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The Spirit of Love the Opposite of a Selfish Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:5) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to another session of Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm your host, and as always, it is good to be with you.
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  We are opening up the archives again, blowing off the dust and
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  seeing what the giants of the past have to say to us today.
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  It's good to be here. I'm joined by my Co host to help
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  us walk through these texts. We're here to serve you, the
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  listener, by guiding you through the doctrines that have shaped
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  the Reformed tradition. We stand on the Westminster
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  Confession, absolutely. But we're not just doing history
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  for the sake of history, no. Not at all.
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  We want to see how these truths land, you know, right in the
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  middle of our actual messy lives.
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  That's the goal. It is.
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  And well, today we have a text that cuts.
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  It really, really cuts. I would argue it's one of the
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  most searching things we have ever covered in one of these
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  deep dives. I agree completely.
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  We are looking at a sermon by Jonathan Edwards.
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  The text is his exposition of First Corinthians 13.5.
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  Specifically, that little phrase charity seeks, not her own.
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  A very small phrase with massive implications.
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  Massive. And before we even get into the
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  weeds of the sermon, I think we need to set the stage.
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  There is a huge tension between what Edwards is saying here and
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  what the world around is is shouting every single day.
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  That is the understatement of the year.
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  I mean, if you walk into a bookstore right now or just
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  scroll through social media for 5 minutes, the main message is
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  self love. It's everywhere.
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  It's the highest virtue, apparently.
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  Right. We're told to look out for #1 to
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  prioritize our own happiness, to find ourselves.
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  It's framed as this moral imperative.
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  You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.
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  Or so the saying goes. But Edwards is coming at this
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  from a completely, and I mean completely different angle.
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  He's making the case that the fall of man, the moment sin
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  entered the cosmos, was essentially A collapse into
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  selfishness. It's a total reversal of the
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  modern narrative, isn't it? We see self love as the
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  solution. He sees it as the fundamental
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  problem, the disease itself. So we're looking at how the Fall
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  contracted the human soul, shrank it down, and how the
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  Spirit of God is the only agent that can expand it back to its
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  original design. That's it in a nutshell.
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  So here's our road map for this deep dive.
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  First, we're going to define what selfishness actually is,
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  and maybe more importantly, what it isn't.
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  Because Edwards is very nuanced here.
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  He's not saying what you might initially think.
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  That's a key point. His precision is so helpful.
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  Then we'll look at how this Christian love, this charity
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  operates in public and private life.
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  We'll also examine the new commandment of loving as Christ
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  loved. Which really raises the bar.
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  It does. And finally, we'll discuss this
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  incredible paradox that seeking God's glory is actually the only
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  way to secure your own happiness in the end.
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  It's a paradox that once you grasp it, it really changes
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  everything. Well, let's start at the
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  beginning, or well before the beginning in a sense.
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  Let's start with the fall to understand why selfishness is
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  such a problem. Right.
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  Edwards takes us back to the pre fall state.
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  To understand the pathology, you have to know what health looked
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  like first. Exactly, and Edwards describes
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  the soul of man as it was originally created as being
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  noble, generous, and expanded. I love that word expanded.
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  It gives you this image of something vast and open.
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  It suggests that Adam in his original state wasn't just, you
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  know, thinking about his own comfort or his next meal.
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  His soul had a reach to it. Precisely.
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  His love wasn't static. It wasn't contained within
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  himself. It went beyond himself first and
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  foremost. It reached out to the Creator,
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  and then from there it extended to what Edwards calls the
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  infinite ocean of Good. It's a beautiful phrase.
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  It is man was designed to be this vessel that was constantly
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  pouring out and receiving from this infinite ocean.
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  His soul comprehended all his fellow creatures, their welfare.
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  It was a state of largeness, of bigness.
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  So there were no walls, no me versus them, no hoarding of
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  resources or affection. None.
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  He saw his own happiness as just inextricably to the happiness of
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  God and the creation all around him.
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  It was a perfectly integrated system of love.
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  And then the fall happens, and the metaphor Edwards uses here
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  is just so visceral he calls sin an astringent.
