In
his sermon, The Weight of Glory, C.
S. Lewis initiates his discussion with drawing a distinction between the qualities
of Unselfishness and Love. His point is
that we value Unselfishness more than Love, unlike our Christian forefathers.
This is problem for the following reason: “The negative ideal of Unselfishness
carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others,
but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness
was the important point.” (1) Our thoughts diverge from “loving our neighbor as
ourselves” (Matthew 22:39), which is the second greatest commandment (vs.39),
and elevate denying ourselves instead. I do not think that C. S. Lewis is
negating the value of Unselfishness; rather, he is drawing our attention to
where our Unselfishness leads us. By
elevating Unselfishness, we start to think of fulfillment of God-given desires
a bad thing, when really, “Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too
weak” (1). Our Unselfishness is
dangerous in that it results in the denial of desires; rather we should seek to
love others, to do what is best for others, and demonstrate Unselfishness in
service to Love as it allows us to give up what we want for the good of
another.
How does firstly striving after the
virtue of Unselfishness instead of Love affect how we worship, privately and
corporately?
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