Living Beyond Self-Interest: Choosing What Honors Christ

Summary

This article contrasts natural self-serving decision-making with Christ-centered living. While the world chooses what benefits the self, Christians are called to live for Jesus in every choice. God’s wisdom prioritizes what honors Him and benefits others first. Through faith, believers receive Christ’s righteousness and are transformed by the Spirit into practical holiness. True Christian living replaces convenience with love, obedience, and Spirit-empowered choices that glorify God.

The Natural Pull Toward Self-Serving Choices

Self-serving purposes lurk behind most choices. I rarely eat at fast food restaurants because their menus are unhealthier than home-cooked meals. I exercise, not because I enjoy it, but because of the health benefits it bestows. I plant disease-resistant tomatoes, because otherwise I might not harvest any tomatoes at all. The natural operating principle and the world’s wisdom are choosing what is best for us.

Why Self-Centered Living Must Die

For Christians, however, who seek to live for Jesus, self-serving motivation must die. So, what I eat, whether I exercise, and the vegetables I plant must all conform to living for Him who died for me (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Choosing What Honors Christ

Eating well and exercising fortify me with more energy for Kingdom work. Choosing disease-resistant tomatoes allows me to care for my family (1 Timothy 5:8) and demonstrate Jesus’ love by sharing tomatoes with others (Matthew 22:37-39). Life must be Christ-centered. “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people” (Colossians 3:23 NLT).

A Higher Decision-Making Principle

The supernatural operating decision-making principle is what is best for God, others, and me (in that order) for the long run. To do that, we need the wisdom that comes from above (James 3:17).

A loving God’s choices are not based on what is convenient for Him but on what His holy love requires (John 3:16). As we progressively become more like Jesus, choosing what honors Christ informs our decisions, not personal benefit.

God’s Loving Purpose in Choosing Us

God chose us for a loving purpose. “God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace” (1 Peter 1:2 NLT).

He chose us to transform and make us like Jesus. “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29 NLT).

Living Out Holiness by the Spirit

His Spirit makes us holy in two ways. Holy means being set apart from common life for God and His purposes.

When we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, God credits Jesus’s righteousness and holiness to us because of our position in Christ by grace through faith. Because of that credited righteousness, God sees us as holy as Jesus. “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners” (Romans 4:5 NLT).

The Spirit also transforms our behavior with our cooperation, so we act more and more like Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11).

We aren’t saved just because we go to church and “believe in God.” When God chooses us, the result is positional holiness, practical holiness, obedience to Jesus, cleansing by His blood, and increasing measures of grace and peace.

Photo: Image Creator (microsoft.com)