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  It's a powerful chemical image. It is for anyone who doesn't
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  know, an astringent is a chemical that causes body
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  tissues to shrink or contract. Like when you bite into a really
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  unright piece of fruit and your whole mouth just buckers up.
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  That's the perfect image. Sin acted like a spiritual
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  chemical that instantly, in a moment, shrank the soul.
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  It went from this vast open ocean like expansiveness to what
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  Edwards calls exceeding smallness.
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  And this is the context for total depravity that we talk
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  about so often in reformed theology, yes.
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  We usually think of depravity as just doing bad things, or maybe
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  moral inability. But Edwards is describing it
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  structurally, almost physically. Man became circumscribed.
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  He was shut up within himself. It's.
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  Like a spiritual claustrophobia. It is in a moment God was
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  forsaken, the neighbor was forsaken, and this massive
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  glorious capacity for love just collapsed inward.
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  Self love became the absolute master of the house.
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  That's the tragedy of it. The soul retired within itself.
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  It's a kind of extreme isolationism.
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  It really is. Before the fall, the soul had
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  wings. It could fly to God, to others.
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  After the fall, those wings were clipped.
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  Or, as Edwards says, they took wings and flew away.
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  We were left with this tiny, cramped territory called Self.
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  And we've been defending that tiny territory ever since.
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  Ever since we build walls, we hoard, we protect because we've
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  lost that connection to the infinite ocean, we're trying to
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  survive on the little puddle we have left inside.
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  So if the disease is this contraction, this shrinking down
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  to the self, then redemption has to be the reversal of that
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  process. It has to be, and that's exactly
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  how Edwards frames the work of the gospel.
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  Redemption isn't just about getting a ticket to heaven or a
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  legal pardon, though. It includes that.
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  It's about the Holy Spirit literally bringing the soul out
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  of its confinement. So it's a rescue from a prison
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  of 1's own making, yes. Through the cross, and
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  specifically through our union with Christ, the soul begins to
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  expand again. It starts to stretch.
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  Christianity restores what Edwards calls liberality.
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  And by liberality he means generosity or openness.
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  Generosity, openness, a freedom of the Spirit, we begin to
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  participate in Christ's nature. And because Christ is infinite
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  and infinitely loving, our souls begin to stretch back out toward
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  that original, glorious design. That is a beautiful way to view
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  sanctification not just as rule keeping, but as the active,
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  painful, glorious stretching of the soul.
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  It is, but now we need to get into the weeds a bit because
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  Edwards is such a careful thinker.
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  He knows that if he just says self love is bad, he's going to
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  run into some serious theological problems.
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  Right, so let's look at his definition of selfishness.
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  He actually starts with a negative definition.
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  What charity is not contrary to? This is a crucial distinction,
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  and I'm so glad he makes it right.
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  At the outset, Edwards argues that it is not contrary to
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  Christianity to love one's own happiness.
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  In fact, he says it's impossible to destroy self love without
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  destroying the human being entirely.
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  Right. He even points to the Saints and
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  angels in heaven as his first proof.
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  Yeah, that's a very logical question, he asks.
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  It is. Do the Saints in heaven love
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  their own happiness? Well, of course they do.
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  If they didn't enjoy being happy, then heaven wouldn't be a
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  reward. It wouldn't be blessedness if
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  the people there didn't actually care about being blessed.
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  You'd have to be indifferent to joy for heaven to not be a
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  reward. Exactly.
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  If you take away the love of happiness, you take away the
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  capacity for joy. You can't have a creature that
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  doesn't want to be happy. It's built into the very fabric
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  of being a creature. And he grounds this biblically
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  too. The command love thy neighbor as
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  thyself is the classic proof text here.
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  It really is the knockout punch for the idea that all self love
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  is evil. You can't use thyself as the
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  standard of measurement if thyself is something that should
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  be utterly destroyed. The standard has to be valid for
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  the command to make any sense at all.
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  It presupposes a right and proper love for oneself.
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  It goes even deeper than that though.
