratification to unselfish love. Instead of willing every good according to
how important it is, selfishness wills one good more than it wills other
goods. Whenever an individual prefers
his own gratification to the demands of his own reason, he does it in bold
violation of God’s law, and in defiance of God’s authority.
3. However, the choice between self-gratification
and the law that God has placed in our reason are clearly opposite
choices. Therefore, they both cannot
exist in the same mind at the same time.
Is it possible that there can be two supreme, ultimate conflicting
choices being exercised by the same mind at the same time? No, it is not possible!
Let me add that true love regards and treats every
interest in the universe the exact opposite of the way that selfishness regards
and treats those interests. True love
regards God’s interests first, and aims at His glory as the supreme good. Next, love regards the well being of God’s
glorious universe. Then love regards
the well being of our world. Then it
regards the well being of our own nation; then our own community; next our own
family; and finally it regards the well being of itself. Now selfishness is the exact opposite of all
this. The selfish man places himself
first. He regards his own interest as
supreme. Then he regards the interest
of his family and his special friends, but only as far as his supreme devotion
to himself allows it. Next, he regards
his own community or city in opposition to all other communities and cities,
whenever their interests clash. Then he
regards his own nation, and he is considered very patriotic, and would
sacrifice the interests of all other nations, anytime their interests do not
interfere with his own interests. And
so, he progresses until finally, God and His interests find the last place in
his thoughts. That this is true, is a
simple matter of fact that all of you know.
Now, how then can it be possible that these two opposite choices should
exist in the same mind at the same time?
Can you possibly believe that?
IV. What is evidence of selfishness?
1. A lack of zeal for God's interests is evidence of
selfishness. Men are always zealous for
anything they consider is extremely important, and if they are not zealous for
God’s honor, it proves that God’s honor is supreme, in fact, God is not
important to them at all. To deny this
is absurd.
2. The presence of pain and indignation when others
ignore his interests is evidence of selfishness. If he wills his own selfish interests as his supreme good, it
will be impossible for him to witness his commands and authority ignored without
extreme pain and indignation.
3. More zeal and labor in promoting
selfish-interests, than the interests of God, is evidence of selfishness. This proves that their own interests are
preferred over God’s interests. People
will always manifest the most zeal in behalf of whatever they are interested in
the most.
4. If people think they have piety while they are
more zealous in promoting selfish-interests than the interests of God, they are
deceived, and they probably think that their desire is true religion. Let me remind you, that your will governs
your conduct; your desire does not. I
may strongly desire to go to Ohio, and never go, but if I really will to go
there, I will go unless a superior force overcomes my conscious decision. Therefore, if a man is really filled with
the love of God, he will prefer the interests of God and His universe to his
own interest, and he will manifest zeal accordingly.
5. Anytime we see people pay more attention to their
own personal interests than to the eternal interests of others, we see evidence
that they are selfish. They certainly
are not regarding things according to their real importance.
6. The absence of a spirit of prayer is evidence of
selfishness. In this world we live in,
prayer is the very breath of unselfish love.
How can a man who is filled with the love of God walk through the
streets and mingle in society, without his spirit being stirred within him, and
venting itself in earnest prayer? He
can’t. What! Thousands around us, jostling us at every step, in all their
sins, already suffering many evils because of the consequences of their
transgressions, and exposed to eternal death!
How can anyone, who believes there is any help in God for them, avoid
prayer? Certainly, only supremely selfish
people can avoid prayer under such circumstances.
7. Another evidence of selfishness is spiritual
Epicureanism. Epicureanism is philosophy advanced by Epicurus that considers
happiness, or the avoidance of pain and emotional disturbance, to be the
highest good. There are people today who always want
something that will make them happy, and they will reject any measures or
preaching that will not produce this result.
Now what state of will does this indicate that they are in? Why, it indicates that they are in a selfish
state of will, to be sure. They don’t
want to be enlightened. They don’t want
to have their duty pointed out because this makes them unhappy. All they want to do is to sit down and have
their emotions fanned until they are all glowing with excitement, and the
preaching that does this, is the only gospel to them. Now this is nothing but a refined form of selfishness.
