Altruism

Altruism is defined as “the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others.”  This has been a subject I have been pondering for a little while now and while more philosophical at the heart I do believe it is necessary for any type of evangelical discussion.  Proverbs 21:2 says that “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”  When we were unbelievers we thought we were good people.  Most people when asked if they are good people would immediately proclaim their own righteousness.  “Yes” would be their immediate answer and when asked for specific examples they could easily come up with ways in which they have done some great thing for their community or for a group they support.  “I haven’t murdered anyone.”  “I’ve never robbed a bank.”  “I volunteer my time at AAA”  Then when asked why that makes them good they could easily point to people that they are better than.  “My next door neighbor doesn’t help in the community.”  “There are jails filled with people who are worse than I am.”  And these excuses can go on all day.  With God outside of the picture anyone, except for Adolf Hitler, could be good.  Well, even Hitler could be somewhat good.  I mean the man wouldn’t kill his mother, so he even had a portion of goodness in his life. 

People will continually bank on their goodness to get to the paradise they think they should receive.  Whether it’s the Muslim following the five pillars of Islam to get to paradise, the Buddhist monk following the four noble truths and the eightfold path, the Catholic hoping that they don’t commit too many carnal sins so that they can go to Heaven or not wait so long in purgatory, or the person attending church that was baptized at a young age hoping that if they go to enough services and because of their baptism they can gain favor with God and be let into heaven.  Time and time again I see this Proverb being true.  People when looking from their own eyes will say they are right. 

Back to the subject at hand, from a postmodern standpoint, altruism is perfectly possible especially within the context of a religion because most religions promote peace and selflessness.  Yet, when we open the Bible it gives a completely different understanding of the human race.  We are told that the human race is wicked, evil, not good, not righteous, not holy and that the heart of mankind is deceitfully wicked above all things, that no one understands.  Which means that if I am trying to be altruistic I cannot be.  There is no middle ground according to the Bible.  Either a person is good or they are not.  Even if I am trying to be altruistic I cannot be because I am still the source of my selflessness.  When I try to help people, my help is not selfless because I am still getting something out of it.  What are am I gaining out of helping someone who is helpless?  I am gaining the satisfaction in my own eyes that I am a good person.  I am feeling good about myself because I have helped someone that couldn’t help themselves.  Is this true altruism?  I think not.  Especially with the definition I gave at the beginning.  Instead, this is reciprocity.  Reciprocality is given or felt by each toward the other.  “I scratch your back.  You scratch mine” mentality.  Is altruism possible because up to this point it seems like it’s not?

There is a good and a bad answer.  The good news is that it is not only possible to be altruistic.  The bad news is that not only can we be altruistic it is commanded for us to be altruistic.  “What?!?!?!”  I can already hear the cries.  “How am I supposed to be altruist?”  “You said  my heart is deceitfully wicked above all things that no one even understands how wicked I am and yet I am supposed to be altruistic?”  “How is that even possible?”  To begin with we cannot be altruistic in and of ourselves.  In order to be completely altruistic we have to have something or someone to which we are dedicating our altruism.  But it’s not enough to dedicate just to dedicate or to gain something or else that defeats the purpose of altruism.  The only way any action can be truly altruistic is if the item or person we are dedicating our altruism to is deserving of the altruism and is enabling our altruism.  “Wait, you said item.   How can an item enable altruism?”  It can’t.  Therefore we can conclude that inanimate objects cannot be something to which we dedicate our altruism because inanimate objects can neither be altruistic nor enable altruism.  So, our altruism must be dedicated to someone.

For instance, say a mother with four kids, one of them is a baby about 18 months, is at Panera Bread.  They have their drinks and haven’t yet received their food.  While waiting one of the children spills their drink all over the table.  Say I immediately jump up to help with the mess.  I go and grab about a hundred napkins and begin to sop up all of the mess.  If I dedicate my altruism to myself and my motive is for me to receive something from that action it is not altruistic.  For example, if my motive is for the end result of feeling good about myself, that is selfish and therefore makes the action reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  If my motive is for the end result is to gain favor in the eyes of God, my action is reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  If my motive of the end result is for favor within the eyes of not only the mother, but those around the table and all the people I tell about my “altruistic” action, my action is reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  So, I cannot dedicate my altruism to myself because I gain something in the end. 

