Reformation
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Matthew 10:16-23 (NIV)
16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Agree or disagree. We are by nature selfish. Bible verses about selfishness
The core of selfishness is self-idolatry. When someone behaves in a selfish manner, they are numb to the pain they cause others. There are so many selfish people – because it is extremely easy to behave in a selfish manner.
Important Bible Verses About Selfishness (Being Selfish)
Selfishness is self-centeredness. When you are being selfish, you are not glorifying God with all your heart, soul and mind.
We are all born sinners, and our natural state of being is one of complete and utter selfishness. We cannot act completely selfless unless we are made into a new creation by the blood of Christ. Even then, for Christians being selfless is something we have to grow in on our journey of sanctification.
1. Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
2. 1 Corinthians 10:24 “We should stop looking out for our own interests and instead focus on the people living and breathing around us.”
3. 1 Corinthians 9:22 “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some.”
4. Philippians 2:20-21 “I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. 21 All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.”
5. 1 Corinthians 10:33 “I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.”
6. Proverbs 18:1 “Whoever pulls away from others to focus solely on his own desires
disregards any sense of sound judgment.”
7. Romans 8:5 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
8. 2 Timothy 3:1-2 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy.”
9. Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
10. Philippians 1:17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprsonment.
11. Matthew 23:25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!”
Is selfishness a sin?
The more we study selfishness, the more clear it is that this quality is actually a sin. With selfishness comes a sense of entitlement. And we who are born depraved sinners are entitled to nothing except for the wrath of God. All we have and are is because of God’s mercy and grace.
Striving for your own self instead of the needs of others is very wicked in the eyes of God. It is the breeding ground for all sorts of other sins. At the heart of selfishness is an absence of agape love for others. It doesn’t take any sort of self control to be selfish. Rather, we as Christians live lives that are to be in complete control of the spirit.
There is a wisdom in regards to a sense of self that needs to be separated from selfishness. Being wise about your own safety and health are not selfish. That is treating the temple of our body respectfully out of worship for our Creator God. The two are entirely different at a heart level. So when Jesus tells us to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves”, he is not telling us it is wrong to take care of ourselves. What he is saying is that we are to take care of others with the same concern for health and safety that we take care of ourselves in a good way.
The first example of selfishness in the Bible is the account of the Fall into Sin.
God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evel and warned them that if they did, they would die. The devil convinced Eve that God was withholding something good from her and that she should seflishly take that for herself. So “Genesis 3:6 (NIV): 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
How does the fact we are by nature sinfully selfish relate to Jesus’ warning to his disciples that they were going to face persecution and to our revisiting on Reformation Sunday how Martin Luther experienced the same negative responses to what he was teaching?
Well, in both cases the disciples and later Martin Luther were teaching God’s truth about the importance of relying on Jesus for salvation and not depending on ourselves(a from of selfishness) in order to receive favor from God. And when those people realized that they were to trust in Jesus rather than themselves, those who did not repent retaliating by trying to silence the messengers.
Apply to disciples (see passages)
Matthew 10:16–20 (NIV): 16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
In the book Acts we read about something wonderful that happened. The Holy Spirit empowered Peter and the other Apostles to boldly proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whenever others tried to attribute their success to their own abilities, they were quick to point to Jesus who empowered them and who he is and what he has done to save all mankind. The response was predicted. On the two ends of the spectrum were those who believed the message and joined the movement. On the other were those who rejected the message and tried (and would be successful in) killing the messengers. They did not want to hear a message about turning away from self and turning to Jesus for salvation. Their selfishness created push back in horrific ways. They wanted to keep the selfish nature and not put on the new self as instructed. They refused to REFORM.
Ephesians 4:17–25 (NIV): 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Apply to Martin Luther and his focus on salvation by faith and not by works.
Centuries later Martin Luther would face the same type of situation. He lived in a culture that was very religious. The visible church dominated the culture of central Europe in ways we can only imagine. Growing up in that culture he was taught to rely on his own efforts to appease God whom he was taught to view as an angry Judge who demaned perfection and punished sin. Relief could be found through the church but often it involved own’s own efforts and not that which Jesus had done for you and relying on him in faith. When Martin Luther came to believe in the power of faith for being right with God and not the power of works, his message was received in different ways too.
There were those who gladly accepted the freeing message of the Gospel. But there were also those who selfishly held to their beliefs and sought to silence him. Just as the disciples of Jesus had been brought before the government to deend themselves, at key moments in Luther’s life he was brought before the government to defedn (well, actually to renounce) what he was teaching. In both cases the disciples and Martin Luther stood firm in their convictions and their faith in Jesus for salvation.
We also have been taught to not be selfish by depending on our own wisdom or strength or pursuing sinful pleasures but to trust in Jesus for salvation, to consider others better than ourselves , and to use our gifts to glorify God and to help others. We are also commanded to be a part of the mission of sharing the Gospel.
How do we respond? We must admit that since we are born with a dominant sinful nature that is by nature selfish, we are prone to thinking only of ourselves and in trusting in what we do. Therefore, it is important for us to be reformed in our natural thinking, believing, and doing so that we no longer lives for ourselves but for Jesus. When we are called to repent, our response is to be to turn from sin, trust in Jesus for forgiveness, and rely on the Holy Spirit empowering us through the Word of God to devote ourselves to glorifying God.
How do others respond to us? As Peter once proclaimed while on trial, “We cannot help but speak what we have seen and heard?’’ We are aware that not all responses will be God-pleasing. There will be push back from those who do not want to be reformed. But we also realize that there will be those who are impacted by the Word of God we share and will join us in living selflessly for Jesus. May God fufill his promise that when we have the opportunity to witness, the Holy Spirit will give us the words, wisdom and courage to witness.