Unselfishness

Scripture treats unselfishness not as a temperament but as a duty grounded in love. The summary command is the royal law: "You will love your fellow man as yourself" (Jas 2:8). Paul translates that command into a habit of attention — "Let no man seek his own, but of another" (1Co 10:24); "each of you not looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others" (Php 2:4); "[doing] nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting one another better than himself" (Php 2:3). Under the same heading he places preferring honor — "In love of the brothers be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another" (Ro 12:10) — and the love that "does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take account of evil" (1Co 13:4-5).

The Duty Toward One's Brother

The duty extends past inward disposition into the body's appetites. Paul lays the rule down twice: "It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [to do anything] by which your brother stumbles" (Ro 14:21); "Now we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his fellow man for that which is good, to edifying" (Ro 15:1-2). Failure of this duty is failure of love itself: "But whoever has the world's goods, and looks at his brother in need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God stay in him?" (1Jn 3:17). The same indictment falls on words that substitute for help — "Go in peace, be⁺ warmed and filled; and yet you⁺ don't give them the things needful to the body; what does it profit?" (Jas 2:16).

Christ as the Pattern

The Christian pattern is christological. "For Christ also didn't please himself" (Ro 15:3). "For you⁺ know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your⁺ sakes he became poor, that you⁺ through his poverty might become rich" (2Co 8:9). The death of Christ is therefore the ground of an unselfish life: "For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again" (2Co 5:14-15).

The Apostle's Example

Paul presses his own life into the same shape. He becomes "a slave to all, that I might gain the more... I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (1Co 9:19, 22), "not seeking my own profit, but the [profit] of the many, that they may be saved" (1Co 10:33). He will eat no flesh forevermore if it would cause his brother to stumble (1Co 8:13); he counts his own credentials as loss for the knowledge of Christ (Php 3:8); he endures all things for the elect's sake (2Ti 2:10); he will "most gladly spend and be spent for your⁺ souls" (2Co 12:15). In the matter of partisan rivals he can rejoice that "in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed" (Php 1:18). With his supporters at Philippi he is plain: "Not that I seek for the gift; but I seek for the fruit that increases to your⁺ account" (Php 4:17). At Thessalonica he refuses even necessary provision rather than burden the church: he worked "night and day, that we might not burden any of you⁺" (2Th 3:8). With Philemon he refuses to keep Onesimus without consent, "that your goodness should not be as of necessity, but of free will" (Phm 1:13-14). His glorying refuses self-promotion — "on my own behalf I will not glory, except in [my] weaknesses" (2Co 12:5).

Alongside Paul stand his coworkers: "Greet Prisca and Aquila my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who laid down their own necks for my soul" (Ro 16:3-4).

Old Testament Instances of Unselfishness

The Old Testament gallery is dense. Abram waives the first choice of land to Lot — "Isn't the whole land before you? Separate yourself, I pray you, from me. If [you will take] the left hand, then I will go to the right" (Ge 13:9) — and refuses the king of Sodom's offer of the spoil: when the king said, "Give me the souls, and take the goods to yourself" (Ge 14:21), Abram answered, "I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich" (Ge 14:23), reserving only the portion of his men (Ge 14:24). The children of Heth and Ephron in turn meet Abraham with the same liberality: "None of us will withhold from you his tomb that you may bury your dead" (Ge 23:6); "The field I give you, and the cave that is in it, I give it you" (Ge 23:11).

Judah pleads to be enslaved in his brother's place — "let your slave, I pray you, remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brothers" (Ge 44:33) — for fear of his father's grief (Ge 44:34). Joseph, having been wronged by those same brothers, comforts them: "don't be⁺ afraid: I will nourish you⁺, and your⁺ little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them" (Ge 50:21). Moses defends the foreign shepherd women (Ex 2:17), offers himself to be blotted out for Israel — "if not, blot me, I pray you, out of your book which you have written" (Ex 32:32) — and refuses jealousy when Yahweh's Spirit rests on others outside his circle: "Are you jealous for my sake? Oh that all Yahweh's people were prophets" (Nu 11:29). When Yahweh threatens to make him a greater nation than Israel, Moses pleads instead, "Pardon, I pray you, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving-kindness" (Nu 14:19).