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  Think about the whole motivational structure of the
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  Bible. The Scriptures are filled with
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  promises. Heaven rewards crowns of life
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  and they are filled with threats, hell, darkness, weeping
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  and gnashing of teeth. All of which appeal to our
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  self-interest. They only work if we care about
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  our own well-being. If I didn't care whether I was
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  miserable or happy, the threat of hell would have no hold on me
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  and the promise of heaven would offer no attraction whatsoever.
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  God designed us to respond to these things.
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  He built the mechanism of seeking our own happiness into
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  us. OK, so we've established that
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  loving your own happiness is natural.
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  It's necessary. It's even assumed by Scripture.
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  So then, what is the sin, What is the selfishness that Edwards
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  is attacking? This is where we get to his
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  affirmative definition. The sin is inordinate self love.
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  But Edwards is incredibly specific about what makes it
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  inordinate, and it's not what most people would think.
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  Right, it's not about the degree of love.
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  No, this is so counter intuitive, he says.
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  You cannot love happiness too much.
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  Everyone desires happiness infinitely.
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  You can't fault a man for wanting to be infinitely happy.
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  That's actually how God made him.
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  That longing is a pointer to God Himself.
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  So the problem isn't the intensity of the desire, it's
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  the regulation of it, the object of it.
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  Exactly. The change that happens in
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  conversion is not that a Christian loves happiness less
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  than a Sinner, it's that the Christian regulates where that
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  happiness is found. The inordinate Ness, the
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  sinfulness, comes from two things, what he calls
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  comparative degree and confined scope.
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  OK, let's unpack comparative degree first.
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  This brings us to that fantastic metaphor of the servant and the
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  master. This is one of Edwards's best
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  illustrations, I think. Imagine a house.
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  In this house you have a master that's divine love or love for
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  God and others, and you have a servant that's self love.
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  OK, Now as long as the master is strong and ruling the house, the
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  servant does his job perfectly well.
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  He takes care of himself, he eats, he rests, but he does it
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  all in service to the masters will.
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  That's the healthy free fall soul.
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  The servant is useful, necessary, but he knows his
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  place. But then the fall happens,
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  right? At the fall, the master, divine
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  Love, dies or is banished from the house.
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  Suddenly the master is gone. Now the servant hasn't
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  necessarily become a monster overnight.
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  He hasn't grown 50 feet tall. He's the same size, but because
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  there is no master to check him to give him orders.
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  He takes the throne. He takes the throne, he starts
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  running the house. His influence becomes inordinate
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  not because he got bigger, but because the true ruling
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  principles disappeared. That is so so helpful.
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  So selfishness is when self love, which should be the
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  servant, usurps the throne of the soul.
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  It rules where it was designed to serve.
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  That's it, precisely. And this leads directly to the
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  second component he talks about confined scope.
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  OK, what does he mean by that? This is the idea of placing our
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  happiness in things that are limited to the private self
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  rather than the common good. The phrase seeking her own in
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  First Corinthians 13, he says, refers to seeking a private,
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  exclusive advantage. So it's about the kind of good
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  we pursue. Yes, Edwards makes a distinction
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  here that I think is absolutely vital for understanding this
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  whole sermon. He says a person can love their
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  own happiness by seeking God's glory, and that is not
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  selfishness. Why isn't it?
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  Because God's glory is not a private good good.
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  It's not a limited commodity. It is a public, universal,
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  infinite good. It's like the sun.
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  My enjoyment of the sun doesn't take away from your enjoyment of
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  the sun. There's enough for everyone.
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  Whereas a private good is something that if I have it, you
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  can't. Exactly.
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  If my happiness is tied to my bank account, my reputation, my
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  physical comfort, those are things that are exclusive to me.
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  If I eat a steak, you can't eat that same steak.
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  That is a confined good. Selfishness is taking that
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  infinite desire for happiness that God gave us and trying to
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  satisfy it with these tiny, finite private commodities.
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  It's trying to fill the ocean with a garden hose.
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  That's a great way to put it. It's a fool's errand, and it's
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  the very definition of a contracted, selfish life.
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  So we've defined the disease, this contraction of the soul.
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  Now let's look at the cure in action.
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  Section three of our discussion is the spirit of charity in
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  action. What does this expanded soul
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  actually look like in the real world?
