SERMON SEVEN: CHARITY CONTRARY TO A SELFISH SPIRIT
I CORINTHIANS 13:5.
Seeketh not her own.
IN the foregoing verse the Apostle first shows the nature of charity with respect to the good of others in these two things: that it is kind and ready to give others good things in possession, and does not envy others those good things which they have in possession. And in the next place the Apostle proceeds to show the nature of charity with respect to our own good, in that it is contrary to pride and selfishness. First, it is contrary to pride. Charity disposes persons not to be proud of what good they possess. It is expressed in these words, "charity vaunteth not itself, doth not behave itself unseemly." Second, it is contrary to selfishness; it seeks not her own. Therefore the
Doctrine
A Christian spirit is opposite to a selfish spirit.
The ruin which the Fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in that he lost his nobler and more extensive principles, and fell wholly under the government of self-love.1
He is debased in his nature and become little and ignoble. Immediately upon the Fall the mind of man shrunk from its primitive greatness and extensiveness into an exceeding diminution and confinedness. As in other respects, so in this, that whereas before his soul was under the government of that noble principle of divine love whereby it was, as it were, enlarged to a kind of comprehension of all his fellow creatures; and not only so, but was not confined within such strait limits as the bounds of the creation but was extended to the Creator, and dispersed itself abroad in that infinite ocean of good and was, as it were, swallowed up by it, and become one with it.
But as soon as he had transgressed, those nobler principles were immediately lost and all this excellent enlargedness of his soul was gone and he thenceforward shrunk into a little point, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of others. God was forsaken and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself and became wholly governed by narrow, selfish principles. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, the more noble and spiritual principles having taken warning and fled.
But God hath in mercy to miserable man contrived in the work of redemption, and by the glorious gospel of his Son, to bring the soul of man out of its confinement, and again to infuse those noble and divine principles by which it was governed at first.
And so Christianity restores an excellent enlargement and extensiveness to the soul. It again possesses it of divine love or that Christian charity of which we read in the text, whereby it again embraces its fellow creatures and is devoted to and swallowed up in the Creator. And thus charity, which is the sum of the Christian spirit, seeketh not her own or is contrary to a selfish spirit. And in treating this subject I would do the following things.
I. I would show what is that selfishness to which a Christian spirit is contrary.
II. How it is contrary. III. Mention the evidence of the doctrine; and then make an application.
I. I would show what is that selfishness to which a Christian spirit is contrary. And here I would observe
First. Negatively, that a Christian spirit is not contrary to all self-love. It is not a thing contrary to Christianity that a man should love himself; or what is the same thing, that he should love his own happiness. Christianity does not tend to destroy a man's love to his own happiness; it would therein tend to destroy the humanity. Christianity is not destructive of humanity. That a man should love his own happiness is necessary to his nature, as a faculty of will is; and it is impossible that it should be destroyed in any other way than by destroying his being. The saints love their own happiness; yea, those that are perfect in holiness. The saints and angels in heaven love their own happiness. Otherwise their happiness, which God has given them, would be no happiness to them; for that which anyone does not love he can enjoy no happiness in.
That to love ourselves is not unlawful is evident from that, that the law of God makes it a rule and measure by which our love to others should be regulated. Thus God commands, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" [Matthew 19:19]; which command certainly supposes that we may and must love ourselves.
And it also appears from this, that the Scripture from one end of the Bible to the other is full of things which are there held forth to work upon a principle of self-love. Such are all the promises and threatenings of the Word of God, and all its calls and invitations; its3 counsels to seek our own good, and its warnings to beware of misery. Which things can have influence upon us in no other way than as they tend to work upon our hope or fear.
To what purpose would it be to make any promises of happiness, or denounce any threatenings of misery, to him who neither loved his own happiness nor hated his own misery? or to invite and counsel him to seek the one, or warn him to avoid the other? Therefore,
Second. Affirmatively, that self-love which is the selfishness to which a Christian spirit is contrary is only an inordinate self-love. But here a question arises, viz. wherein this inordinacy consists. This is a point which needs to be well stated, for the resolution of many scruples and doubts which persons have depends upon it. And therefore I answer
1. That this inordinacy of self-love does not consist in our love of our happiness being absolutely considered in a too high degree.