Nor can my altruism be dedicated to someone to which I owe a debt.  If this were the case then altruism would be possible because we would be paying off a debt we owe to someone with our selflessness.  So this cannot be the case because we tend to gain something in the end.  Therefore this is reciprocality and not altruism.  What if I dedicate my altruism to the person to which I am helping?  That would go against what I previously said because the person you are helping is not enabling the altruism.  They are enabling you to which altruism is shown, but not to altruism itself.  Altruism is not the action that takes place, instead it is the “unselfish concern.”  So, no we cannot dedicate our altruism to the person to which we are helping.  “So who are we to dedicate our altruism and what causes this altruism?”  Grace is what causes altruism in a persons life and we dedicate our altruism to God because He enables us to be altruistic. 

God is infinitely morally perfect.  He is perfect in many other ways, but I am going to focus on his perfect morality.  God is so holy that he cannot be around sin, He cannot even look at sin.  We have all sinned.  At some point in our lives, whether you want to admit it or not, we have done something with the intent to make much of ourselves.  In making much of ourselves and not God, no matter the action, is sin and separates us from God.  Earlier when I said infinitely morally perfect I mean that God’s perfect morality was infinitely before he created the world and will continue forever.  Our morality is not infinite.  Our morality began as late as our birth, but really began with Adam in the garden.  Paul says that because of one man (Adam) our sin entered the world and death came because of sin.  So Adam started this chain of us placing ourselves on the number 1 spot in our lives and therefore causing us to rebel against God.  Now when he sinned his sin was a finite sin against an infinitely holy God.  his caused our debt to God to be that of an infinite debt because in order to gain perfection we would not only have to never do anything bad again, but all of our actions would have to be completely altruistic.  Which is not possible because we would be being altruistic because of a debt we owed therefore making it reciprocal. 

OK so this is how sin entered the world.  Fast forward a couple of thousand years and enter Jesus.  Jesus was completely altruistic because His life was spent on not himself, but on helping others and dedicating His altruism to God.  This brings up a few questions.  Wasn’t Jesus God?  Absolutely.  Then wouldn’t He be dedicating his altruism to Himself?  Absolutely.  But wouldn’t that go against what you said in paragraph 5?  Not at all.  Why?  Because in being God, Jesus was both infinitely altruistic and infinitely egoistic.  God is all about His glory.  Everything God does is so that in the end He will be glorified.  Jesus, was all about the Father’s will.  Jesus was completely selfless in His entire ministry on earth, but His selflessness was for God’s glory.  This is not an oxymoron, or a false dichotomy.  So Jesus was infinitely altruistic in everything he did on earth.  He was crucified on a cross for the sins of the world.  In His sacrifice His perfection, if we accept Him is transferred to us making us perfect in the sight of God. 

Grace is giving a person something they don’t deserve.  When we accept the give of forgiveness of God from the sacrifice of Jesus God has shown us grace by allowing us to use Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins.  We went from being enemies of God to not only friends, but sons and daughters of God.  Our entire past, present and future sins are forgiven.  Because of grace we no longer owe anything to God, so when we are altruistic we are not paying our debt off.  Also, we are not trying to gain a better position in Heaven, so when we are altruistic we are not gaining anything.  Instead, when we are altruistic we are showing the grace that we have already been shown.  Not to the extent to which it was shown, but a small portion. 

All in all is altruism possible?  Yes, but only because of the sacrifice of Jesus and his altruism can we even think about having an altruistic attitude towards others.

Please if you have any comments or concerns please either email me or comment below.  These are just my thoughts out loud and I in no way want to be misleading.

Pleasure, Poverty and Proselytizing

I am in Starbucks sipping on a Tall, Caramel Macchiato (this is a drink not a person).  The drink costs $3.25 and after tax I end up paying $3.55.  The average person in the world lives off of about $2.00 a day.  I just paid for something that would support a person for a day and a half.  As I ponder this thought two of the most recent books I finished come to mind. “Pure Pleasure” by Gary Thomas and “Following Jesus Though the Eye of the Needle” by Kent Annan.  Both of these books seem to be polar opposite.  One is talking about pleasure and the other is talking about poverty of the world.  How can both of these books be biblical books and yet talk about opposite things?  It’s all about how we look at pleasure and poverty.  Pleasure is defined as “a state or feeling of being pleased.”  Poverty is “the state or condition of having little of no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence.” 

