Self Isolation (4) - ‘Self’ really does cause isolation.

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This morning the UK woke up to stricter Government-imposed regulations on our movements. They had hoped that if people were informed about the right thing to do we would choose to comply freely. Alas! We have seen pictures of crowded parks and beaches and people crammed together in queues to buy fish and chips. Their selfishness in flaunting their ‘freedom’ means that we are all just a little bit more isolated now. 

This is a helpful illustration of what the Bible teaches about sin: 

‘Self’ really does cause isolation!

Jesus said that God has given us two stand-out commandments. The second of these is:

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. 

This is the ‘spirit’ of the famous Ten Commandments, which spell-out what loving your neighbour means in practice: honour your parents, and do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or be jealous of other people. In other words “Don’t be selfish! Selfishness is the opposite of love. It only causes division and isolates you from other people!” How different the world would be if we all lived like that!

But Jesus said that there is an even greater commandment than ‘loving your neighbour’. It is this: 

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength’.

Again, in detail this means, putting the one, true and living God first in every way, not worshipping idols (‘false gods’), holding God’s name in the utmost respect, and keeping one day in the week Holy to rest and worship God. We find this harder to understand because God is invisible. Whilst we can see with our own eyes that selfishness isolates us from other people, it is harder to recognise that our selfish behaviour impacts our relationship with God. But remember: the God of the Bible is the God of infinite self-giving love. He wants us to be self-giving - just like Him. He wants us to love Him - just as He loves us.

This is what the Bible means by the moral and spiritual reality of sin: it is that selfish lack of love which isolates us from God and each other. God intends us to be God-centred and other-centred not self-centred. 

So ‘Self’ really does cause isolation - it isolates us from God.

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