8. Anytime people are more zealous defending their
own reputation and character than defending the cause and honor of God, you
have evidence of selfishness. There are
multitudes, even among professing Christians, who, if someone says anything
against their character, or if in any way, their reputation is about to suffer,
they will become angry and upset. They
will lie awake all night, and wet their pillow with tears. However, if they should hear a vulgar
infidel criticize God, and viciously attack God’s character, they will hardly
pay any attention to it. Now, how can
this happen? It is clearly because they
prize their own character more than the honor of God, and they are supremely
selfish.
9. Anyone who is unwilling to make any personal
sacrifices to promote a higher good demonstrates that they are selfish. I don’t need to illustrate that.
10. We see evidence of selfishness when one’s
appetites or passions control their will.
Some, who pretend to be religious, habitually gratify certain appetites
and passions that they know are wrong.
If you ask them if they believe that it is wrong; they will say, “yes”,
but they can’t, that is, they aren’t willing to overcome their selfish
habit. Listen to me; they are selfish
people. The very definition of selfishness
is that selfishness prefers self-gratification to the known will of God. It is what the Apostle Paul means by “minding
the flesh”.
11. A lack of interest in the prosperity of others
is another evidence of selfishness.
Selfish men do not know what they lose, when they refuse to become
interested in the good of others. The
man who loves God with all his heart enjoys the happiness of others. He also witnesses and enjoys the good of the
whole universe, and all of this contributes to his own enjoyment. Waves of happiness pour through his
soul. Why? Because the prosperity of others is the very thing his heart is
set on. He will be wonderfully
satisfied when he sees those things that he chooses supremely. Therefore, whenever an individual manifests
a lack of interest in the happiness of others, it proves that he does not
really will their happiness, and, therefore, he is supremely selfish.
12. Another evidence of selfishness is demonstrated
when someone tends to complain and become envious when someone else possesses
something that he doesn’t have. Where
is that person’s heart? He can’t stand
to see anybody live in a better house, have better accommodations, have superior
endowments or richer possessions. Instead
of rejoicing in their good, he complains that they are not on the same level as
he is. He says, “Let no one have more
than me”. Now this must be supreme
selfishness. How would true unselfish
love feel and talk? Certainly, true
love would rejoice in their good, and its words would be, “I thank God that
others possess these good things even if I don’t”.
13. A spirit of speculation is another evidence of
selfishness. What is speculation? Speculation is a tendency to make bargains
at other people’s expense. Now, would
true love try to sell something above its real value? Would true love try to get rich by taking advantage of
others? I have been amazed whenever I
think about that mania that swept over this entire country several years ago
like an epidemic. It became the great
goal of many to make money by speculation.
Christians, and even ministers, rushed headlong into the general
scramble after money. Many were buying
up products and hoarding them, and when the demand would go up, they would turn
around and sell those same products for much more than what they were really worth. When asked why they did so, these Christians
and ministers replied that they wanted to make money for God, or to put it in
plain English, they wanted to promote the glory of God, by trampling on His
law. Why, the principle is absurd. You might just as well become a pirate to
get money to give to the Bible Society.
Suppose a man becomes a pirate, and goes out on the high seas to run
down and destroy every vessel that came across his path under the pretense of
getting money to give to the Bible Society!
And when anyone objects to his behavior, he responds by stressing the
importance of sending Bibles abroad, and that he could make more money by
piracy to accomplish this goal, than any other way! Who would give him credit for any love in this? Therefore, to attempt to justify speculation
on the ground that it is a way to get money to spread the Gospel is to put on
an impudent face and baptize rebellion against God in the name of holiness. Imagine!
Rob your neighbor to give to God!!
14. Squandering time and money to gratify artificial
appetites is another evidence of selfishness.
There are certain appetites that must be gratified. That is, there are things we desire that are
necessary for us to exist and be useful, and where gratifying them, under the
appropriate circumstances, is proper.
Any money you spend to gratify these appetites is money well spent, as
long as you gratify your appetites according to the dictates of your
reason. It is O.K. to gratify all your
reasonable constitutional appetites.
However, when your appetites are not natural, but they are artificial,
gratifying them can only be selfish. If
you want some examples, just look at the appetite for hard liquor, tobacco, or
any other unnatural stimulant.
15. Not willing to do your part in making public
improvements is more evidence of selfishness.