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  Well, Edwards breaks it down pretty simply into seeking the
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  things of God and seeking the things of our neighbor.
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  Seeking God's things means living so that to live is
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  Christ. It's the First Corinthians 10.31
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  principle. Whatever you do, do it all for
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  God's glory. But practically in relation to
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  other people, what does that look?
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  Like it means genuinely desiring their spiritual salvation and
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  their temporal prosperity. It's not just about us and God.
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  It's about us, God, and them. He lists some specific
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  attributes of this charitable spirit, the first one he
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  mentions as being sympathetic or merciful.
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  This goes right back to that idea of expansion, doesn't it?
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  It does if my soul is expanded, if it's not confined to my own
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  skin, then I feel your burdens as if they were my own.
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  It's the capacity for resonance. Resonance.
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  That's a good word for. It a selfish person is
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  insulated, they might see someone suffering, but they
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  don't really feel it because their soul ends at their own
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  fingertips. A charitable person, as
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  Colossians says, has put on bowels of mercies.
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  It's an old fashioned phrase, but it's very graphic.
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  It is. It means you actually feel the
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  distress of others in your gut. It's not just an intellectual
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  acknowledgement. It's an emotional participation.
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  It's allowing your own internal peace to be disturbed by the
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  pain of another person. And that naturally leads to the
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  next attribute he lists, which is being liberal or generous,
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  right? If I truly feel your need, I'm
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  moved to meet it. Edwards calls this the opposite
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  of a narrow, stingy spirit. But then he moves to a concept
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  that I think we have almost completely lost in our modern
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  individualism, being public spirited.
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  Yeah, this part really stood out to me.
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  What exactly does he mean by a public spirit?
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  A public spirit is one that is deeply, genuinely concerned with
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  the welfare of the community as a whole, the town, the nation,
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  the church. He cites Jeremiah 29.7 where the
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  Exiles in Babylon are told to seek the peace of the city.
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  And notice seek the peace of the city, not just the peace of your
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  own living room or your own small group.
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  Exactly. It challenges our very modern
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  tendency to just retreat into our private enclaves, our little
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  bubbles, and let the rest of the world burn, Edwards is saying.
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  A Christian can't do that. He gives some powerful biblical
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  examples of this public spirit. Esther, for one.
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  Yes, Esther, risking her own life for her people.
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  If I perish, I perish. She wasn't sitting there
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  calculating her own survival odds.
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  The fate of her people became her own fate.
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  And Moses, I mean, think of that moment in Exodus where he tells
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  God, if you won't forgive them, then blot me out of your book.
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  It's just a staggering level of public spirit.
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  He was willing to forfeit his own eternal standing for the
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  sake of the community. That's a soul so expanded it
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  almost seems alien to us. And Paul does the same thing in
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  Romans 9, wishing himself a curse from Christ for the sake
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  of his kinsmen. These men had souls where the
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  community's welfare had become more important to them than
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  their own private safety or even their own salvation.
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  They were willing to be damned if it meant the salvation of the
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  people. That is almost incomprehensible
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  to a shrunken, selfish soul. And Edwards doesn't leave this
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  in the realm of heroes. He applies this to specific
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  roles, which is where the rubber really meets the road.
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  He talks about magistrates and rulers.
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  He does. He says they should act as
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  fathers of the Commonwealth. It's a direct challenge to any
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  political leader. The temptation for a ruler is
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  always to enrich themselves on the spoils, to use the position
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  for private gain. Always.
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  But Edward says a ruler with the spirit of Christ acts like a
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  father, protective, sacrificial, seeking the good of the whole
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  family, not just his favorites or himself.
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  And he doesn't let ministers off the hook either.
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  Not at all. He says.
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  Ministers must not seek what they can get out of the flock.
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  That's a mercenary spirit. Their job is to feed and defend
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  the flock. It's the difference between a
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  shepherd and a hireling that Jesus talks about.
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  The shepherd risks his life for the sheep.
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  The hireling runs away when the wolf comes because he's only in
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  it for the paycheck. That's the core of it.
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  Is your position for service or for self?
