We live in a “me first” society.  Selfishness runs rapid in the world today.  To be a Christian, however, one must learn to put others before self.  The one who is constantly putting himself before everyone else is plagued with a flaw that needs fixing because it will stop him from ever being a successful Christian.  Remember, being a Christian involves striving to be like Christ, and He was the farthest thing possible from being selfish.

Romans 15:3 (ESV)
³  For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

Beginning with His willingness to give up heaven for a while and take on a human body, everything Jesus did, He did for others.  Paul said that He became poor for our sake so that we, through His poverty, might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).  If we are to be like Christ, we must learn to be unselfish.

The lowering of self should begin with our willingness to put God before ourselves.  Jesus emphasized this when talking about being His disciple.

Luke 14:26-27 (ESV)
²⁶  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus uses the word hate here to denote loving less.  We must love ourselves less than we do Him and the rest of the Godhead.  When we do that, we will put God first in our lives (Matthew 6:33).  This will lead us to live a life of unselfishness.

Putting God first should be our priority, but He is not the only one Who we should put before ourselves.  While Jesus was willing to put the Father before Himself, as we have seen, He put all men before Himself by being humble enough to come to earth and die in our place.  What does this teach us?  We must not only put God before ourselves, but we must also put our fellowman before self.

Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
³  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Do you count others more significant than yourself?  This is not an easy thing to do in real life, especially in a world that teaches us from the days of our youth to put ourselves first.  Jesus, however, gave us the ultimate example of this.  Paul went on to say that He made Himself nothing (Philippians 2:7), and He only did it so that we might live.  Now, that is unselfishness.

Let us all try to be a little more unselfish.  An unselfish person can do so much more than a person who is selfish.  He will be more willing to give to the cause of Christ (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), sacrifice time to better serve the Lord (Ephesians 5:15-16), and forego liberties in Christ if it might cause others to stumble (Romans 14).  There is a long list of ways we will be better Christians if we do away with the flaw of selfishness.        

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.