I do not suppose it can be said of any that their love to their own happiness, if we consider their love absolutely and not comparatively, is a thing liable to diminution or increase, as many other principles are. But I apprehend that as self-love in this sense is no fruit of the Fall, but is necessary and what belongs to that nature of all intelligent beings which the Creator hath made, that it is alike in all. And that saints and sinners and all4 love happiness alike, and have the same unalterable propensity to seek and desire happiness.
The alteration which is made in a man when he is converted and sanctified is not by diminishing his love to happiness, but only by regulating it with respect to its exercises and influence, and the objects to which it leads. Who will say that the happy souls above do not love happiness, as well as the miserable souls in hell? If their love of happiness is diminished by their being made holy, that will diminish their happiness itself; for the less anyone loves happiness the less he relishes it, and consequently is the less happy.
When God brings a soul out of a miserable state and condition into an happy state in his conversion, he gives him happiness who before had none. But he does not at the same time take away some of his love of happiness.
And so when a saint increases in grace, he is made still more happy. But his love of happiness and his relish of it do not grow less as his happiness itself increases; for that would be to increase in one way, and diminish it in another. But when God makes a soul happy which was before miserable, or makes a soul more happy than it was, he continues the same love of happiness.
And so doubtless the saints and angels have as much of a principle of love to their own happiness, or love to themselves, which is the same thing, as the wicked have. So that if we consider men's love of themselves or their own happiness absolutely, the inordinacy of self-love does not consist in its being in too great a degree, because it is alike in all.
2. But affirmatively: that inordinacy of self-love wherein a corrupt selfishness consists lies in two things.
(1) The degree of self-love may be too great comparatively, and so its degree of influence be inordinate. Though the degree of men's love of their own happiness taken absolutely may in all be the same, yet the proportion that their love of themselves bears to their love of others may not be the same. If we compare a man's love of himself to his love to others, and [if]5 it may be said that he loves himself too much; that is, [if]6 the proportion be too much, which, though it is owing to a defect of love to others rather than an excess of love to himself, yet self-love by this excess in its proportion itself becomes inordinate in this respect, viz. that it becomes inordinate in its influence and government of the man. For though the principle of self-love absolutely considered cannot at all be greater than if there was a due proportion of love to God and fellow creatures within, yet the proportion being greater, its influence and government of the man becomes greater. And so its influence becomes inordinate by reason of the weakness or absence of other-love7 which should restrain and regulate its influence.
To illustrate this: if a servant in a family, who was formerly kept in the place of a servant, and his influence in family affairs was not inordinate while his master's strength was greater than his; yet if afterwards his master grows weaker and loses his strength, and the rest of the family loses their former power, though the servant is not at all increased, yet the proportion of his strength having increased, his influence may become inordinate; and from being a servant he may become master in that house. And so self-love becomes inordinate. Man before the Fall loved himself or his own happiness, I suppose, as much as after his fall. But then a superior principle of divine love had the throne, it being in such strength that it wholly regulated and directed self-love. But since the Fall this principle of divine love has lost its strength, or rather is dead. So that self-love continuing in its former strength, and having no superior principle to regulate it, becomes inordinate in its influence, and governs where it should be only a servant. Self-love may thus become inordinate in its influence by its
being comparatively too great, either by love to God and fellow creatures being too small, as it is in the saints in this world who have great remaining corruption, or by there being none, by their having no divine love in their hearts, as it is with natural persons. Thus the inordinacy of self-love with respect to the degree of it is not as considered absolutely, but comparatively, and with respect to the degree of its influence. In some respects wicked men do not love themselves enough. They do not love themselves so much as the godly do. They do not love that which is indeed their true happiness. Therefore it is said of wicked men that they hate their own souls. But in other respects they love themselves too much.8
(2) A man's love to his own happiness may be inordinate in placing that happiness in things which are confined to himself. In this respect the error is not so much in the degree of his love to himself as it is in the channel in which it flows. It is not in that degree in which he loves his own happiness, but in the placing his happiness.9 In this the man is limited and confined. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good, in that which is the good of others as well as their own, in good to be enjoyed in others and to be enjoyed by others.1 A man's love of his own happiness when it runs in this channel is not what is called selfishness, but is quite opposite to it. But there are others who in their love to their own happiness place their happiness in good things which are confined and limited to themselves exclusive of others. And this is selfishness. This is the thing most directly intended by that self-love which the Scripture condemns.