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  And what about for the ordinary Christian, the person who isn't
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  a ruler or minister? He says we should all live in
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  such a way that the world is better for our having lived in
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  it. I love the reference he makes to
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  David who it says in Acts served his generation.
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  It implies that we have a debt to our generation.
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  We're not just passing through on our way to heaven.
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  We're here to be constructive, to contribute to the common
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  good. A selfish life leaves a void, or
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  worse, a mess. A charitable life leaves a
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  legacy of grace and flourishing. Now this is a point where some
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  people might push back. They might hear all this and say
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  well hold on. I know plenty of non Christians
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  who are generous. I know atheists who are very
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  public spirited. That's a fair objection, and
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  Edwards anticipates it. This brings us to Section 4,
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  where he distinguishes between what he calls love in general
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  and divine love. This is a critical theological
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  distinction for. Him, it's everything.
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  He acknowledges that natural love, things like friendship,
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  family, affection is a real thing.
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  It's not fake and it is diffusive.
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  It does expand the self to include the friend or the child.
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  But and there's a big butt coming.
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  There is a very big butt, he says.
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  That natural love, as beautiful as it can be, still has its root
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  in self love. How so?
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  Can you unpack that? Well, think about why you love
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  your children. On one level, it's because they
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  are yours. They are an extension of you,
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  your legacy. Why do you love your friends?
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  Because they please you. They share your interests, they
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  make you laugh, They make you feel good about yourself.
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  There is a return on investment, so to speak, in natural love.
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  So it's transactional at its core, even if it's a very noble
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  and beautiful transaction. In a sense, yes.
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  It's still operating within the system of the self.
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  So Christian charity or divine love is different because it's
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  supernatural. Yes, that's the word he uses.
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  It is a plant, he says, that is transplanted from heaven.
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  It does not grow in the native soil of the fallen human heart.
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  The Holy Spirit has to bring it in from the outside.
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  And what's the evidence that it's supernatural?
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  How can you tell the difference? The primary evidence is that it
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  is disinterested. OK, we need to define
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  disinterested because in modern English that sounds like we
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  don't care. Right, that's a key point.
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  In older theological terms, disinterested means impartial or
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  unbiased. It means I love God for who He
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  is in and of himself, not just for what He gives me.
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  I love Him for His own intrinsic beauty and excellence.
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  And how does that apply to living people?
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  It means I love my neighbor not because he is my cousin, or
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  because he is nice to me, or because he is useful to me.
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  I love him simply because he relates to God.
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  I love the image of God in him, however marred it may be.
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  And the ultimate proof, the litmus test of this supernatural
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  love, is that it extends even to our enemies.
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  That's the test. Natural love hits a brick wall
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  when it faces an enemy. Why would self love love an
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  enemy? An enemy offers no benefit, no
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  pleasure, no safety. The logic of self love says
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  destroy the enemy before he destroys you.
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  But divine Love says, bless those who curse you, pray for
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  those who persecute you. Which is completely unnatural.
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  It is, as Edwards concludes, less man like and more God like.
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  It requires a power source outside of our own biology,
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  outside of our own fallen nature.
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  This brings us to the two standards of love that are
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  presented in Scripture. We often quote the Golden Rule
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  or the Great Commandment. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
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  Edwards calls this the old standard.
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  It was the standard given in the Mosaic Law.
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  And let's be clear, it's a very high standard.
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  Yeah. It demands that we treat our
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  neighbors wants, their needs, their desires with the same care
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  and attention that we naturally give to our own.
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  It assumes a parody. It creates A horizontal
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  leveling. Me and you are on the same
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  plane. Right.
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  It's a radical Callaway from selfishness.
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  But then Jesus comes along in John 13 on the night he was
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  betrayed, and he drops a new commandment.
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  A new commandment I give to you that you love one another.
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  Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
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  And this just changes everything.
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  It provides a brand new rule and a brand new motive.
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  The As Thyself standard is the floor.
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  The As I Have Loved You standard is the ceiling.
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  And the ceiling is infinitely high.
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  It moves the entire reference point from me to Christ.
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  Completely, and Edwards breaks down Christ's example into four
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  aspects to show just how far beyond our natural self love
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  this new standard goes. The first is the objects of
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  love. Christ love.