Suppose roads need to be repaired, churches need to be built, or
something else needs to be done which is essential to the public good, what
else can it be but selfish to refuse to contribute your share to the labor and
expense needed to accomplish it? I have
sometimes seen cases of this kind: A church goes into debt, and certain
individuals now want to leave it. They
become very anxious to join another church, when it is as clear as can possibly
be, that the only reason why they want to leave their church is that they want
to avoid doing their part towards paying the debt.
16. When you have to appeal to selfish-interests in
order to get somebody to do something, the evidence of selfishness is
everywhere. When a man is full of love,
all that is necessary to move the deep foundations of his heart is to place
before him a real good that needs to be accomplished. All he needs is to be properly informed. But, any attempts to move the selfish man by
appeals to any unselfish love will be a waste of time, because he has no
unselfish love. If you want to move a
selfish person, you must present completely different motives to him, the kind
of motives that will grab a hold of his emotions. If he is a professing Christian, perhaps it will be impossible to
move him until you can shake his hope of heaven. With such people, you have to present their duty to them in such
a light that it appears as the lesser of two evils, where they must choose
between one or the other, and then their selfishness will lead them to do it as
the lesser of two evils. Or, you must
place a really good reason in front of them in such a way that they will see
that doing it will advance their own special interests. For example: Suppose the Christians in an
area need to build a church. Now if you
have to go to a man and tell him how it will increase the value of his own
property, or how it will, in some other way, promote his own selfish interests
before he will do his share, I promise you, that man is supremely selfish. You can do the same thing with these people
concerning their eternal interests.
Nothing will move them so effectively to make some kind of religious
effort, than to tell them about the personal good which will accrue to them in
the future world. In short, the only
way that you can influence such people is by appealing to either their hopes or
their fears.
17. Increasing expenditures as your income
increases, instead of doing more good is a sure sign of selfishness. During the great speculation in this
country, I had the opportunity to talk with men on the principles that
motivated them in driving after wealth.
They all said, that they were seeking to do good with it. But I noticed that with rarely an exception,
they increased their expenditures, their possessions, their coaches and fine
horses, and their rich furniture as their wealth increased, so that they
weren’t able to do any more good than before.
This would still be true even if their wealth increased a thousand
times, and this uniform result proves that the principle they adopted was
radically wrong. The truth is, you
might as well talk about stealing for God as to talk about speculating for
Him. One is just as consistent as the
other.
18. A tendency to suspect others are selfish is another
sign of selfishness. This is an almost
universal characteristic of selfish people.
But, this is never a characteristic of someone filled with unselfish
love. This is why selfish people so
commonly deny that there is any such thing as unselfish love. People tend to regard others in the light of
their own character. We can illustrate
this using the situation between Satan and Job. Job was an upright man and served God unselfishly. But Satan, being supremely selfish, did not
believe it. He asked, “Does Job fear
God for nothing”? (Job 1:9) Satan was suggesting that the only reason
for Job’s apparent obedience, was the personal advantages that he would receive
from it, and even when he had stripped Job, with God’s permission, of almost
everything that he held dear, and Job remained unmoved, he still suggested that
Job’s only reason for doing so was a selfish reason. “Skin for skin! Yes, all
that a man has he will give for his life.
But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he
will surely curse You to Your face!”
(Job 2:4-5) The truth is, an
unselfish man is naturally unsuspicious.
He thinks no evil. (I Cor
13:5) However, show me a suspicious
man, one who is always attributing the worst motives to others, and I will show
you someone who is supremely selfish.
19. If you are not willing to do for others what you
would want others to do for you, is another evidence of selfishness. Not long ago, I offended some people in one
of our cities, by presenting this thought.
Suppose you and your family were enjoying all the blessings of
freedom. Suppose you have a wife whom
you dearly love, and children, on whom the affections of your heart are
centered. However, in one woeful day,
they are torn away from your embrace, and plunged into slavery. How would you feel? What would you say? Would you refuse to try to set them free and
say that we should have nothing to do with slavery? Nothing to do with it!
Would you say that slavery means nothing to you? Nothing to you! I promise you, if someone kidnapped your family and sold them
into slavery, you would not say that the issue of slavery is none of your
business, and use that as an excuse to refuse to get involved on their behalf
and to condemn the outrageous system that oppresses them.
Do you know how you can learn what is your duty
towards those who are enslaved in this nation?
