Category Archives: Selfishness

Rom 16:17-18 CSB  Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them,  (18)  because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words. Paul could not resist giving a final word of warning that they watch out for spiritual enemies: those who are divisive and seek to hinder the Lord’s work in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned). Believers are to keep away from such false teachers, who were not serving Christ, but were slaves to their own appetites. They were selfish gluttons. The problem, however, was that by smooth talk and flattery they deceived the minds of naive people.

Jas 4:2-3  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.  (3)  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. The sad fact is that there are wars and fights among Christians. To suggest that this paragraph does not apply to believers is unrealistic, and it robs the passage of all its value for us. What causes all this fighting? It arises from the strong desires within us which are constantly struggling to be satisfied. There is the lust to accumulate material possessions. There is the drive for prestige. There is the craving for pleasure, for the gratification of bodily appetites. These powerful forces are at work within us. We are…

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1 Sam 25:8-9  Ask your young men—they’ll tell you. What I’m asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.’”  (9)  David’s young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them,  (10)  “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. We can return evil for good. Nabal did that when he refused to share his food with David’s men. His name means “fool, ” and that is exactly what he was.

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