When it is said that charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good, good limited to herself. The expression "her own" is a phrase of appropriation; it properly carries in its signification a limitation to self. And so the phrase is to be understood in Philippians 2:21, "All seek their own." By "own things" there is meant his own confined, appropriate[d] good, or that good which a man has singly by himself wherein he has no commerce or communion with another, what he has so circumscribed within himself as to exclude others. So the expression is to be understood, 2 Timothy 3:2, "For men shall be lovers of their own selves." The phrase is of the most confined signification, limited to self alone exclusive of others.
A man may love his own happiness as much as anybody, and may be in an high exercise of love to his own happiness, earnestly longing after happiness, and yet he may place that happiness so that he may in the same act be in an high exercise of love to God. As for instance, when the happiness for which he longs is to enjoy God, and to behold the glory of God, or to enjoy communion with God. Or a man may place his happiness in glorifying God; it may seem the greatest happiness to him that he can conceive of to give God glory as he ought to do, and he may long for this happiness.2 Now in longing for this happiness he loves that which he looks on as his happiness. If he did not love what he esteemed his happiness he would not long for it. And to love his happiness is to love himself. But yet in the same act he loves God, because he places his happiness in God. What can more properly be called love to any being, or any thing, than to place one's happiness in that thing?
So persons may place their happiness considerably in the good of others, the good of their neighbor, and desiring that happiness, which consists in seeking3 their good. They love themselves; they love their own happiness. But yet this is not selfishness, because it is not a confined self-love, because his self-love flows out in such a channel as to take in others with himself. The self which he loves is, as it were, enlarged and multiplied, so that in those same acts wherein he loves himself he loves others. And this is the Christian spirit, the excellent and noble spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ; this is the nature of that divine love or Christian charity which is spoken of in the text. And a Christian spirit is contrary to a selfish spirit, which consists in self-love which goes out after such objects as are confined and limited, such as a man's own worldly
wealth or the honor that is of men, being set up higher than his neighbor in the world— his own worldly ease and convenience, or his pleasing and gratifying his own bodily senses. Having thus stated this point, viz. what that selfishness is to which a Christian spirit is contrary, I come now
II. To show how a Christian spirit is contrary to such a spirit; and this may be expressed in these two things. First, they who have a Christian spirit seek not only their own things but also the things of others. Second, a Christian spirit disposes persons in many cases to forego or part with their own things for others.
First. They who have a Christian spirit seek not only their own things but also the things of others.
1. A Christian spirit seeks to please and glorify God. The things which are well pleasing to God and Christ, and tend to the glory of Christ, are called the things of Jesus Christ in opposition to our own things. Philippians 2:21, "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Christianity requires that we should make God and Christ our main end. Christians, so far as they live like Christians, live so that for them to live is Christ [Philippians 1:21]. Christians are required to live so as to please God. Romans 12:2, "That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." We should be such servants of Christ as do in all things seek to please our Master. Ephesians 6:6, "Not with eye-service as men-pleasers: but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." So we are required to seek the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And this is the Christian spirit.
2. They who have a Christian spirit have a spirit to seek the good of their fellow creatures. Thus the Apostle commands, Philippians 2:4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." We ought to seek others' spiritual good. A Christian spirit will dispose us to seek others' spiritual happiness; it will dispose us to seek their salvation from hell, and that they may obtain eternal glory, as it did the great Apostle. And it will incline persons to seek to edify others in holiness and comfort. "Edify one another" [1 Thessalonians 5:11]. A Christian spirit will dispose persons to seek others' wealth and outward estate. 1 Corinthians 10:24, "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." So we should seek others' pleasure, wherein we can at the same time seek their profit. 1 Corinthians 10:33, "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." Romans 15:2, "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification."
