Considering Others Before Ourselves

Discipleship Devotional, June 17th, 2025

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
— John 13:35 (KJV)

If there’s any instruction that Jesus continually gave His disciples, it was the instruction to love one another. Love is the bedrock of the Christian faith. It is because God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for us. (John 3:16)

One of the great virtues that love produces in the believer is the quality of looking out for other people’s interests, and not just yours. This is because love makes you selfless. Many think the opposite of love is hate, but not everyone devoid of love has hatred. However, most people devoid of love have selfishness. So actually, selfishness is more an opposite of love than hate is. Most people who can’t love—it’s because of their great selfishness. Let’s see what the Apostle Paul told the church at Philippi:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
— Philippians 2:3–4 (NIV)

A person full of love is devoid of selfishness. Such a person will esteem the fellow brethren as better than himself/herself. He/she puts the other person’s interest above theirs. This is Godly. This is Christian. The astounding thing is that this is a strange occurrence in the church today. It’s rarely preached. If you do this, some may call you unwise. However, it is better to be wise in God’s sight than in man’s sight.

Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.
— Romans 12:10 (NIV)

In 1st John 3:16–17, we see that he said since Jesus laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters as well. Again, we see that love propels us to put others above ourselves. When you read in the book of Acts, you can see the selfless love of the brethren towards one another, as they even went as far as selling properties to feed the poor among them. (Acts 2:44–46; 4:32–35) Amazing stuff. This would be considered stupid by many today. Selling properties to help needy believers—for sure people will consider that stupid today. Selling lands? To help believers? Wow. They must truly have esteemed others better than themselves.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to walk in love at all times, esteeming others better than myself. Help me not to be selfish but to be full of selfless affection.