Words from the Pastor
No Longer Living For Self
by Wayne Hoag 07.25.22
“The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ. We look at it like this: if one died for all men then, in a sense, they all died, and now His purpose in dying for them is that their lives now should be no longer lived for themselves but for Him who died and rose again for them” (II Corinthians 5:13-14, J.B. Phillips Translation).
In a day and age that deifies the “self” self-fulfillment, self-image, self-actualization, self-esteem, self-confidence, and more hyphenated self-words than you can shake a stick at, the above verse cuts against the grain of our self-centered culture. Here the Apostle Paul exhorts us to no longer live for self but for the One who died and rose again on our behalf. Then he calls us to live for others. When writing to the Philippians, the apostle said, “And do nothing from selfishness…but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself.” Both are consistent with Christ’s call that we die daily (to self), pick up our crosses and follow Him.