Put yourself and your family in their place and ask how you would want
others to regard your condition and then act accordingly. Now listen, the very thing that you would
judge to be their duty in these circumstances, is your own duty in your present
circumstances. Suppose it was still
happening today, as it was some years ago, that the Algerians were enslaving
their fellow citizens. What would this
nation think about that situation? Why,
people would cry out for instant war.
Thousands would press forward to enlist to take out their vengeance on
the oppressors, and if they could not otherwise accomplish the rescue of those
in bondage, they would wade through an ocean of blood, and destroy with fire
and slaughter their whole territory.
But alas! The winds of heaven
can come over from the south, filled with the groans of thousands of our fellow
men, daily suffering the wrongs of slavery in its worst forms, and out of
thousands, hardly one feeling is enlisted in their favor. Is this loving their neighbors as they love
themselves? Is this the religion of
Jesus Christ?
And stranger still, multitudes even attempt to make
the Bible sanction and authorize this accursed system. They say the Bible has really authorized
slavery as an institution. But who can
believe it? What! The same God who uttered the fiery law, and
required man to love his neighbor as himself, and denounced death on all who
will not comply with the requirement, cannot authorize, and sanction any system,
by which one man seizes his brother,
“Chains him and tasks him,
And exacts his sweat with stripes, that mercy,
With a bleeding heart, weeps when she sees inflicted
On a beast.”
Who does not regard the supposition that the Bible
authorizes slavery as an institution, as downright blasphemy, and who would not
reject the Bible as grossly unfair, if it really did contradict itself this way
and misrepresent God as one who tramples on His own law.
20. Another proof of selfishness is
covetousness. Some can’t bear to see
others have what they don’t have without coveting it. Often, their covetousness is so strong, that they can hardly keep
their hands from it. Now wherever this
spirit exists it is supreme selfishness.
21. A desire to get the best seat in church or the
prominent place in assemblies is a sure sign of selfishness. For example, in churches where they sell
their seats, you will see them striving to get the best seat and the best cushion,
and the most convenient location, and if they fail to do this, they are more
distressed than if a soul was lost.
Often, when churches are formed, instead of trying to secure a house
best adapted to serve God, and instead of trying to promote the conversion of
sinners, they dedicate themselves to building the best house, buying the best
organ, organizing the best choir, and hiring the best minister, and then they
sit down so they can be preached into heaven.
But how shall a minister preach to them? He will completely fail to do them any good, and to save them
from death, if he does not put his finger right into their eyes, and rebuke
their horrible selfishness.
V. One form of selfishness is as inconsistent with
salvation as another form of selfishness.
Remember that selfishness consists in obeying our
tendencies, appetites, passions, and desires.
This devotion to self-gratification develops itself in so many ways
without changing its character. For one
person, one form of self-gratification, or one tendency predominates. For another person, a different form of
selfishness, or another tendency, dominates.
For example, one person may be a gourmet. His desire for fancy food completely controls his life, and he is
not interested in money unless it contributes to his gratification. A miser is too devoted to his desire for
wealth to be a gourmet. In fact, he
thinks that the passion of a gourmet is contemptible. One is fond of dress, and she values money only when it
contributes to gratify her desire. This
is her form of selfishness. She thinks
about it all year long, and works with her eye on satisfying this form of
self-gratification. Other people are so
fond of power or influence that they wonder how anybody can be fond of such a
trifling gratification as the gratification of dress provides. But they are enslaved just as much by their
desire for power as she is by her devotion to dress, and both are equally
selfish.
Again, some are so fond of their reputation, that
they will do anything that public feeling requires, rather than to lose
popularity. This is their form of
selfishness. They prefer their
reputation to the good of the whole universe.
However, others have such a large development of a particular appetite
or passion that they are willing to sacrifice their reputation for it. Let’s look at the alcoholic for example. He regards his appetite for intoxicating
drinks more than anything else, and he feels worthless if he is deprived of the
drinks he so strongly craves. Now each
of these different forms of selfishness is a violation of the law of God. One is just as much a violation of the law
of God as the other. They all lord it
over the will. Yet, those who are
devoted to one form take great pride in the fact that they are not devoted to
all the other forms of self-gratification.
The truth is, in each and every situation, their sin lies in the
indulgence of any appetite, desire or tendency whatever, in opposition to the
law of love.
REMARKS.