2. They who have a Christian spirit have a spirit to seek the good of their fellow creatures. Thus the Apostle commands, Philippians 2:4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." We ought to seek others' spiritual good. A Christian spirit will dispose us to seek others' spiritual happiness; it will dispose us to seek their salvation from hell, and that they may obtain eternal glory, as it did the great Apostle. And it will incline persons to seek to edify others in holiness and comfort. "Edify one another" [1 Thessalonians 5:11]. A Christian spirit will dispose persons to seek others' wealth and outward estate. 1 Corinthians 10:24, "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." So we should seek others' pleasure, wherein we can at the same time seek their profit. 1 Corinthians 10:33, "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." Romans 15:2, "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification."
But more particularly under this head. A Christian spirit as exercised towards our fellow creatures is opposite to a selfish spirit:
(1) As it is a merciful spirit, it disposes persons to consider not only their own difficulties but also the burdens and afflictions which others suffer. It disposes persons to consider the difficulties of others' circumstances, and to make the case of those that are under difficulties and necessities their own. A person of a selfish spirit is ready to make much of the afflictions which he himself is under, as if he stood in greater necessity of those and those things4 than anybody else; and therefore that he is not called to spare such and such things, which he has in his possession, by which he could help others. A selfish man is not apt to discover the wants of others, but he overlooks them and is hardly brought to see them. But a man of a Christian spirit is apt to see others' difficulties, and to take notice of their aggravation; and to be filled with concern for them as for themselves when they are under difficulties, and is ready to help them, and takes delight in supplying others' necessities and relieving others' difficulties. Colossians 3:12, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies."5 James 3:17, "The wisdom that is from above is full of mercy."6 Psalms 37:26, "He is ever merciful and lendeth."
(2) It is a liberal spirit. It does not only seek the good of others who are in affliction, though it is especially concerned for them, because their need is greatest; but is communicative to all, and forward to promote the good of all, as there is opportunity. Galatians 6:10, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to all men." But I shall not enlarge on this, having already insisted on the subject from those words of the context, charity is kind.7
(3) A Christian spirit is contrary to a selfish spirit as it disposes persons to be public spirited. A man of a right spirit is not of a narrow, private spirit; but he is greatly concerned for the good of the public community to which he belongs, and particularly of the town where he dwells. God commanded the Jews that were carried captive to seek the good of the city of Babylon, though it was not their own city, but the city which had captivated them. Jeremiah 29:7, "And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for
it: [for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace]." A Christian spirited man will be also concerned for the good of his country, and it disposes him to lay out himself for it. A man was recommended to Christ by the Jews for that, that he loved their nation. Luke 7:5, "For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue." It is spoken of as a thing very provoking to God that they were not grieved for the calamities of their country, Amos 6:6, "That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." The apostle Paul expresses a great concern for his countrymen, Romans 9:1–3.8
They who are of a Christian spirit are of a more enlarged spirit; they are concerned for the good of the church and people of God in general. Of such a spirit was Moses, the man of God, and therefore earnestly interceded for God's visible people, and expressed himself ready to die that they might be spared. Exodus 32:9–12, "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people." Ver. Exodus 32:32, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin— ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." Yea, they are concerned for the good of the world of mankind. Of such a spirit was the Apostle, who devoted himself to seek the good of the Jews and Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 9:20–21, "And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law."
Especially will a Christian spirit dispose those who stand in a public capacity, such as ministers and magistrates and all public officers, to seek the public good. It will dispose magistrates to act as the fathers of the commonwealth with that care and concern for the public good that the father of a family has for the family, watchful against any public dangers,
forward to improve their power to promote the public benefit, not being governed by selfish views in their administrations, seeking only or mainly to enrich themselves, or make themselves great, and advance themselves on the spoils of others as wicked rulers very often do. A Christian spirit will dispose ministers not to seek their own, not merely to seek a maintenance, aiming to get whatever they can out of their people to enrich themselves and their families, and to clothe themselves with the fleeces of their flock. But a Christian spirit will dispose them mainly to seek the good of their flock, to feed their souls as a good shepherd feeds his flock, and carefully watches over it, to lead it to good pasture, and defend it from wolves and other beasts of prey.
