The Text
The Ruin the Fall Brought
The ruin that the fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in his losing the nobler and more benevolent principles of his nature, and falling wholly under the power and government of self-love. Before, and as God created him, he was exalted, and noble, and generous; but now he is debased, and ignoble, and selfish. Immediately upon the fall, the mind of man shrank from its primitive greatness and expandedness to an exceeding smallness and contractedness.
Before, his soul was under the government of that noble principle of divine love, whereby it was enlarged to the comprehension of all his fellow creatures and their welfare. But so soon as he had transgressed against God, these noble principles were immediately lost. Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness; and God was forsaken, and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings.
What the Gospel Does
But God, in mercy to miserable man, entered on the work of redemption, and, by the glorious gospel of his Son, began the work of bringing the soul of man out of its confinement and contractedness, and back again to those noble and divine principles by which it was animated and governed at first. And it is through the cross of Christ that he is doing this; for our union with Christ gives us participation in his nature. And so Christianity restores an excellent enlargement, and extensiveness, and liberality to the soul, and again possesses it with that divine love or charity whereby it again embraces its fellow creatures, and is devoted to and swallowed up in the Creator.
The Nature of Selfishness
There are those who, in their love to their own happiness, place that happiness in good things that are confined or limited to themselves, to the exclusion of others. And this is selfishness. This is the thing most clearly and directly intended by that self-love which the Scripture condemns. When it is said that charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good — good limited to herself.
Love to God Is Above Selfishness
The Scriptures teach that those who truly love God, love him so as wholly to devote themselves to him and his service:
If self be devoted wholly to God, then there is something above self that overcomes it; something superior to self that takes self and makes an offering of it to God. A selfish principle never devotes itself to another. The nature of it is to devote all others to self. They that idolize self, devote all to self; but they that love God as God, devote all to him.
The Application
If you are Christians, then in a peculiar sense, ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20), even with the precious blood of Christ. By a most just title you belong to him, and not to yourself. And, therefore, you must not henceforth treat yourself as your own, by seeking your own interests or pleasure only. Your abilities of body and mind, your outward possessions, your time, your talents, your influence, your comforts — none of them are your own. Let these things incline us all to be less selfish than we are, and to seek more of the contrary most excellent spirit. Selfishness is a principle native to us; but considering the knowledge that we have of Christianity, we ought to be far less selfish, and less ready to seek our own interests and these only. Let us strive to overcome it, that we may grow in the grace of an unselfish spirit, and thus glorify God, and do good to men.