1. It does not matter which of the tendencies
prevail over our will in order to constitute selfishness. None of those tendencies has any moral
character all by itself. To prefer to
indulge in any one of those tendencies, rather than to do what we know we
should do, is what constitutes sin. It
is minding the flesh. It is hatred against God.
2. Suppose someone should ask, “why do we have these
tendencies if they should not be gratified”?
Let me answer:
(1.) Anything that is natural is given to serve us
and not to rule us. Let’s look at our
appetite for food, for example. Without
an appetite for food, we probably would never eat it, but food is essential to
our existence, and therefore our appetite serves to secure life. The same is true with our desire for
knowledge. If our desire for knowledge
were not constitutional, who would ever seek it? But, knowledge is essential to our highest good. Therefore, our desire for knowledge, serves
to secure things that are essential to our well-being.
(2.) However, there is more. God not only gives these tendencies to us to
serve us, but to provide us with satisfaction.
The love of God gave us these constitutional tendencies, so that we
might find pleasure in those things that are for our own good. If we had no appetites, desires, passions,
and tendencies, we should be as incapable of pleasure or pain, and as incapable
of satisfaction or happiness as a marble statue. If the human race remained innocent, the gratification of our
desires and passions would have certainly provided us with exquisite
pleasure. Therefore, we must regard the
fact that we possess them as a proof of God’s love towards us, in spite of the
fact that they make us susceptible to many strong temptations.
(3.) Many of man’s most oppressive tendencies, God
never gave to us. They are completely
artificial, and are produced by willfully perverting those tendencies that are
natural. The use of intoxicating
drinks, the use of tobacco, and various narcotics are excellent examples of
tendencies that are willful perversions of our natural tendencies.
3. Indulging in any form of selfishness is
completely inconsistent with salvation.
It is sin, and the Bible declares, “Without holiness no man shall see
the Lord”.
4. A man who is selfish in his business can no more
go to heaven than a pirate can. How
could he? They are both living for the
same end, self-gratification, although they serve different forms of it, and
therefore, they are both directly opposed to the will of God.
5. A vain man or a vain woman, can no more be saved,
than a licentious man or a licentious woman.
They prefer to satisfy their vanity, to the goal of life that the law of
God requires. A licentious man or woman
prefers the self-satisfaction that they receive, in this grosser form, to the
unselfish goal of God.
6. Because here is so little understanding of what
is the nature of sin, endless delusions prevail. For example, although we know that drunkenness, licentiousness,
theft, robbery, murder and so forth, are completely inconsistent with
salvation, many people regard various other forms of sin as consistent with a
profession of religion. But the truth
is, as I have said before, a man who is selfish in his business, or who
practices selfishness in any other form, no matter how slight it may seem, can
no more be saved than a drunk can. Why
can’t a drunk be saved? Why can’t the
licentious man or the thief be saved?
Because he is selfish! The same
must be true with any other man who is selfish, no matter what type of
selfishness he indulges in. If a man
were drunk only once a week he would be excommunicated as hopelessly lost, but
he may be habitually greedy, vain, or a gourmet, and yet the Church may
consider him to be a good Christian. If
any church should continue to allow the drunk to partake in communion, it would
bring on itself the frown of Christians everywhere, and yet people indulging in
various forms of selfishness can be found in almost every church, and everybody
treats them as true Christians.
Everyone believes that they will be saved. Now, this is a horrible delusion. But why does this deadly error exist? It exists because there is so little discrimination concerning
the nature of sin. The truth is, if any
appetite, desire, or tendency whatever, rules over our will, it does not matter
what that appetite or desire is, that person is on the road to eternal death.
7. To think that religion consists in obeying
certain feelings is a very deadly error.
Yet, this is the only religion that most people know. They think that their happy feelings are their
religion, and they generally do just what they feel like doing, in spite of the
demands of their reason. Now these
people have never yet understood the true idea of religion, namely that it consists
in completely consecrating our will to the law of God, as our reason reveals
that law to us. However, our will
should never bow to our feelings, because our feelings are blind; but we should
pay attention to our reason, even if it only faintly sees the law of God.
