I think we would all agree that we are living in a “What’s in it for me?” society—a hedonistic culture that promotes the pursuit of personal pleasure and satisfaction. Hedonists teach that only pleasure or pain motivates us, and only pleasure has true value. So, they reason, pleasure is good and pain is bad.
Consequently then, a hedonist’s quality of life rises and falls on their own personal happiness. If they are happy, all is well. If they are sad, then it becomes their life’s pursuit to replace their sadness with something that makes them happy. And so hedonism is “the pursuit of personal pleasure.”
Of course, hedonism is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches as to how we are to live and what we are to pursue. If hedonism is all about ‘selfishness’, true Biblical Christianity is all about ‘selflessness’—living not for ourselves but intentionally and sacrificially living for Jesus Christ and others.
Consider the inspired words of Jesus and the Apostle Paul:
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’” (Matt. 16:24-25)
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4).
In His book, “New Rules: Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down” Daniel Yankelovich, then a professor at New York University, documented a shift in social values in the 1970’s that has deeply affected the church.
The old rules, Yankelovich said, stressed duty to others, particularly to one’s family and church. If someone was selfish and got caught, it was embarrassing and looked ugly. But somewhere in the 1970’s he said the culture adopted a new rule, which he called “the duty to self ethic.” Somewhere things got turned around and the culture began to accept as normative the pursuit of one’s own needs and interests at the exclusion of others. All other relationships and values come second to one’s own pursuits.
While all of that should not be much of a surprise for us to hear, it nonetheless should be extremely troubling for us as Christians. Why? Because as Yankelovich has intimated, the tentacles of hedonism has infiltrated the church of God—and in a big way.
So rather than push back against the sinful tide of this newfound selfishness in the church, many instead decided to acquiesce to the trend by instituting a new pragmatic, methodological, consumer-driven approach to ministry. As a result, whole systems of theology were developed to pander to the personal lusts of people. The “prosperity gospel”, also known as the “name it and claim it gospel” or the “health and wealth gospel” effectively plays on the personal pleasure cravings of people. Come to Jesus, they say, and your life will be pleasurable. Come to Jesus and He will give you good health and much wealth.
Paul warned Timothy about pleasure seekers in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (or personal pleasure)”.
While it is true that the Christian life is an abundant life of great blessing (John 10:10), Jesus doesn’t promise to give us material blessings or good health if we follow Him. Instead, Jesus said that there is a measurable cost to those who choose to be His disciples (John 15:20; 2 Tim. 3:12).
Again, the Scriptures remind us that the Christian life is not about us, but is all about selflessly loving, serving and sacrificing for Jesus and others (Gal. 5:13; I John 3:16). So it makes sense that the more we live like Jesus lived, the more we will be treated as He was treated.
When we think of examples in the Bible of those who exhibited true selflessness in the model of Christ we think of men like Barnabas, whose name means “son of encouragement.” Barnabas was a genuine man of God who, as far as we know, selflessly lived his whole life for Christ and others.
Here are FOUR WAYS that we can learn from his life:
- First, Barnabas was a SELFLESS GIVER. (Acts 4:32-37)
We see this in earnest as Barnabas sold a valuable piece of land that he owned and brought the proceeds to the Apostles for them to distribute as they saw fit.
- Second, Barnabas was a SELFLESS FRIEND. (Acts 9:19-27)
Here we find Barnabas in action as he takes Paul, the former zealot and persecutor of the church, before the apostles in Jerusalem. As a selfless friend, he vouches for the authenticity of Paul’s faith and Paul is then accepted by the church in Jerusalem.
3. Third, Barnabas was a SELFLESS SERVANT. (Acts 11:19-30)
Because of Barnabas’ reputation as a selfless servant, he was chosen by the church at Jerusalem to go to Antioch to investigate reports that there were Gentiles coming to faith in Christ. While in Antioch, he witnesses the amazing grace of God working among the Gentiles and he rejoices with his new brothers and sisters in Christ.
Eventually, Barnabas becomes Paul’s companion on his 1st missionary journey, traveling together, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, and planting new churches in Asia Minor.
Following the success of their 1st missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas make plans for their 2nd journey and it is then that we see another display of the selflessness of Barnabas.
4. Fourth, Barnabas was a SELFLESS MAN OF CONVICTION (Acts 15:36-40)
When conflict arose with Paul over whether John Mark should join them on their 2nd missionary journey, Barnabas humbly stuck to his unpopular conviction that John Mark should be forgiven for his previous youthful undependability and included.
We so appreciate the example of men like Barnabas and others, because as my friend Steve Camp so appropriately reminds us in his song “Not About Us” (from the album “Desiring God”), the Christian life is truly “…all about Him. It’s all about His glory—it’s all about His praise. It’s all about the worship to His holy name!”