Second. A Christian spirit disposes them in many cases to forego and part with their own things for the sake of the things of others. It disposes them to part with their own private temporal interest, and totally and finally to renounce it, for the sake of the honor of God and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Such was the spirit of the Apostle. Acts 21:13, "I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus." And they have a spirit to forego and part with their own private interest for the good of their neighbors in many instances; ready to help bear others' burdens, to part with a less good of their own for the sake of a greater of their neighbors’; and as the case may be, to lay down their lives for the brethren [1 John 3:16]. But because I may probably have occasion to speak more of this under some other part of the context, I shall say no more of it at this time.9
III. Show the evidence of the doctrine; which may appear by considering the nature of Christian love, or what there is in the nature of Christian love which is contrary to selfishness. First, if we consider the nature of love in general. Second, if we consider what is the peculiar nature of Christian and divine love. Third, if we consider the nature of Christian love to God and Christ, and love to our neighbor in particular.
First. If we consider the nature of love in general which, so far as it is real and morally sincere, is of a diffusive nature, and espouses the interest of others. It is so with the love of natural affection and civil friendship. So far as there is any real friendship, the parties between whom the friendship subsists do not only seek their own particular interest, but espouse the interest of each other. They seek not only their own things but the things of their friends. Selfishness is a principle which does, as it
were, confine a man's heart to himself. Love enlarges it and extends it to others. A man's self is as it were extended and enlarged by love. Others so far as beloved do, as it were, become parts of himself; so that wherein their interest is promoted he looks on his own as promoted, and wherein their interest is touched his is touched.
Second. This will further appear if we consider what is the peculiar nature of Christian and divine love, which is in a peculiar manner above a selfish principle. Though all real love to others seeks the good of others, and espouses the interest of the beloved, yet all other love excepting this has its foundation more in a selfish principle. So is that natural affection which parents have to their children, and the love which near relations have one to another. Self-love is the main spring of it. It is because men love themselves that they love those persons and things which are their own, or to which they are nearly related, upon which the world looks as belonging to them, and which by the constitution of the world have their interest and their honor linked with their own. And so it is in that civil friendship which there is among men. Self-love is the spring whence it proceeds. Men are brought into a friendship with such and such persons sometimes from natural gratitude for good turns which have been done them by others, and benefits which they have received from them. Self-love disposes men to some respect to those who show kindness to them, and by whom their self-interest is promoted. Sometimes natural men are led into a friendship towards them from qualifications which they see in them, or find in them, whence they hope for the promoting of their own temporal good. If they see others are disposed to be respectful to them and to give them honor, then love to their own honor will lead them to friendship with them; or if they seem to be generously disposed to them, then love to their own profit will dispose them to friendship to them. Or if they find in them a great agreement in dispositions and manners, self-love may dispose them to amity with them, their thus agreeing with them in their temper and ways carries in it an approbation of their own temper and ways. And so many other ways there are in which self-love is the source of that love and friendship which often arises between natural men. Most of the love which there is in them arises from this principle, and therefore it does not go beyond nature. Nature cannot go beyond self-love; but all that men do is in some way or other from this root.1
But divine love or that Christian charity which is spoken of in the text is something above self-love, as it is supernatural or above and beyond all that is natural. It is no branch which springs out of that root of self-love
as natural affection and civil friendship, and the love which wicked men may have one to another. It is something of a higher and more noble kind. Self-love is the sum of natural principles, as divine love is of supernatural principles. This divine love is no plant which grows naturally in such a soil as the heart of man. But it is a plant transplanted into the soul out of heaven; it is something divine, something from the holy and blessed Spirit of God, and so has its foundation in God, and not in self. And therefore there is no other-love2 so much above a selfish principle as Christian love is, there is no love that is so free and disinterested. God is loved for himself and for his own sake; and men are loved not because of their relation to self, but because of their relation to God, either because they are the children of God, or because they have either the spiritual or natural image of God.
