Loved Beings Being Selfless Beings

But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 

----- Ephesians 4:20 - 24

In order put on a new self that is made after the image of God, a new self that responds to situations in righteousness and holiness, I first have to know, to understand, what righteousness and holiness are.  I cannot decide what is right and holy on my own. I must know them as defined by the One who IS right and holy. I must know what Christ Jesus taught.

Jesus said the greatest command is to love God. That means that in all I do, I seek to obey Him. My love for God is expressed in my words, in song, in my witness...but God understands my love best when I trust His guidance in obedience. When God asks me to do something--especially something outside my comfort zone or something in opposition to my own wants and desires--when I follow though on what He asks of me, I demonstrate my love for God.

Jesus said the second greatest command is like the first: to love my neighbor as myself. I am to love those around me. Today, with communication technology and transportation opening the world, that means "those around me" is an ever-widening circle to be loved. 

And how do I love my neighbor? Well, the culture says if I give them everything they want, then I love them. But that's not love. That's indulgence. Though God lavishes His love upon us, He does not give us everything we want. In love, God asks us to give up what we want, what we desire--sometimes because what we want is not right for us, sometimes because our desires are deceitful and lead us into pain and misery.  Sometimes God, who loves us so much, does not give us what we want because there is something better ahead that we cannot see. 

So I go back to the question: how do I love my neighbor? I love him/her by putting his/her needs above my own. I guess that means first understanding my own needs. I have a need for "honor" and recognition. I put that down to recognize the efforts of someone else. I see that they receive honor for what they do. 

I have a need for comfort, to be warm and safe and well-fed. These are important needs  that when met enable me to help others.  But do I love myself so much that my personal needs come first before meeting the needs of others?  Maybe in order to love my neighbor, I need to lower the thermostat so that money is saved to help another person pay their heating bill. Maybe it means the groceries I add to my cart should be filling someone else's cupboard. 

The thing is, called to relationship with Christ is called to a relationship beyond self. The world is seeking after self...and teaching that that's what a person has to do. But Christ came to set the world on its ear. As His followers, we are to set self aside and put on a new image--an image that seeks after the things that God has determined are right and holy: loving Him in obedience and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Oh, God, it is all about self...about me putting myself aside...about putting others in that place formerly occupied by self.  That is the "put[ting] on of the new self"--a self created after the One who put my needs above His own.  Lord, help me see this new self that seeks after the needs of others as a fresh, well-fitting and flattering garment...as a garment I was meant to wear everyday.