Be on the look-out!

No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:24

It’s natural to be self-centred.

I don’t mean that in a critical sense; no, self-centredness is a fact of life, and basically neutral. You get up in the morning and of course you think about what the day might hold for you – what responsibilities you have to fulfil, what difficulties you might need to grapple with, what pleasures you might hope to enjoy. That’s the way life is, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

The trouble is when that natural focus is all we ever have – it’s me, me, me all the time. And that is why it’s a good mental exercise each day to ask ourselves the question: What should my priorities be today? Do I need to consciously open my eyes wider to ensure that I see my “me-life” in a wider perspective?

Tragically, it’s possible to lose the ability to actually see other people at all. Oh yes, they’re around me, of course – some of them in fact are helpful and useful (though others, if I’m to be honest, are a bit of a pest).

But do I treat them essentially as items of scenery on the stage where I, of course, am by far the most important actor? Do I notice them as my fellow men and women, or just take them for granted as necessary props?

The twelve words in the verse above are wonderfully simple – but also completely revolutionary if we dare to take them seriously.

In the original context Paul is talking about differences of opinion (and there were plenty of those!) in the church at Corinth, focussing mainly on scruples about food. But his plain words – “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others” – are also of far wider application. They mean nothing less than this: every person we ever come across – whether somebody in desperate need, or a casual acquaintance with a bit of a problem – has a claim on our loving concern.

Paul’s words are really another way of expressing Jesus’ command: “Love one another” and, even more, “Love your enemies” – a command beautifully illustrated in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).

The little word “seek” is important. Why? Because it suggests something purposeful and deliberate – to seek something is different from just happening to come across it. Some of the Bible versions translate it as “look out for”, which I think is even better. The point is that we don’t need to seek our own good, because that’s something we do automatically. But when it comes to other people, that’s a different matter. We need to be consciously “on the look-out” for ways of doing good to others. Eyes wide open!

A supermarket check-out worker sadly said, “People just don’t see us as people – we might just as well be mechanical robots”. What applies in that most humdrum of settings applies in untold numbers of others too.

Do we, then, need to completely reboot our attitude towards other people? How’s that for a thought to chew on today?

It’s true that there is a danger here: Could such an attitude turn us into busy-bodies? C S Lewis wrote somewhere about people who insist on doing good to others: he said (I’m quoting from memory here), “Yes, and you know who the others are by the hunted look on their faces”. “Do-gooders” are among the most despised and disliked of people.

Obviously that’s far from what Paul intends – or Jesus, come to that. Indeed, Jesus explicitly warns against it: “Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:1-4).

I love that expression, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. Truly good deeds are done with discretion and sensitivity, and, if at all possible, in complete secrecy. As the Anglican prayer book puts it: “We ask for no reward, save that of knowing that we do your will”.

So back to the question I asked earlier: Do we need to reboot our attitude to other people? – to make up our minds to consciously look out for their good before our own? What a different world this would be if we all did so. There’s plenty of scope for it! – and not just because we’re in the throes of a health crisis.

Lord Jesus, you “made yourself nothing”, giving your life for others – and that includes me. So help me day by day to see the needs of others before my own, and to respond with sensitivity and love. Amen.