• ThirstySouls

  Love vs. Selfishness

  Posted by bopbop on March 16, 2026 at 7:33 am

  The law of love is the law of life–the principle upon which all life in the universe is based. As God Himself is love, He designed everything that He created to operate in harmony with this law of love, this circle of beneficence in which all things give freely to others. In nature we witness this cycle in the sun warming the oceans, which creates the clouds, which rain on the land to form the lakes, rivers, and streams, which flow through the land bringing life, and ultimately return to the sea to begin the circle again.

  Jennings, Timothy . Could It Be This Simple?: A Biblical Model for Healing the Mind (p. 60). Kindle Edition.

  When a pool of water stops flowing, it stagnates, and anything living in it dies. When we stop breathing to produce CO2 for the plants, we die. Even though we don’t think about it, it is through giving that we live. When we accept and apply the law of love, we are living the life God intended. When we fail to live in love, freely giving, we stagnate and slowly die.

  The world, as it came from the hand of God, was perfect, and all nature fully revealed the law of love. But once sin entered the world an antagonistic principle infected nature and obscured the clear revelation of God’s love. Once sin, which is the principle of selfishness, marred God’s love in nature, it became necessary for Him to provide His written Word in order for us to clearly see and understand the divine principle.

  Jennings, Timothy . Could It Be This Simple?: A Biblical Model for Healing the Mind (p. 61). Kindle Edition.

  When you stop to think about it, every problem in the world starts with selfishness. Wars, environmental problems, corrupt governments, disease, broken relationships; all start with selfishness. Some may call it greed; others may call it “survival of the fittest.” Whatever you choose to call it, selfishness is a disease, and without God’s Word to enlighten us, we could decide that it is just normal and not something to be healed.

  Human beings are infected with selfishness, and it is God’s plan to remove selfishness as the central motivating principle in the human mind and restore His law of love and liberty as its central operating principle. Unless this healing of mind occurs, the inevitable result is death. While selfishness currently infects all mankind, God did not leave us to struggle helplessly with our sickness. No! He sent us His Written Word and His Son to reveal His plan to heal us and restore us to our original condition. By reading the text sent by our Creator we can enhance our ability to distinguish between the infection and what God originally intended our condition to be. We can then make intelligent decisions to cooperate with Him for healing and transformation.

  Jennings, Timothy . Could It Be This Simple?: A Biblical Model for Healing the Mind (p. 62). Kindle Edition.

  Think back to the beginning. When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them the entire earth except for one tree, which He kept for Himself. Imagine that: every animal, every plant, all the bodies of water, everything except one tree. They even walked with God in the garden. What more could they possibly want? I would contend that it was selfishness that caused them to violate God’s law of love. God even warned them that if they ate the fruit of that one tree, they would die. But the desire for that fruit led them to violate God’s love, and sin entered the world. If Adam and Eve valued God’s love and wanted to show their love for Him, would they steal from Him?

  When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they broke their unity with God. They chose selfishness over love and shut of the flow of love from God. God still loved them but that love was no longer the dominating force in their heart and mind. Because of selfishness fear, guilt and shame overshadowed love. Now their only thoughts were about themselves. They went so far as to try and hide from God. When confronted Adam tried to place the blame on Eve and on God Himself. After all “You gave her to me.” Eve tried to put the blame on the serpent. All that to try and cover their on failure to love God first. Without God’s intervention their condition would have been terminal.

  We inherited that same selfishness. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you had to remind a child not to share so much? Without God’s intervention our condition would be terminal. But God loves us so much that He gave us His written Word and His Son to redeem us and restore His law of love–the law of life. It is through love, wanting what is best for the other person, that we receive love. Always seeking to give of ourselves, the way that Jesus did, brings us back in line with God’s intention.

  Everything that God has done and is still doing is out of His love for us. All of His commands are to bring us in line with the law of love. Like the stagnant pool, as long as God’s love flows into us and out to others we have life. When that flow is cut off, we begin to die. The fall in the garden brought about physical death because we were cut off from the tree of life. But more importantly, it brought about death on the inside. It broke the neural pathways that kept us in communion with God.

  Thank God that’s not the final word. Those original neural pathways can be restored and healed by learning and practicing God’s law of love which is the law of life.

  bopbop replied 2 hours, 20 minutes ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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