And therefore divine and Christian love, above all love in the world, is contrary to a selfish spirit. Though other-love,3 a moral love, may in some respects be contrary to selfishness, as it may move men to a moral liberality and generosity, yet in other respects it agrees with a selfish spirit; because if we follow it up to its original, it arises from the same root, viz. a principle of self-love. But divine love has its spring elsewhere; its root is in Christ Jesus, and so is heavenly. It is not anything of this world, and it tends thither whence it comes. As it does not spring out of self, so neither does it tend to self. It delights in the honor and glory of God for his own sake, and not merely for their sakes. And it seeks and delights in the good of men for their sakes, and for God's sake. How Christian love is in a peculiar manner above and contrary to a selfish spirit appears by this, viz. it goes out even to enemies. There is that in the nature and tendency of it to go out to the unthankful and evil, and to those that injure and hate us, which is directly contrary to the tendency of a selfish principle, and quite above nature.
Third. That Christian love is contrary to a selfish spirit will appear by a distinct consideration of what the Scripture teaches of the nature of love to God and love to men.
1. If we consider what we are taught of the nature of love to God, and
particularly from this that the Scripture teaches that they who have true love to God love him so as wholly to devote themselves to God. This we are taught in the sum of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" [Mark 12:30]. Here is contained in these words a description of a right love to God; and they teach us that they who love him aright do devote all to him, all their hearts, and all their souls, all their mind and all their strength, or all their powers and faculties. Surely, a man who gives all this wholly to God keeps nothing back, but devotes himself wholly and entirely to God. He who gives God all his heart, and all his soul, and all his mind, and all his powers or strength, keeps nothing back; there is no room for any reserve. All who have true love to God have a spirit thus to do. This shows how much a principle of true love to God is above a selfish principle. For if self be devoted wholly to God, then there is something above self which influences the man; there is something superior to self which takes self and makes an offering of it to God. A selfish principle never devotes self to another; the nature of it is to devote all others to self. They who have true love to God, love God as God, and as the supreme good; whereas the nature of selfishness is to set up self for God, to make an idol of self. That being which men respect as God, they devote all to. They who idolize self devote all to self, but they who love God as God devote all to him.
2. That Christian love is contrary to a selfish spirit will appear if we consider what the Scripture teaches us of the nature of Christian love to men. And there are two chief and most remarkable descriptions which the Scripture gives us of a truly gracious love to our neighbor, both of which show this.
(1) One is loving our neighbor as ourselves. This we have in Leviticus 19:18, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This Christ cites as the sum of all the duties of the second table of the law in Matthew 22:39, "The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now this is contrary to selfishness; for it is not of such a nature as confines the heart to self but leads it forth to others as well as self, and in like manner as it does to self. It disposes persons to look on their neighbor as being, as it were, one with self, and not only to consider our own circumstances and necessities, but to consider the wants of our neighbors as we do our own; not only to have regard to our own desires but to the desires of others, and to make their case our own, and to do to them as we would that they should do to us.
(2) Another remarkable description which the Scripture gives us of a gracious love to others, which shows how contrary it is to selfishness, is loving others as Christ hath loved us, as in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." It is called a new commandment in contradistinction to that old one in Leviticus 19:18. Not that the duty of love to others, which is the matter of this commandment, is new; for the same kind of love was required of old under the Old Testament which is required now. But it is called a new commandment in this respect, that the rule and motive annexed, which we are now more especially to observe in these days of the gospel, are new. The rule and motive which was especially set in view of old was love to ourselves, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. But the motive and rule which is more especially set in view now in the days of the gospel, since the love of Christ has actually been so wonderfully manifested, is the love of Christ to us; and so the commandment in these Gospel days, or the new commandment, is that we should love one another as Christ has loved us. It is here called a new commandment. So in John 15:12 Christ calls it his commandment emphatically: "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." That we should love one another as we love ourselves is Moses' commandment. But that we should love one another as Christ has love[d] us is Christ's commandment. It is the same commandment which Moses gave as to the substance of it, with a new enforcement and light annexed. For this rule of loving others as Christ has loved us does more clearly and in a further degree show our duty and obligation with respect to our neighbor, than as Moses revealed it.4
But to return from this digression, let us consider how this description which Christ gives of Christian love to others shows it to be contrary to selfishness, by considering in what manner Christ has expressed love to us, and how much there is in the example of his love to enforce the contrary of a selfish spirit; and that in these four things.
