Selfish Christianity?

While visiting a church on a vacation trip a few years ago the comment was made to me that Christianity was a most selfish religion. This was a concept that had never entered my mind before, and I have to say I was taken aback to hear it. It was said in that “some people say” kind of way which is meant to absolve the speaker from responsibility, and I couldn’t tell if he was one of those people. Did he sincerely mean it, or was he playing devil’s advocate?

A few years later, and not long ago (and in a totally different church), I heard the same statement made and in the same way again. “Some people say Christianity is a selfish religion.” This time I was not part of the conversation. But it impressed on me that this concept must be more common than I had thought. Apparently it’s worthy of some discussion.

The question that I had was, “where has this idea come from?” I think I know. Most every single thing we consider or talk about doing as Christians is prompted by one goal, escaping hell/getting to Heaven. Those who don’t understand Christianity, and I fear that might include a number of Christians, see Christians as people who have an ulterior motive. Nothing is done purely for righteousness sake, but rather so the Christian can ‘escape hell/get to Heaven.’ That is a selfish consideration and people decide that Christians must be selfish people since they are driven by selfish considerations.

It may be true that some Christians are driven by selfish motives, but they are sadly missing the gist of what their religion is all about. If I make decisions about what I will do religiously on the basis of whether what I do will help me escape hell/get to Heaven, I’m essentially living a “check the box” religion, and I’m being selfish.

If it helps me get into Heaven, then I’ll “help the old lady across the street.” Why? Because it helps me, not because it helps the lady. Also, now I can check my “good deed for the week” box. If it helps me get into Heaven, then I’ll attend worship services, I’ll contribute generously, I’ll perform acts of service for those in need, etc. If it helps me get into Heaven.

This concept of Christianity cannot be found in the New Testament . This concept of Christianity has no basis in love. Let’s briefly review some Bible verses that confirm love as, not “a”, but “the,” motivator of the Christian life.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these,” Mark 12:30. Jesus said love is foremost among all commandments of God.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing,” 1Cor. 13:1-3. Without love, there is nothing we do that is of any significance at all.

“And now abide faith, hope, love these three; but the greatest of these is love,” 1 Cor. 13:13. Love endures into eternity. Faith won’t, because knowledge will replace it. Hope won’t, because the hope will be realized. But love will endure throughout eternity. It is the “sine qua non” of Christianity, the thing without which nothing else is possible.

So back to the idea of selfishness. You can either be selfish, or you can be loving, but you can’t be both at the same time. In fact, I would suggest that you can’t be both even at different times, but that idea is probably worthy of it’s own article. You can even act lovingly while having a selfish heart, because even though it might hurt others it would be advantageous to you, and that’s what selfishness is all about. But you can’t act selfishly while having a loving heart because the very fact that you have a loving heart would not permit even acting selfishly to prevail. These two are totally incompatible.

When you live your Christian life doing all the things you do so that you can escape hell/get to Heaven, checking all the necessary boxes, you are motivated by selfishness. Also, it is all for naught. If you are motivated by love you do what you do both because it is the righteous thing to do, and because you want to please God (because of your love for Him, not because of what He can do for (or to) you.)

Here is the thing that makes this confusing to some people. The things one does because it will help them get into Heaven, and the things one does because of their love for God, fellow man, and righteousness, are the same things. The difference therefore, is not something that the rest of us would necessarily notice. The problem is that often the individual who is doing what they do because it will help them escape hell/get into Heaven doesn’t notice the difference either.

A familiar story is told in Mark 12:41-44. “Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites . . . So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.’”

Had we been there we would have witnessed a procession of people passing by the treasury and placing money into it. We could not have made a distinction from one to another, and would not have known even that the widow put in a small amount, nor that it was all she had. It would all look the same to us. But Jesus wasn’t looking for what they were doing. Rather He was concerned with why they were doing it.

Why we do what we do matters. (See 1 Cor. 13:1-3.) Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices to God, apparently at God’s request. Abel acted out of a desire to please God. Cain, it seems, acted (carelessly?) to get it done without consideration for God’s desires in the matter. If our motivation is nothing more than ‘getting into Heaven,’ which will keep us out of hell, our result will be similar to that of Cain. Realizing this should be a clarion call to develop our love for God and for that love to be what motivates us in all of our actions and attitudes.

It was love that motivated Paul to make three missionary journeys and suffer the tribulations he lists in 2 Cor. 11:23-28, not selfish motives. It was love that motivated Stephen to be martyred in Acts 7, not selfish desires. It was love that motivated Peter when he was imprisoned in Acts 12, not selfish ambition.

Christianity is not for the selfish. It is for the loving. It’s not compatible with any other motivating attitude. Being a Christian without loving is like going to college to get a job. Such a person doesn’t care that much for college, really, and that’s fine in this situation. It’s just what they have to do to get where they want to go. However, if that’s how a person approaches Christianity, sadly it won’t get them where they want to go.