Beyond Yourself

By Sidharth Mohandas

We live in an age where one’s own benefits, comforts and rights are sought after as the highest priorities. Many men and women of God have their focus on how they can be famous, get a bigger house, purchase a sportier car, or expand the boundaries of their ministries. Am I standing here in judgment? Absolutely not! What they do is between  God and them. To reiterate, our vision at Imrah is to equip believers to be effective ministers in the Kingdom. It is my desire that the Lord will cause you to see through the course of this teaching, the mind of a true servant of God.

God is interested in changing our mentality in this area. This change in mentality will in turn cause a change in our vision. Paul instructs us in Philippians 2:5 ASV: Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What mind? He speaks about it in the previous verse:

“Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others”(Philippians 2:4 NASB)

God wants to change our mentality from a “bless me” to that of “be a blessing” mentality (Romans 15:1-3). “I want God to bless me so that ‘everyone will acknowledge that I am an anointed person’, ‘ people will be healed and be slain in the spirit when I lay hands on them‘, ‘they will think I am very sensitive in the spirit”… from such a self–oriented frame of mind to a plane where our hearts crave to bear the weak, to see them strong, equipped, and mature in the faith. What mind do we have?

“It’s my right!”

The Apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 9 that he was absolutely free to eat or drink what he wanted (1 Corinthians 9:4), to have a believing wife just like the other apostles (1 Corinthians 9:5), and that it was his right that those whom he ministered to took care of him and supported him materially (1 Corinthians 9:7-12). However, in a following verse he tells us that he was not caught up with his rights (1 Corinthians 9:15). Why? Because in all these, his heart was focused on what would be beneficial to those around him than to his own rights, comforts and blessings.

This is why he goes on to tell us in I Corinthians 10 that “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (I Corinthians 10:23-24)

Many years ago, when I was in school, I remember a time when I had great difficulty in grasping the concepts of Computer Science. No matter how much I tried, I never got it. At that time a new faculty had just joined our school. And she said she’d take extra classes just for me after school hours. So every day she would stay back and teach me from the basics. Now , my friends, notice that my teacher didn’t have to take extra classes; it was her right to enjoy her after-school hours with  her family. Imagine how many hours she spent for something that she did not benefit from? She wasn’t even being paid for the extra hours. And guess what? I got one of the highest scores the following year.  We just saw the heart of a servant, a heart that was not motivated by some personal agenda, but by the desire to see someone else excel or built up.

Knowledge puffs up

While debating over spiritual topics, majority of us tend to focus on “who is right”, and in the heat of the discussion, it is quite normal that we may end up saying harsh things in order to prove ourselves right. Many of us know what Paul implies in the teaching regarding the covering of heads (I Corinthians 11:3-16), why Paul instructed women in Corinth and Ephesus to remain silent (I Timothy 2:12, I Corinthians 14:34-36), why food sacrificed to idols does not bring us closer to God or draw us away from Him (I Corinthians 8:7-8), or why it is alright to eat meat (Romans 14:14). I would love to explain clearly the truth about these things,  to a person who is genuinely interested in an in-depth understanding . But what if this person is accustomed to wearing a veil over her head? Or what if he or she thinks it is wrong to eat food sacrificed to idols? Should I “bash” him/her up with Scriptures to establish what I know is right? Or should I overlook such menial issues and focus on the immediate need of building up the person and establishing him in God? As Paul said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (I Corinthians 8:1).

Abba, we thank You for Your Word that comes to us today, instructing us to change our mentality, to look beyond ourselves to the edification of others. May we never think, speak or do anything with a selfish motive. Form in us the heart of a servant, a heart that does not seek a reputation for it’s own. In Jesus name, Amen.

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