Politics, COVID, or democracy all lead to narcissism and feelings of victimhood. Even well-off people fall prey to this disease. We want to believe things are not our fault and the other is the cause of us losing something. Every age has a notion of this being the worst time ever.
The reality is that we are all susceptible to greed, rich and poor alike. Greed arises from man’s fallen nature. But greed is not just financial. This fallen nature impels man to satisfy his desires with the least possible expenditure of effort, which often requires his satisfaction at the expense of others.
Biblical commentator John Ritenbaugh describes greed as a “ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit. An accursed love of having, which will pursue its own interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity.”
Author Tom Nichols offers a counterintuitive description, “we are losing because we won. We are suffering because we are successful. We are unhappy because we have what we want.“
The Bible defines it as self-interest at the expense of others and provides us several examples: Satan was expelled from Heaven for wanting to be God. Adam and Eve wanted the knowledge of God. And Cain wanted the love Abel received.
In Romans 1:18b, we see that we are very capable of suppressing what we know to be true:
“Men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”
All this led to Jesus coming to demonstrate how to put others first and simply “love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some say the Bible does not condemn the pursuit of self-interest. They point to Scriptures like Philippians 2:4, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” And Matt 6:20, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . .”
“There is a place for legitimate self-interest, to which the bible periodically appeals, only it must be balanced by a compassionate concern for the interest of others.”
Sadly, many of us in the Christian community have missed the point. We establish rapport exclusively to satisfy our emotional and material needs. We commoditize relationships to further our careers, families, bank accounts, and material possessions and essentially build mutually exclusive affiliations. We use those affiliations to limit who we engage.
American Christians
portraying Christianity
as self-centered individualism
must explain how this integrates with
God’s commandment to love your neighbor.