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.