1. Christ set his love on those who were enemies to himself. There was not only no love to himself in those upon whom he set his love, but they were full of enmity, a principle of mortal hatred to him.5
2. Such was Christ's love to us that he was pleased in some respects to look on us as himself. By his love to men he has so espoused them and
united his heart to them that he is pleased in many respects to look on them as himself. His elect were from all eternity dear to him, as the apple of his eye. He looked upon them so much as himself that he looked on their concerns as his concerns, their interest as his own, and has made their guilt his by a gracious assumption of it to himself, that it might be looked upon as his by divine imputation.6 And his love has sought to unite them so to himself as to make them, as it were, members of himself, so that they are his flesh and his bone; and Christ calls them himself, Matthew 25:40, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
3. Christ, as it were, spent himself for us. Though we were enemies, yet he so loved us that from love to us he had a heart not only to look at our things, but to spend his own things for us, to forego his own ease and comfort, and outward honor, and to become poor for us. Romans 15:3, "For even Christ pleased not himself; but as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me." And not only so, but to spend himself for us, to spend his blood, to offer up himself a sacrifice to the justice of God for our sakes.7
4. He thus loved us without any expectation of ever being requited by us for his love. He did not stand in need of anything we could do for him, and knew that we should never be able to requite him for his kindness to us, or do anything towards it; for he knew that we were poor, maimed, halt and blind, empty needy vagabonds, who could only receive from him, and could render nothing to him. He knew that we had no money or price; that instead of receiving anything from us, he must give us all things that we needed, or we should be eternally without them. Now how far shall we be from a selfish spirit, and how contrary to it, if we love one another after such a manner, or if there be the like spirit of love in us towards others which was in Christ towards us. Our love to others will not depend on their love to us; but we shall do as Christ did to us, love them, though enemies. We shall not only seek our own things, but we shall be in our hearts so united to others that we shall look on their things
as our own. We shall look on ourselves interested in their good, as it was in Christ towards us. We shall be ready to forego and part with our own things in many cases for the things of others, as Christ expended and was spent for us. And these things we shall do without any expectation of being requited by them, as Christ did such great things for us without expectation of any requital from us.
Application
The use which I would make of this doctrine may be to dissuade all from a selfish spirit and practice, and to exhort to seek that spirit which is contrary to it. Seek that by divine love your heart may be devoted to God, and to his glory, and to love your neighbor as yourself, as Christ has loved you; and do not look every one on his own things but everyone also on the things of others. And to stir you up to it, besides those things already mentioned, consider
First. You should not seek your own things only, for you are not your own. You have not made yourself, nor are you made for yourself; you are neither the author or end of your being. Nor is it you that uphold yourself in being, nor is it you that provides for yourself; you are not dependent on yourself. But there is another who hath made you, and preserves you, and provides for you. And he who has made you has made you for himself, and for the good of your fellow creatures, and not only for yourself. And besides, you profess yourself to be a Christian; and if you are so, you are not your own, for there is another who has bought you. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, "Ye are not your own; for you are bought with a price." This is here urged as an argument why Christians should not seek themselves, but the glory of God, as you may see in the words next following: "therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." You were in a miserable lost condition, a captive in the hands of divine justice, and a miserable slave in the hands of the devil, a cruel enemy. And Christ has redeemed you, and so you are his by a most just title; you belong to him and not yourself. And therefore you must not henceforth treat yourself as your own, by seeking your own things only or chiefly. If you do so you will be guilty of robbing Christ. As you are not your own, so nothing which you have, is your own. Your abilities of body or mind, your outward possessions are, most of them, [not]8 your own. Neither have you any liberty to improve them, as if you had
an absolute property in them, as you will do if you improve them only for your own private interest, and not for the honor of Christ, and for the good of others.
