By David ReayWednesday 29 May 2013LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Philippians 2:19-21
19 If the Lord Jesus is willing,I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. 20 I have no one else like Timothy,who genuinely cares about your welfare. 21 All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. (NLT)
We have all probably been in situations where we have met someone and asked them how they and their family were faring. We get a pretty detailed answer from them. The conversation then ends without them asking us anything about our own situation. It has been a one-way conversation,perhaps leaving us wondering if we matter at all to that other person.
Sadly,this is part and parcel of our essentially self-centred condition. We have been victims of it and perpetrators of it. We can be only too willing to talk about ourselves whereas we may be less enthusiastic about others talking about themselves.
Paul knew this very well. Only Timothy,it seems,had a genuine interest in the Philippian Christians. Others were preoccupied with self. Paul suggests that a concern for others’ welfare is a concern for what matters to Jesus. He wants us to take an interest in others. He wants us to fight against self-absorption. It is not as if we don’t matter: it is just that we are not the only ones who matter.
We are by nature in a cocoon of self-attentiveness. This can lead us to being divorced from the lives of others. Only through the grace of God can we burst that cocoon and become genuinely concerned for others beyond that cocoon.
Blessings
David Reay