8. Now, let’s see if I have given you the right
definition of sin. The first sin of man
was selfishness. Adam’s first sin
consisted in preferring his own gratification to God’s will. God placed Adam and Eve in the garden where
there were many trees bearing more than enough fruit to supply all their needs,
but in the midst of the garden was one tree that God would not let them eat
from. It is an important question why
God placed this restraint. It is a
question that many ask, and it is important that it should receive the right
answer. God’s purpose was to teach them
that they must control their feelings; that they must keep their appetites,
desires, and passions submitted to the law that God placed in their
reason. This lesson was so important
that they should learn it, and learn it as soon as possible, before their appetites,
desires, and passions, become so strong, that it becomes certain that they may
never deny gratifying themselves once they become aware of their tendency to
gratify the desires. For this reason
God prohibited them from eating the fruit of one particular tree. At this point, Satan steps in, and once he
was well aware of the relationship that the mind, the will, and the emotions
have with each other, he suggested to our mother Eve, that God was selfish in
placing a restraint on her constitutional tendencies. He then presented considerations before her mind that awakened
two of her strongest tendencies, her appetite for food, and her desire of
knowledge. This placed the demands of
her reason, that echoed God’s command, and the demand of her constitutional
desires in opposition to each other.
She was now forced to choose between her reason and her constitutional
desires. And in that evil hour she
preferred to gratify her appetites than to obey God’s will, and so did Adam, and
thus they
“Brought death into the
world, and all our woe.”
Eve committed the first sin. Please notice that her constitutional
appetites were perfectly innocent all by themselves, but her sin consisted in
consenting to gratify her appetites in opposition to the requirement of God.
9. Selfishness is the first sin of every human
being. Children come into the world in
perfect ignorance both the law of God and the tendency of their souls. Now what is the process by which they
sin? See the little child. At first, she can barely turn her head or
open her eyes. She is barely aware of
anything. Soon, her little soul begins
to develop, and her most noticeable behavior is her appetite for food. As soon as you give her anything, no matter
what, she puts it right into the mouth.
Gradually, other appetites are awakened, equally constitutional, but
without moral character. At what age
her reason begins to develop we cannot know.
But, we know that it is very early.
However, as soon as her reason develops and it tells her that she must
obey God, then her very next act is a moral act. Hence, the appetites, desires, and tendencies of her soul that
have previously been developed, and the knowledge that she must obey God are
both placed before her will, and she prefers satisfying her appetites to
obeying God. This is her first sin, and
this is the first sin of every human being.
But, why does she always choose wrong?
Because before her reason develops, her will has already been under the
control of her appetites and she has acquired a habit of yielding to them. On the other hand, the first affirmations of
her reason are usually very feeble. She
therefore chooses self-gratification in opposition to her reason.
10. Selfishness constitutes sin in every situation. It is easy to show that this must be true.
11. We can see what regeneration is. Regeneration is turning from selfishness to
unselfish love. True love is an act of
our will that prefers the good of the universe to the self-gratification that
our will has always consented to in the past.
12. It is easy to see the need for
regeneration. Who does not know that
unregenerate men are universally selfish?
And, who does not know that selfish people thrown together can never be
happy? I have often wondered what those
people mean when they deny the need for regeneration. The truth is, the need for regeneration is obvious.
13. We can see why God commands men to regenerate
themselves. If regeneration is an act
of our will, nothing can be more rational than this requirement. It must be our own act.
14. Do you see why we need the Spirit of God in
regeneration? The need to gratify
ourselves becomes so habitual, and our attention is so absorbed with this that
we need the Spirit of God to develop our reason, and to throw the light of
heaven into our eyes, so we can immediately see the nature and beauty of
religion in contrast with the nature and deformity of sin. This is conviction. The sinner needs to be charmed away from his
selfishness by correct visions of the character of God, and the love of
Christ. It is the purpose of the Holy
Spirit to bring this about.
15. Finally, we can see what the Apostle Paul means when he speaks so often, about being led by the flesh and led by the Spirit. The flesh leads an individual when his will yields to his senses. This is the carnal mind. On the other hand, the Spirit leads an individual, when his will yields to the law that God has placed right in his reason where the Spirit of God develops it and applies it in our lives. Now, beloved, where are you today? Does the Spirit lead you, or does your flesh lead you? Are you selfish, or are you filled with unselfish love for God and your neighbor? What would you say if you were called to appear before God today? Could you say, I know that I am led by the Spirit of God and therefore am a child of God? Oh, beloved! Search yourselves, lest you be deceived.