By Reinder Bruinsma
A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for June 14–18, 2003
Who can say with a straight face that in everything he does he acts in a totally selfless manner? Who can say that under all circumstances and at all times he is only intent on "serving" others, without regard for any personal gain?
When we talk about selflessness, we deal with motives. The word motive is derived from the Latin verb movere, which means "to move." It refers to the composite of internal factors that drives people in their actions. This is a complicated topic that needs more than a few paragraphs if we are going to do any justice to it.
Such a discussion would lead us into all kinds of motivational theories. If we were to pursue this at any length we would meet Freud and his obsession with sex as the most basic drive of humankind, and we would have to study the philosophy of behaviorism, which reduces our acts to responses to a continuous bombardment of stimuli.
We would be lead to a host of other philosophies. We would enter into the realm of ethics and religion as soon as we try to ascribe any virtue to certain motives, while condemning certain other underlying reasons for our behavior. Are certain motives good and others bad? Or may we subscribe to the utilitarian point of view, which asks only whether our actions have some useful effect?
This week’s Bible study, of course, takes the religious approach and differentiates between good and bad. It is good to be selfless and it is bad to be selfish. We are supposed to do good things for the right reasons. We must do what is good, because it is intrinsically good, not because it will make us look good or because it will be good for our pocketbook or our image.
That is the ideal, but unfortunately we often fall terribly short. A little bit of soul searching will convince most of us that we tend to do many things for reasons that are at best dubious. Unintentionally, our acts are often tainted by feelings of jealousy, revenge, superiority, or inferiority.
Why do people make large donations to their alma mater or to the Cancer Society? Is it purely because they wish to do good, or is because the copper name plate and the public recognition of their business acumen are part of the charitable package?
Do we build our circle of friends for totally selfless reasons, or would it be more accurate to describe some of it as strategic networking?
Why did the Coalition fight the recent war in Iraq? To deliver the Iraqi population from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny? Or does oil also come into the picture somewhere? Did some European countries oppose the war only because of a genuine aversion against violence? Or did they want to make a statement that they are also still forces with which to be reckoned?
Why does the Seventh-day Adventist Church continue to strengthen its worldwide ADRA network? Is it only to help the underprivileged in the third world? Or does ADRA also serve a welcome public relations function?
Do we keep the Sabbath and give tithes because we want to show our love for the Creator, and because we realize that doing his will is simply the right thing to so, or has our upbringing burdened us with a sense of guilt and even with fear of losing eternal life if we disobey the law?
Do we agree to be an elder or a deacon in our local church because we truly want to serve the congregation of which we are a part, or does saying "yes" also satisfy our secret ambition to see our leadership abilities recognized?
Our introspection may well give us cause for alarm. We may not like what we see. At best, most of our motives are mixed; even our most charitable deeds may not be as selfless as they appear to be on the surface.
Yet we find examples in the Bible of men and women who seem to have come closer to the ideal of selflessness than most of us. Think of the woman in Zarephath who was willing to share her last meal with Elijah. Think of a man like Paul who during his travels was willing to endure anything that came his way for the course of Christ. Remember Dorcas, who did not tire of truly doing good, and the woman who spent a fortune to anoint Jesus’ feet?
(Looking for biblical examples of selflessness, it seems to be easer to find women than men. Could it be that women find it easier to be selfless than men? I do not know, but looking around me I find some support for that supposition.)
However, even the examples we mentioned are not perfect. Total selflessness is unique—in the full meaning of that word. It is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Philippians 2: 1–11, where we find this truth stated in a forceful way. With Jesus, there was no personal advantage for him to enter this world. He did not regard his divine status as something to which he wanted to cling at all cost.
Jesus was willing to go the second mile, the third mile, and so forth—the entire distance—wherever it would take him. He was willing to "empty" himself totally. Theologians speak of the kenosis—the emptying—of Christ. He disregarded everything for the sake of those he wanted to save. Here is selflessness personified, the ultimate example that should inspire us as we strive for a greater degree of selflessness.
In God’s perspective, motives are more important than outer deeds. God looks at the heart. This is important to remember. But at the same time we must remember that only God is able to know the true state of the human heart.
We often are not sure of our own motives. How, then, would we be able to judge the motives of others? We do well to focus on our own inner motivations and pray for a lifelong process of "emptying" ourselves. Being human, we will never equal our sublime divine example, but then, of course, that is why he went through the process of emptying himself totally in the first place—to make up where we are doomed to fail.
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