Selfishness

Selfishness — placing one's own interests, comfort, and advancement above the well-being of others — is treated throughout Scripture as a fundamental expression of fallen human nature and a denial of the love commanded by God. Cain's refusal of responsibility for his brother (Gen. 4:9) and the self-serving choices that recur through Israel's history reflect the pattern of radical self-concern that Scripture diagnoses as the root of much sin. Proverbs indicts the one who withholds grain in time of famine (Prov. 11:26) and the man who takes all the gleaning for himself. The NT makes self-denial explicit as a mark of discipleship: Jesus commands taking up the cross and losing one's life as the path to finding it (Matt. 16:24–25). Paul grounds unselfishness in the Christ-hymn of Philippians 2:3–5: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." The selflessness of Christ in emptying himself is the theological basis and model for the Christian's renunciation of self-seeking.