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  He loved us when we were enemies.
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  That's Romans 5.8. While we were yet sinners,
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  Christ died for us. He didn't wait for us to clean
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  up our act or become lovable. He loved the hateful, the
• 20:46
  rebellious, the ugly. That's the first massive strike
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  against our selfish tendencies. The second aspect he points to
• 20:52
  his identification, and this is the deep theological well of
• 20:56
  imputation. This is so profound.
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  Christ looked upon the elect not just as people to help, but as
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  Himself. He didn't just help us from a
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  safe distance, He assumed our guilt.
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  He stood in our filthy shoes. He.
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  Took the legal responsibility for our crimes so that we could
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  be declared innocent. He merged his identity with
• 21:13
  ours. He treated our debt, our shame,
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  our sin as his own. The ultimate act of empathy.
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  Then the third aspect is the cost.
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  And what a cost he spent himself.
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  This wasn't a small donation from his abundance.
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  He gave everything. His comfort, his honor, his
• 21:30
  reputation, his very blood. He emptied himself, as
• 21:33
  Philippians 2 says. Selfishness hordes and protects.
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  Christ poured out. He held nothing back in reserve.
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  Nothing. And that leads to the 4th
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  aspect, expectation. Or lack thereof.
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  Exactly. He loved without any expectation
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  of requital. He knew we were spiritually
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  bankrupt. He knew we could never, ever pay
• 21:52
  him back. He wasn't investing in us to get
• 21:54
  a return from us. He was giving freely,
• 21:57
  graciously, from his own infinite fullness.
• 21:59
  So when Jesus says love as I have loved, he is calling us to
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  a love that is enemy focused, self identifying, infinitely
• 22:07
  costly and completely free of transaction.
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  That is the spirit of charity, that is the new standard we are
• 22:12
  aiming for by the power of the Spirit.
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  It's breathtaking when you stack it up like that.
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  It really is. It makes you realize just how
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  far short we fall every single day.
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  It's meant to. It's meant to drive us to our
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  knees. Independence on him.
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  And it leads us to the final section of the sermon, the Great
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  Application. Edwards calls this the divine
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  economy, and he starts by confronting the listener with a
• 22:35
  stark, simple reality. You are not your own.
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  It's a foundational truth. And he says there's a double
• 22:42
  claim of God on every human life.
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  First, there's the Creator, right?
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  You did not make yourself. You didn't.
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  You were designed for a purpose, just like a tool is designed by
• 22:51
  a Craftsman. If a hammer decides it wants to
• 22:53
  be a pillow, it's rebelling against it's very design, it's
• 22:56
  very nature. We were made for God.
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  We are derivative creatures, not autonomous ones.
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  And for the Christian, there's a second, even stronger claim.
• 23:05
  The Redeemer, right? Ye are bought with a price.
• 23:08
  That's the language of the marketplace.
• 23:10
  If you are a Christian, the precious blood of Christ was the
• 23:12
  currency used to purchase you from the slave market of sin.
• 23:16
  You are His property. That sounds harsh to our modern
• 23:19
  individualistic years. It does, but it's actually the
• 23:22
  source of our greatest comfort. Because we belong to him, we are
• 23:25
  his responsibility to care for. But it also means that using
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  your time, your energy, your talents for your own private
• 23:32
  pleasure is technically embezzlement.
• 23:34
  You're robbing Christ of what he bought.
• 23:36
  You're misappropriating his funds.
• 23:38
  It's a serious charge. And he also uses the body
• 23:42
  metaphor here, the union of the Christian with the body of
• 23:45
  Christ. Right, the hand does not work
• 23:47
  for the hand. The hand works for the body.
• 23:49
  If the hand just grabbed food and tried to feed itself
• 23:52
  directly without passing it to the mouth, the whole body would
• 23:55
  starve and the hand would die with it.
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  We are members of one another. We don't exist in a vacuum.
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  If the head who is Christ is dishonored, the hands and feet
• 24:04
  must work to clear that dishonor.
• 24:06
  Our actions affect the whole. That's the public spiritedness.