Second.9 If you seek the glory of God and the good of your fellow creatures, it is a sure way to have God seek your interest. If you will devote yourself to God as making a sacrifice of your own interest to him, you will not throw yourself away; though you seem to neglect yourself, and to deny yourself, God will take care of you, and he will see to it that your own interest shall be provided for. You shall be no loser by what you spend for his glory. He will probably requite you an hundredfold in this life, besides the eternal rewards which he will bestow upon you. Matthew 19:29, "And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." Or as the evangelist Mark 10:30 expresses it, "shall receive an hundredfold now in this time; and in the world to come eternal life." Christ expresses the greatness of the rewards they shall receive in this life by a certain number, but pretends not to use any number to express the reward which they shall receive hereafter; but only says, they shall inherit everlasting life; because the reward is so great, and so much exceeds all the expense which persons can have for Christ's sake here, that numbers are not sufficient to set it forth.
If you are selfish, and make yourself and your own private interest your idol, God will leave you to yourself, and let you promote your own interest as well as you can. But if you do not seek your own but the things of Jesus Christ, the things of others, God will make your interest and happiness his charge; and he is infinitely more able to provide for it and to promote it than you are. So that not to seek your own, that is, not to seek your private worldly interest, is the best way of seeking your own in another sense. It is the most direct course you can take to obtain your truest happiness. When you are required not to be selfish you are not required, as has been already observed, not to love and seek your own happiness. You are required not mainly to seek your private and confined interest. But if you place your happiness in God, and in glorifying him and serving him by doing good, in this way, above all others, will you promote your own wealth, and your own honor and pleasure, and durable riches, and obtain a crown of glory, and pleasures forevermore. If you seek not your own, but seek the things that are Jesus Christ's, and
are of a spirit to seek the good of others, God himself will be yours. And Christ will be yours; he will make over himself to you in covenant, and all things shall be yours. Selfish men seek to engross all, and get all into their own possession; but instead of getting, they shall lose all, and be driven out of the world naked into everlasting poverty and misery. But if you are of a contrary spirit you shall have all things in possession. "All things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours," 1 Corinthians 3:21–22. And 2 Corinthians 6:10, "Having nothing, and yet possessing all things."
Third. Consider how by your profession you are united to Christ, and to your fellow Christians. You are one body, Christ and all Christians are so united together that they all make but one body, Christ the Head and Christians the members. Romans 12:4–5, "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." 1 Corinthians 12:12–13, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." And ver. 1 Corinthians 12:20, "But now are they many members, yet but one body." How unbecoming therefore is it to Christians to be selfish, or concerned only for their own private interest? We see in the natural body, the hand is ready to serve the head, and all the members are ready to serve one another. Is what the hand does only for itself? Yea, are not the hands continually employed as much for other parts of the body as they are for themselves? Is not that for which they are laboring day after day the common good of the whole body? And so it may be observed of the ear, the eye, the feet. They are all employed not for themselves, as for their confined and partial welfare, but for the common good of the body. And if the head be dishonored, are not the members of the body immediately employed to remove that dishonor, and to put honor upon the head? And if any of the members of the body are wounded, and languishing, and in pain, are not all the members of the body employed to succor that diseased member? Are not the eyes employed in providing for it, the ears in attending to directions of physicians, the feet in going where relief is hoped for, the hands employed about it for its relief? 1 Corinthians 12:25–26, "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer
with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it."1
Let these things induce us to be less selfish than we are, and more of the contrary excellent spirit. Selfishness is a principle natural to us, and indeed all the corruption of nature does radically consist in it. And considering the profession which we make of Christianity, we are too selfish. Everyone is ready to take care of himself, and of himself only. How much is there of such a spirit, and how little of that excellent, noble, diffusive spirit of which we have now heard? Which2 may partly arise from our having too narrow notions of Christianity, or not having learned Christ as we ought to have done. We in this land are trained up from generation to generation in a too niggardly, selfish spirit and practice; and notwithstanding all our professions of religion, and though there are many good things done which are worthy to be commended, yet without doubt we do in general come vastly short of what is required of Christians in the New Testament.
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