What does selfishness on steroids look like? This …

Is it possible to have something like a “second level” of selfishness? A “selfishness 2.0” or selfishness on steroids?

Yes, and it looks something like this …

I grew up the youngest of eight children in a poor household. Not only was money tight, but treats were rare. What would be more of a treat for a kid than an ice cold soda?

On occasion, my mother would buy some soda, but with a large family that would go quickly. In fact, for everyone to have a “glass of pop,” we’d have to split what was available. So our cups or glasses were lined up side-by-side so that we could visually measure to make sure no kid got more soda than any other one (I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone would have brought out a carpenter’s level to help guarantee that no one had the slightest bit more pop than anyone else!).

Thinking back to those times of measuring sodas, I remembered those times as just kids anxious to get some soda. But we weren’t always so kind about it — our eyeballs strained to make sure we got our “fair” share! But not only were we selfish about it, sometimes our selfishness was on steroids … that’s because it wasn’t always about our wanting our share of the soda, sometimes it was important to us that others didn’t get more than us!

There’s selfishness at a truly ugly level.

It’s one thing to want just for self, not caring about what others get; it’s quite another thing to not want others to have more than you, if that much!

That’s ugly.

With just a little effort, you can probably identify times in your past when you’ve let your self-interest expand to selfishness on steroids. Take a minute to think about times when you not only wanted selfishly, but you didn’t want someone to have more, or as much, as you …

It’s ugly, isn’t it? It certainly is nothing like the instruction we’re given in scripture, which is more like this …

“Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others,” 1 Corinthians 10:24.

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too,” Philippians 2:3-4.

James mentions how such selfishness causes problems in our relationships …

“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure,” James 4:1-3.

When we look at the example of Jesus, as well as what He taught and the instruction given to all who are His disciples, we’re to purge from our lives any measure of selfishness on steroids to instead live a life of “love on steroids” …

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other,” John 13:34.

“Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other,” Romans 12:10.

Earlier, you were probably able to recall times when you behaved with selfishness on steroids; can you recall times when, instead, you behaved with love on steroids? Which is the practice of your life?

Scotty