Christian Love Does Not Seek its Own

Today we present the selfless actions of Jesus as yet another example of Christian love. We briefly introduced the subject, “Love Does Not Seek Its Own,” in a prior post (What-is-Christian-Love) that addressed Paul’s dissertation on the subject of love, found in the First Letter to the Corinthians.

Saint Paul Preaching

Acts of Christian love are not performed for self benefit or reciprocity. They are performed for benefit others with all the kindness, generosity and blessings that can come from a loving relationship with us. There is not a “What is in it for me,” associated with Christian love. This is communicated in the following Bible passage where Jesus guides a man toward the kingdom of God:

Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, ” ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’“ The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19:16 – 21)


Notice that this passage did not say, “Sell what you have and give it to my ministry, or my mission, or me.” The above message was designed to bless the man who asked the question just as much as it was intended to be a blessing to the poor. Unlike some of our ministries today, Jesus did not “seek His own,” but rather sought to bless others exclusively. He simply sought to act in love and to speak the truth.

So, in our desire to become more like Jesus we must ask ourselves some difficult questions. Do we put others before ourselves when making decisions? Are we in ministry to bring attention to ourselves or are we focused on the poor like Jesus was? Are we focused on the will of God or are we doing what will make us look good to others?

The purpose of these postings on Christian love is to assist the reader who is seeking to become more like their savior Jesus Christ. Our approach is to communicate that the life and words of Jesus are the perfect model of what we hope to become. Our expectation is that the reader will contrast their own words and actions to those of Jesus and make an effort to discover places that they may fall short of the mark. Once shortcomings are identified then the reader can seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit to help them in moving closer to the perfection of the examples that Jesus left us.

We recommended that every person in ministry reflect upon their worthiness to serve by first studying these examples of Christian love.

We have presented a number of posting that address the principles of Christian Love. Each of them is reinforced by examples taken from the life and words of Jesus. The following list of hyperlinks is provided to help those interested in reading these other postings. Clicking on any of the links below will transfer you to the posting of your choice:

What-is-Christian-Love

Christian-Love-Suffers-Long

Christian-Love-is-Kind

Christian-Love-Does-Not-Envy

Christian-Love-Does-Not-Parade-Itself

Christian-Love-is-Not-Puffed-Up

Christian-Love-Does-Not-Behave-Rudely

Christian-Love-Does-Not-Seek-Its-Own

Christian-Love-is-Not-Provoked

Christian-Love-Thinks-No-Evil

Christian-Love-Bears-All-Things

Christian-Love-Believes-All-Things

Christian-Love-Hopes-All-Things

Christian-Love-Never-Fails