“It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.”
These words of the French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) rightly portray as blind those who are wrapped up in themselves. They become oblivious to the needs of those around them.
A video I used in last Sunday’s message illustrated this point. A man rushing to work is irritated by everyone and everything that gets in his way. Things are no different when he stops at a coffee shop. As he impatiently waits for his latte, he is handed a special pair of glasses. As he puts them on he is able to see the pain and struggles of those around him: One recently lost his job, another was grieving the loss of a friend, another battling addiction. Overwhelmed, he runs out of the coffee shop without his caffeine fix. But everywhere he looks, he sees the needs of others. The video closes as he stops to take the time to focus on the need of one individual.
As Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
But in order to do that we must take the blinders of self-love off, so we can see the needs of others. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:3-5 NIV)
Paul continues in this passage to describe how Jesus, although He was God, did not use that to His advantage but instead became a servant to meet the needs of humankind. Jesus did this throughout His life by caring for the needs of others. Jesus’ life was summarized in Acts 10:38 in this way: “He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”
But the greatest way that Jesus demonstrated His love was in His sacrificial death on the cross for us. He took the punishment that we deserved because of our rebellion against God. The prophet Isaiah wrote about Christ’s sacrifice for us: “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6 NLT)
Jesus took our punishment so that by placing our faith in Him we might have forgiveness of sins and live with the love and attitude of Christ in caring for others. Love indeed is not blind but looks to the needs of others.
