"Love...is not self-seeking" 1 Cor. 13:5

[Robert]

When Lucifer sinned, did he think he was doing a good thing? Or did he think he was doing a bad thing?

He said that he was trying to improve the lot of the angels. There’s something here that is very important and we need to understand it. The love of God, which is the basis of His government, has no self in it. “Love seeketh not her own.” When you look at it philosophically, the love of self sounds very convincing. “You cannot be happy unless you love self.” So the idea of self-love sounds right. There is that text is Proverbs that says, “There’s a way that seems right.”

So Lucifer felt that his way of self-love was better than God’s way where there is no self. So God said, “Go ahead, I will allow you to develop sin,” because that’s what the meaning of sin is. Sin is turning toward self. God said, “I will allow you to develop this world on the principle of self.” This world has been developed on the principle of self for the last six thousand years. Has the world improved? No. If you look at the history of this world, the moment you lift up the principle of self, what happens to society? Does it become better or does it become worse? It becomes worse. After two thousand years, the world had become so terrible that the knowledge of God was almost wiped out. God said, “I will destroy the world and give it a new start.”

And you have the same trend for the next two thousand years when God gave the gospel to the Jews. Did the Jews improve the situation even though He gave them the oracles of God? The Jews had the explicit knowledge of God. Did it help them? What happened to them? It became worse and worse and worse.

Then Christ came and redeemed us and established the Christian Church. Has the church been getting better and better? What’s the history of the Christian Church? Take the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when God allowed the world to increase in knowledge — scientific knowledge, technology. Has science solved our problem? It has solved our problem in terms of amenities of life. Now I can press a button and my dishes are all washed. In that sense, it has improved. But as far as the situation of the world is concerned, is it a better place in which to live? Has crime decreased? No. So has science solved the problem? No. Everything that has been tried has failed because self, sin doesn’t improve things. It makes it worse.

[Robert]

God's love

Here's a sample:

At its very best, human love is self-seeking. Since we are by nature egocentric, everything we do or think, in and of ourselves, is polluted with self-love or selfishness. Socially, politically, academically, materially, economically, even religiously, we are all slaves to “our own way” [isaiah 53:6; cf. Philippians 2:21]. As we saw in the previous chapter, we are all shaped in “iniquity”; that is, we are bent toward self. Consequently, we all, without exception, fall short of God’s glory, His agape love [see Romans 3:23].

[Robert]

-BC- SpTA09

-TI- Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers -- No. 9

-PR- 02

-PG- 62

What is justification by faith? -- It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. When they begin to praise and exalt God all the day long, then by beholding they are becoming changed into the same image. What is regeneration? -- It is revealing to man what is his own real nature, that in himself he is worthless.

To accept justification by faith, we must accept God's appraisal of fallen humanity. Our pride must be broken. That is why God gave the Old Covenant [the law]....He never intended it as a means of salvation....He gave it to reveal our sinfulness – our wretchedness so that we might be justified by faith (see Galatians 3:19-25).

Let's look at how the spirit of the law did what God intended it to do:

• “When he [Paul] saw the spiritual nature of the law, sin appeared in its true hideousness, and his self-esteem was gone.” [sC 29]

Here’s more:

When the spirit of the law is revealed: “Sin will appear exceedingly sinful. . . . There is no longer

self-righteousness, self-esteem, self-honor. Self-security is gone. Deep conviction of sin and self-loathing is the result, and the soul in its desperate sense of peril lays hold on the blood of the Lamb of God as his only remedy.” --Lt 51, 1888. (HC 140.)

"Jesus... plainly declared to His disciples that this holy law of God may be violated in even the thoughts and feelings and desires, as well as in the word and deed. The heart that loves God supremely [:"Red"]will not in any way be inclined to narrow down His precepts to the very smallest possible claims….[/]” [1MCP 32]

Those who oppose that "self-seeking" & "self-love" are not sin are reducing God's precepts "to the very smallest possible claims"!

[Robert]

God placed into the heart of Adam agape love because Adam was created in God’s own image. “God is Agape” (1 John 4:8,16). That means that he had a love that went towards others and not towards himself because agape does not have self in it. 1 Cor. 13:5: “Agape seeketh not her own.” There is no self in agape. So this is Adam before his fall.

Now what happened when Adam sinned? If you read Steps to Christ, we are told that love disappeared and selfishness took its place. That is a correct description. Adam’s agape love became bent toward self. That’s what happened at the fall. Human love was the agape bent toward self. In the Hebrew language this word of bending is called iniquity. The Hebrew word for iniquity means to be bent:

"All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all bent to our own way."

Every human being is born with self-love. We don’t have to try to love ourselves. The day you do not love yourself you are a sick person. You would need to go to the hospital.

Even the person who commits suicide loves himself or herself. They can’t face the issues of life. They don’t care about how much it hurts their loved ones. They want to get rid of their problem and the only way is suicide. So self-love is spontaneous. It is a U-turn agape.

Let’s say you break the speed limit and a policeman stops you. You plead with him. You say, “Officer, I was in a hurry. I have an appointment.” Are you sorry because you love the policeman? Are you sorry because you love the law of the country or are you sorry because you love your pocket? Why are you pleading for mercy?

When the rich young man came to Jesus and said, “What good thing must I do to be saved?” he had missed the gospel.

Jesus said, “Keep the commandments.”

He said, “I have been keeping it since I was in Primary Sabbath School.”

Jesus said, “Alright, let me test you. If you love your neighbour as yourself, then give your wealth to your neighbour and follow me and I will give you my wealth.”

Did he do it? No. Why? Because he loved himself. If you read further in the passage, you will come to Peter. He was a wonderful fellow. He spoke before he thought and he said, “Jesus, we have given up everything for you. What is our reward?” The great Peter! Jesus knew that he still had not been fully converted.

Jesus said, “Peter you have not given up anything without receiving one hundred fold from me.” He did not rebuke Peter; He met him on his level. But later on Peter understood the gospel and he was now ready to die for Christ. That was afterwards.

Agape is the ingredient by which the law is kept. Without agape you cannot keep the law. Now here’s the problem. Men do not have agape, they have only eros, which is self-love. Self-love only knows how to sin.

By the way, if I keep the Sabbath because I want to go to heaven, am I keeping the law? Or am I keeping sin? Right, the latter. Sure outwardly I am keeping the right day, but inwardly I am doing this for a reward - I am keeping a law to be saved and hence I am self-seeking - I am sinning because I am breaking the spirt of the law!

Our problem is that we do not have agape. We have only self-love. That is why the Bible teaches that by the works of the law no flesh can be justified because we don’t have the ingredient for justification.

[Robert]

Is. 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, [how so?] each of us has turned to his own way....