I would say that the average person in the world is living in poverty.  I would also say that most of the people living in the US (one of the most wealthy countries in the world) live without pleasure.  Shouldn’t things we have bring us pleasure?  Shouldn’t we be pleased to have a job that pays us weekly and if we don’t have a job our government sends us money so we don’t die?  And yet we see that our possessions don’t bring us pleasure.  I am never to the point in my finances that I say, I have enough.  I don’t need anymore.  Instead I am always working.  Always trying to find ways to get more hours at work to get more money.  Sure, one could argue that that’s because the state of living here in the US is more than that of other countries, but that can’t be it.  I am constantly in a state of wanting things.  Things are why I kill myself.  Things are what I try to find pleasure in.  Things could include electronics, friendships, pursuit of a “significant other,” books, bibles, ect.  I kill myself to try to get these things only to find I have no more pleasure than when I began. 

Then I take a step back and ask where I am finding my pleasure.  Am I trying to find my pleasure in things or God?  My ultimate desire is to find all my pleasure in God.  How am I to do that when there are some really great things.  I have to continually understand that everything I have is from God.  Nothing I have is mine, but God’s.  God is the thing from whom I need to derive my pleasure.  When I hold that which pleases me with my palms up and my hands held open I find that I am finding my pleasure in Christ.  This is how the apostle Paul could write in Philippians 4 that in whatever situation he is in he has learned to be content.  When we are in poverty we can be content.  When we have a lot we can be content. 

Missional Minded

I recently purchased a CD called “Entermission” from DJ Official.  DJ Official does a lot of music for some of my favorite artists including Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Flame and Sho Baraka.  This CD is a compilation of those Rap/Hip-Hop Artists and more.  In a specific song called “Not My Own” featuring Stephen the Levite, Phanatik and Evangel Stephen says a line that has been repeating in my head for weeks now.  He says “God was thinking about missions before He created man.  Practically, He began practicing missions through the creation of Adam.  God initiated contact with Adam.  God pointed Adam to the euongelion, the gospel, by pointing Adam to the seed that was going to come.”  Then later he says “When you look throughout the OT the crazy thing is you will always see God initiating contact with the sinner.  The sinner never initiates contact with God.  The Christian by identity is missional.  We don’t just do missions.  We are Missions.” 

Think about this for a second.  If we are missions our lives are to be focused in such a way as to point everyone we are in contact with to Christ.  Does this mean we are to give everyone we meet the gospel message in such a way that we have a 45 minute conversation with them and calls people to repentance?  I don’t think that’s what it means, but it does mean acting like a Christian.  Going against the flow of others because of your beliefs.  John says we are not to “love the world or anything in this world.”  Then he goes on to say “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  How does this fit into being missional minded?  I’m glad you asked.  When we begin to love this world and the pleasures of this world with closed fists opening only to ourselves we do not love God.  Loving God is what it means to be missional minded.  The more we understand God and His love the more His love is perfected in us.  The more His love is perfected in us the better we understand the grace that we have received. 

Evangelism

While I was setting up a display today at Lifeway a gentleman walked up to me and handed me two tracts.  I am sure if I had looked like I wanted to talk he would have talked to me either that or he just didn’t want to have a discussion with me.  I heard from another associate that he had encouraged him to pray more, read the KJV Bible and one other thing that slips my mind right now.  The KJV because all of the newer translations have added in more to the Bible and taken away from other parts of the Bible.  As much as I would like to say my peace about this I have another agenda I am going to pursue in this post.  

I’m not sure why he felt the need to come into our store to give out these tracts.  Maybe it was because we wouldn’t kick him out for handing out tracts and he knew that.  I’m not sure, but the least likely place I would go to to hand out tracts is a Christian Bookstore.  I see that there are pros and cons to this.  Pros being that “Christians” are the least likely people to question their faith and, as Timothy Keller puts it, take a “Leap of Doubt.”  In order to strengthen our faith we need to doubt our faith.  I know that sounds paradoxical, but when thinking about it it’s true.  We have to continually make sure that what we are believing is true and figuring out, if it is true, how to help people understand that which we believe.  So if he was handing out tracts to make us make sure what we are believing about the Bible is true then kudos to him for that.

