Selfless

2 Cor 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7 And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. 8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, 11 you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. 12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. 

One of the greatest evidences of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a man or woman is the development of ‘selflessness.’

Selflessness runs totally contrary to one of the strongest desires of the flesh, recognized as selfishness. Selflessness and selfishness are at complete and total opposite ends of the spectrum. (There are also degrees of each which exist along that spectrum, but the apostle Paul is completely at the end of the scale.) He is what we might call a ‘fanatic for Christ.’

Some teach life in Christ as a kind of utopia on earth, wherein we are to expect health and wealth and unbridled joy and peace in our lives. You have probably already discovered that manner of teaching is far from truthful, and can lead to broken hearts and ruined expectations.

Paul, on the other hand, teaches and demonstrates a life walking through the fire of this world, facing everything that comes his way with a pre-meditated determination to bear up under it or to die – whichever the Lord wills. This is clearly extraordinary, not only for his willingness to bear up and not to back down, but also for the wisdom he expresses as his reason for doing so – and that reason is: Me. It is: You. Paul had something to deliver, and that was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn’t care what it cost him in years or in pain-free existence, he cared for those who would hear and be saved. He knew what his sufferings would produce, and we see the evidence all around us today. It is called the world-wide church, founded in large part by a selfless Spirit-filled man named ‘Paul.’

-  Pastor Bill