Gideon refuses dynasty: "I will not rule over you⁺, neither will my son rule over you⁺: Yahweh will rule over you⁺" (Jdg 8:23). Jephthah's daughter accepts her own vow: "do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth" (Jdg 11:36). Ruth leaves her own father, mother, and homeland for Naomi (Ru 2:11). Saul on the day of his deliverance refuses to take vengeance on those who had despised him: "There will not be a man put to death this day; for today Yahweh has wrought deliverance in Israel" (1Sa 11:13). Jonathan strips off his robe, sword, bow, and belt and gives them to David (1Sa 18:4), and yields his own succession to him: "you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you" (1Sa 23:17), sealing it in covenant (1Sa 23:18).

David spares Saul, who afterward confesses, "You are more righteous than I" (1Sa 24:17). Pressed by his thirst, David refuses to drink water won at the risk of his men's lives: "Be it far from me, O Yahweh, that I should do this: [shall I drink] the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their souls?" (2Sa 23:17). In flight from Absalom he releases Ittai the foreigner from following him into exile (2Sa 15:19-20). Standing under the plague at the threshing-floor, he prays, "It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray you, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people" (1Ch 21:17). His prayer for himself in distress is for others: "Don't let those who wait for you be put to shame through me, O Sovereign Yahweh of hosts" (Ps 69:6). Araunah offers him oxen, threshing-instruments, and yokes for nothing; David refuses the gift: "I will truly buy it of you at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing" (2Sa 24:24).

Nehemiah, twelve years governor, declines the governor's allowance: "I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor... I did not demand the bread of the governor, because the service was heavy on this people" (Ne 5:14, 18). After the deliverance at Shushan the Jews "slew three hundred men in Shushan; but on the spoil they didn't lay their hand" (Es 9:15); Esther herself first ventures her own life: "if I perish, I perish" (Es 4:16). Daniel refuses Belshazzar's reward — "Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing to the king" (Da 5:17). Jonah, finally honest before the storm he caused, tells the sailors, "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so the sea will be calm to you⁺" (Jon 1:12), though they will not consent and row hard for the land (Jon 1:13).

Selfishness as the Foil

Scripture also exhibits the contrary, so that unselfishness can be seen by its negative. Cain's "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Ge 4:9) opens the gallery. Edom refuses Israel passage (Nu 20:21); the princes of Succoth refuse bread to Gideon's exhausted army (Jdg 8:6); Nabal will not share his shearing-feast — "Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men of whom I don't know from where they are?" (1Sa 25:11). Haman, asked who should be honored, can only think, "Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?" (Es 6:6). Among the disciples, James and John ask for the seats on the right and the left in Christ's glory (Mr 10:37). The priest and the Levite pass by on the other side (Lu 10:31-32). Of the believers around him Paul writes, "they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ" (Php 2:21). The last days will bring "lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty" (2Ti 3:2). Hebrews names the choice clearly: Moses chose "rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb 11:25).

The prophets and the wisdom writers repeat the indictment. "Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room" (Is 5:8). Israel's shepherds "have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter" (Is 56:11). The flock fed on the good pasture trample the rest with their feet and foul the clear waters with their feet (Eze 34:18). Israel multiplies altars in proportion to its own abundance (Ho 10:1). The oppressor "increases that which is not his" and "loads himself with pledges" (Hab 2:6). Even fasting and feasting can be turned inward: "when you⁺ eat, and when you⁺ drink, don't you⁺ eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" (Zec 7:6). Proverbs adds the social cost: "He who withholds grain, the people will curse him; But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it" (Pr 11:26); and the duty: "Deliver those who are carried away to death, And see that you hold back those who are ready to be slain" (Pr 24:11). Sirach reasons from self-injury outward: "He who is evil to his soul, to whom will he do good? And he will not meet with his good things" (Sir 14:5).

Promises to the Merciful

The unselfish are not left without promise. "Give, and it will be given to you⁺; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will give into your⁺ bosom. For with what measure you⁺ mete it will be measured to you⁺ again" (Lu 6:38). "The merciful man does good to his own soul" (Pr 11:17). "He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker; But he who has mercy on the needy honors him" (Pr 14:31). "He has dispersed, he has given to the needy; His righteousness endures forever" (Ps 112:9). "[The Speech of] Yahweh will support him on the couch of languishing: You make all his bed in his sickness" (Ps 41:3). To one who draws out his soul to the hungry, "your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday" (Is 58:10). To the king who breaks off his sins by showing mercy to the poor, Daniel offers "a lengthening of your tranquility" (Da 4:27). And Sirach turns the promise into adoption: "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son, And will be gracious to you" (Sir 4:10).