The cons that I am seeing is that instead of going outside the fold to retrieve sheep he is going in to the fold that the sheep are already in to get them in the fold.  This is like playing capture the flag and going to the jail to get people to put in jail.  It, unfortunately, doesn’t work that way.  We must go into the world to tell the unsaved about Christ.  We also must not be willing to not make friends with the unsaved and tell our unsaved friends about Christ.  There are some with the gift of evangelism that do a much better job at street evangelism than I.  Too often though we leave the evangelism to those that have the gift.  Many of us forsake telling our unsaved friends about Christ because we’re afraid of what they will think about us.  So I give the guy that came into Lifeway kudos for actually handing out tracts and doing something I need to do more often. 

Gospel and Personal Evangelism

 

I’ve been reading “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” by Mark Dever and I am definitely loving this book.  It is all about why we should evangelize and what do say during the process and what to do after, if the person accepts Jesus as their Savior.  While I was reading it today I asked God to open a door today to be able to share the gospel to someone.  

Well this evening Colton, one of my best friends in the world, and I decided to hang out.  Well, we were planning on hanging out over by Hamilton Place.  Well, because Cold Stone, his parents Ice Cream shop, was robbed about a week ago they moved the day for them install a security system to today.  So because they moved the day to today, Colton had to go into work early this morning.  Well, I’ve been studying my pastor’s sermons for the following Sunday all week and today he and I were talking about what he was going to be talking about this Sunday, so I was going to be a little later than I expected.  So I got out of the meeting around 4:15ish and instead of meeting Colton at Hamilton Place, since he had to work, I headed over to Cold Stone. 

Well, I get there and we hung out for a little while and then we started walking.  We walked EVERYWHERE downtown.  We first walked across the Walnut Street Bridge and did some walking over on that side of the river and then came back across the Market Street Bridge.  When we got back over there we dropped by Cold Stone to see how things were going and then we started walking again.  This time we walked all the way down to the TVA/Library area.  While we were over there a guy stopped us and talked to us.  It was weird because he just asked us a few questions then said cya later.  

So after that we started walking back towards Cold Stone and, of course, this entire time we’re talking and we got to a cross walk and decided to go a different way than straight, so we took a side street.  Well, we went to Cold Stone again and this time Colton pulled up some videos on puking.  That was my exact response… What?  Why would you watch that?  Ya, I have no idea, probably because we’re guys.  Anywho, so we watched two videos and I was feeling queasy (yes, I don’t like watching people puke) and so Colton and I decided to go walking again.

When we got outside I started feeling a little better and started getting hungry again.  Normally, I don’t suggest Subway, but for some reason I was wanting a sub.  So, from Cold Stone we walked back across the Walnut Street Bridge to go eat at Subway.  When we got in there neither Colton nor I knew what we were going to eat, so we stood back so other people could order.  While we were waiting Ken came in.

Ken is a homeless man from Atlanta that is trying to bounce back.  I think he was also drunk, but I could be wrong.  Anywho, so Ken walks in orders a sandwich and gets ready to go.  Right when he was about to leave he realized he didn’t have a drink, so he asked Colton if he (Colton) had a couple of bucks he could have for a drink, so Colton gave him like three bucks.

Ken gets back in line and by this time Colton and I had our subs and were checked out and finding a place to sit.  While I was getting mine and Colton’s drink Colton decided he would ask Ken to sit with us.  So Ken decides to have a seat with the two of us and have dinner.  While we are sitting there Colton and I had the chance to get to know him and we also had the opportunity to share the gospel with him.  I walked him through God, Man, Christ, Response.  

God created the world and everything in the world.  God is perfect and has done absolutely nothing wrong.  On the sixth day God created man and said that man could eat of any tree in the garden except of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Adam decided he didn’t want to listen to God and ate of that tree.  Man sinned against God and because of Adam’s sin we are all sinful and want nothing to do with God.  God sent his Son Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins and to be the advocate for our sins.  And now knowing this we have a response.  We can accept Jesus’ perfectly free gift of Salvation, repent of our sins and trust God, or we can reject God.  

Of course, I went into a little more elaboration than that, but that was how I went through it.  Ken didn’t make a decision, but I prayed for him and that God would show him His irresistible grace and Colton and I left.  On the way back we prayed for Ken again and just thought how awesome it was that everything fell into place like it did.  People would call it Karma or good luck, I don’t.  God’s hand of providence had this planned before he created the world.  Everything that happened tonight didn’t happen by chance, but God’s providence.  God is amazing!