Benefits of Unselfishness
Romans 13:8-10
The following illustrations come from Sermon Central's Illustration collection.
A fascinating study on the principle of the Golden Rule was conducted by Bernard Rimland, director of the Institute for Child Behavior Research. Rimland found that "The happiest people are those who help others."
Each person involved in the study was asked to list ten people he knew best and to label them as happy or not happy. Then they were to go through the list again and label each one as selfish or unselfish, using the following definition of selfishness: a stable tendency to devote one’s time and resources to one’s own interests and welfare--an unwillingness to inconvenience one’s self for others."
In categorizing the results, Rimland found that all of the people labeled happy were also labeled unselfish. He wrote that those "whose activities are devoted to bringing themselves happiness...are far less likely to be happy than those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy" Rimland concluded: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Jesus said this rule, called by many, the golden rule, sums up the law and the prophets.
In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp, Through the Valley of the Kwai, there is a story that shows the power of unselfishness. It is about a man who through giving it all away literally transformed a whole camp of soldiers. The man’s name was Angus McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with Americans, Australians, and Britons who had helped build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads. Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed...until the news of Angus McGillivray’s death spread throughout the camp. Rumors spread in the wake of his death. No one could believe big Angus had died. He was strong, one of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died. Finally they pieced together the true story.
The Scottish soldiers took their buddy system very seriously. They believed that is was literally up to each of them to make sure their buddy survived. Angus’s buddy, was dying, and everyone had given up on him, everyone, of course, but Angus. He had made up his mind that his friend would not die. Someone had stolen his buddy’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own, telling his buddy that he had “just come across an extra one.” Likewise, every mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get “extra food.” Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got what he needed to recover.
But as Angus’s buddy began to recover, Angus himself collapsed, slumped over, and died. The doctors discovered that he had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and shelter. He had given everything he had -- even his life. The ramifications of his acts of love and unselfishness had a startling impact on the compound.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12).
As word circulated of the reason for Angus McGillivray’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Men began to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity of living beyond survival, of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents -- one was a violin maker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinet maker, another a professor. After a while the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and even a church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, so compelling, that even the Japanese guards attended. In time the men began a university, a hospital, and a library system. The prison place was transformed; an all but smothered love revived, all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. For many of those men this turnaround meant survival. What happened is an awesome illustration of the potential unleashed when one person actually gives it all away.
The gospel is the ultimate of that very story, is it not?
God created you and me to be like himself. In His own image and likeness we were made. God's love is demonstrated through Jesus as he gives his life for us on the cross. This is the golden rule of the Bible performed by God's own Son.
But Jesus didn't do this so that we would just sit back and selfishly soak it all in. Jesus demonstrated for us who God is so that we could become like this ourselves. If Jesus is like God and if we were made to be like God then we need to become like Jesus. We need to follow in his steps. We need to lose our lives for His glory and the good of others.
Jesus died to set us free from the sin of self centeredness. Jesus gave it all up as an act of humble submission and obedience to God the Father. He didn't do what He wanted, He did what the Father willed must be done. Jesus' own words: "not my will but thine be done" were spoken as he faced submitting to the very wrath of God against all sin. It wasn't just the betrayal of his disciples. It wasn't just the mockery and humiliating trial and abuse by the religious leaders of his own people. It wasn't just the spitting and beating and horror of one cowardly authority after another denying him justice. It wasn't just the scourging and thorny crown pressed on his head, and blasphemous pagan soldiers cruelty. It wasn't even the crucifixion, having his hands and feet nailed to the cross and being lifted, naked before the jeering crowds. Jesus took on all this, yes, but the worst thing, the thing Jesus sweat drops of blood over, was that all of your sins and mine were placed on Him as he hung on that cross and there as he died he received the full cup of God's wrath against them all, the full punishment that all sin deserves.
Talk about unselfishness and giving... But where is the happiness?
Hebrews tells us, "Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross..."
Jesus shows us more than what it means to live according to God's will and God's way. Jesus shows us what it means to be a human being. He demonstrates to us what a true human looks like because he shows us what our Father, who created us in His own image, looks like. His life is THE life that gives life and light to every one of us.
Jesus' sacrificial death for our sins is the ultimate example of unselfishness. Yet, Jesus Christ did not give up everything as the end all of his mission. In fact, Jesus self-denial was actually the doorway to his ultimate glorification and supreme position as King of kings and Lord of lords! Jesus didn't die to lose, Jesus died to win. And win big. Really, really big. His victory in death has a contagious effect that brings victory to others. As Paul puts it, it is a super abundant work of grace, a grace with surpassing greatness!
Listen to Romans 5:12-21 and pay attention to the victorious nature of Jesus' death. (Read)
Listen to Romans 8:31-39 and pay attention to the abundance of our assurance through Jesus' death. (Read)
Listen to Ephesians 1:7, then 15-22. Pay attention to the benefits of Jesus' death. (Read)
Now, I have just three questions for you to take with you and reflect on and direct your lives by:
Who receives these benefits of the unselfishness of Jesus?
What kind of lives do they live?
Are you one of them?
