Christian Living

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December 17, 2011 – Mine! Mine! Mine!

43 Laban answered Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, these flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? – Genesis 31:43 AMP

Laban was one of the most selfish men in the Bible. He was an expert at both deception and manipulation. And in today’s verse, even though Jacob had worked day and night for twenty years for his family as well as his flocks, Laban still claimed they were all his. He was the kid on the playground who wouldn’t let anyone play with his new kickball.

Children are sometimes a picture of selfishness. Siblings quarrel over toys they received at Christmas and make parents wish they never purchased them. Children at school argue at school over being first in the lunch line like it’s a rite of passage. Children act that way out of the desires of their flesh. Younger children many times can’t understand the whole concept of selfishness. That’s where parents come in. Parents have a duty to their children to teach them about the destructiveness of selfish behavior. The only problem is that our society is becoming more and more about self. I need to find myself. I have to reinvent myself. I’ve got to get mine. Any of these sound familiar? In our world today, they are the voices of a generation stuck on self. And since such behavior is so prevalent in some adults, how on earth are their children supposed to learn something to the contrary?

24 Let no one then seek his own good and advantage and profit, but [rather] each one of the other [let him seek the welfare of his neighbor]. – 1 Corinthians 10:24 AMP

This verse is not speaking specifically about giving up all you have for a neighbor. It is talking about not putting stumbling blocks before others. A stumbling block could be anything. If someone you know is unsaved and also knows you profess to be a Christian, yet your life doesn’t show it, you are a stumbling block in bringing that person to Christ. If you have a neighbor who is a recovering alcoholic but at the same time you sit on your back porch nightly and drink a six-pack of beer, you are a stumbling block. But hey, it doesn’t bother you, so it doesn’t matter, right? The bottom line is that Christians who do such things are being selfish.

I attended a church once with a selfish pastor. I asked him in one conversation what he would do if the church decided to fire him. He told me that they couldn’t. He said there were measures to get rid of the senior pastor, but he was technically the founding pastor. He had started the church and would stay as long as he liked. Would he not give up his position even if he was no longer wanted? Would he not resign if need be to save the church? Nope. If he was going down, he would take the church with him. That was not a pastor with a heart toward God; it was a selfish man living in a selfish world.

What’s amazing about this whole me, me, and me mentality is that it has spread into the halls of our churches. Churches want more members. Churches want more programs. Churches want the biggest and shiniest building of any church within one hundred miles. Some even steal members from other churches. Why do these things happen? They happen because an individual church is a reflection of its congregants. A selfish body gives birth to a selfish church.

The only antidote for a selfish life is to know God’s Word and apply it in your life.

13 Let us live and conduct ourselves honorably and becomingly as in the [open light of] day, not in reviling (carousing) and drunkenness, not in immorality and debauchery (sensuality and licentiousness), not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts). – Romans 13:13-14 AMP

5 Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you – unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected? – 2 Corinthians 13:5 AMP

Selfishness is an evil desire of your physical nature. Selfishness says that if you want something; go get it, no matter what the cost. However, the Scripture from Romans here says that you are not only supposed to not act that way, but you are to put a stop to such thoughts. How do you do that? How do you put a stop to selfish thoughts? Like Paul said in the verse from Second Corinthians, you have to examine yourself. You have to evaluate to see if you are acting selfishly. In that test, you will be able to determine in the end if your faith is real or fake.

Are you a selfish Christian? Do you always find yourself being argumentative and defending your position? Is it because you are right or you just think you are right? Do you continually examine yourself to make sure you’re not operating out of selfish motives? There’s a big difference between being right and getting your way. Laban knew, but he was just too selfish to admit it.

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