• 24:09
  Again, My well-being is tied up with yours, and both of ours are
• 24:13
  tied up with the glory of Christ.
• 24:15
  And here is where we get to that incredible paradox I mentioned
• 24:18
  at the very beginning, the paradox of self-interest.
• 24:21
  Edwards argues that the surest way to your own happiness is to
• 24:24
  abandon the selfish pursuit of it.
• 24:26
  This is the economic logic of the Kingdom of God, and it's
• 24:29
  completely upside down from the world's logic.
• 24:31
  Walk us through it. OK, Edwards argues like this.
• 24:35
  If you selfishly seek your own private interest, God will often
• 24:39
  just leave you to it. He'll say, OK, you want to be
• 24:42
  the master of your own happiness.
• 24:44
  You want to secure your own joy. Go ahead, give it your best
• 24:47
  shot. And the problem with that is.
• 24:49
  The problem is, you are laughably insufficient to secure
• 24:52
  it. You are small, you're weak, you
• 24:54
  are blind. You can't guarantee your next
• 24:56
  breath, let alone your eternal Felicity.
• 24:59
  You will fail. The project of self secured
• 25:02
  happiness is doomed from the start.
• 25:04
  But the flip side of that coin? The flip side is this, if you
• 25:07
  sacrifice your private confined interest for the sake of God and
• 25:10
  your neighbor, God himself takes responsibility for your
• 25:13
  happiness. He essentially says you look
• 25:16
  after my glory and I will look after your joy.
• 25:19
  And God has slightly better resources than we do.
• 25:22
  It's just a few. He has the resources of the
• 25:24
  entire universe at his command. He can command the stars, the
• 25:28
  angels, the nations, all for your ultimate welfare.
• 25:31
  Edwards points to the promise Jesus makes in Matthew 19, the
• 25:35
  hundredfold return for whatever we give up for his sake.
• 25:38
  So it's an investment strategy in a way.
• 25:40
  It's the ultimate investment strategy.
• 25:42
  You give up a finite, fragile, temporary happiness that you
• 25:46
  can't even hold onto, and in exchange you receive an infinite
• 25:50
  divine, eternal happiness that is backed by the full faith and
• 25:53
  credit of the God of the universe.
• 25:55
  So the conclusion is that not seeking your own in that
• 25:58
  selfish, contracted sense is actually the most effective,
• 26:01
  most logical way of seeking your own in the ultimate expanded
• 26:05
  sense. Precisely.
• 26:06
  The man who loses his life, for Christ's sake, shall find it.
• 26:09
  The one who hoards his life and tries to save it will lose it.
• 26:12
  It's the inescapable law of the spiritual universe.
• 26:15
  It is the only investment that never ever fails this.
• 26:18
  Has been a massive deep dive. I mean, we've gone all the way
• 26:20
  from the contracting astringent of sin to the expanding infinite
• 26:24
  ocean of divine love. It really forces you to take a
• 26:27
  hard look at your daily motivations, doesn't it?
• 26:31
  Are we living these contracted lives, constantly worried about
• 26:34
  protecting our little territory? Or are we living expanded lives,
• 26:39
  trusting God with our happiness while we pour ourselves out for
• 26:42
  His glory and the good of others?
• 26:44
  Edwards leaves us with this final provocation.
• 26:47
  We are less man like and more God like when we abandoned
• 26:50
  selfishness. That's the goal of the Christian
• 26:52
  life right there, conformity to the image of Christ who did not
• 26:56
  seek his own. I just want to leave you, the
• 26:59
  listener, with a thought to Mull over this week.
• 27:02
  If you are truly united to Christ, does your life reflect
• 27:05
  his spending of Himself? Or are you, if you're honest,
• 27:09
  still hoarding your life, your time, your money, your energy
• 27:12
  for a private happiness that Edward says is guaranteed to
• 27:15
  fail you in the end? It's the most important question
• 27:17
  you can possibly ask yourself. Thank you for joining us on
• 27:20
  Reformed Thinking. We hope this exploration of
• 27:22
  Edwards has maybe expanded your soul just a little bit today.
• 27:25
  Until next time.