2 Peter 1:7

2 Peter 1:7

and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness, love.

The more I read the New Testament the more I am convinced that Sanctification is others focused. True life is found in valuing others as more important than yourself. God who is the only being with the right to be selfish gave His life for us. He does not need our love and affection but He in His nature is selfless valuing us enough to become man, bear the sin of the world, and die for our sake. He did this for us while we were still enemies of Him! Right now our nation is at war and the terrorists are our enemies. We are fighting them to protect our nation and families and they are our enemies. Would we die for them willingly? God became man and died for us to offer the chance of salvation! Would you die for your enemy so he could have the chance of salvation? As we grow in godliness we are to develop brotherly kindness, but who is our brother? I cannot help but think of the parable of the good Samaritan. The whole point of the parable is that we are to love EVERYONE with the same intensity that we love ourselves. This is a picture of brotherly kindness and we cannot posses it without godliness. It is impossible for anyone in his own sinful nature to be 100% selfless. We care about our own worries and our own wants and desires. We see this in children at such an early age. When two children are given cookies they immediately look to see who has the larger cookie. They are not grateful that they were given a cookie but angered because they were wronged when it came to cookie size. It takes God living through us to be selfless.

Once we start living our lives with an attitude of brotherly kindness we can experience true love. When Paul talks about true love in Corinthians he shows us that love is about others before it is about us. The early Church in acts lived this principle as a group until we are introduce to Ananias and Sapphira. These two tried to use the true love of their fellow believers for selfish gain and God killed them! The danger in selfless living is that others will not act selfless in return but what does that matter? If we are truly following God we are sustained. People will always take advantage of the selfless, we do it to each other we do it to God, but we are called to be selfless no matter the cost. Jesus Christ laid down His life for His enemies so that they could become coheirs in His holy inheritance! Are we willing to die for our enemies, are we even willing to die for our friends?

If we want to see the world fall in love with God we must stop being so selfish!