Religion, Salvation & Selfishness: Catch 22?

[nobody]

Christianity, among other religions, promises the way to everlasting life, or heaven. If we ask ourselves why we practice our religion, honestly we may say, “to get to heaven.” But our religion also tells us to not be selfish. Isn’t the desire for heaven for ourselves a selfish desire? How can we do both - desire our own salvation, but not be selfish with our thoughts and motivations?

 

[DeFide]

nobody:

Christianity, among other religions, promises the way to everlasting life, or heaven. If we ask ourselves why we practice our religion, honestly we may say, “to get to heaven.” But our religion also tells us to not be selfish. Isn’t the desire for heaven for ourselves a selfish desire? How can we do both - desire our own salvation, but not be selfish with our thoughts and motivations?

You should seek after truth and goodness and God out of appreciation of truth, goodness, and God… out of justice, not out of self-interest.

After all, the persuit of these often involves the negation of self.

You might want to search the “ask the apologist” forums on “perfect contrition” and “imperfect contrition”.

 

[Jeanette_L]

Just an imperfect thought here.

If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves which we are commanded in the Scriptures, isn’t it then presupposed that to love ourselves, in as much as we want the very best eternally for ourselves, which is to be with God as we were created to be, then not selfish but actually fulfilling our created purpose?

So to long to be in heaven eternally with God is not selfish, but actually wanting to see God’s purpose for ourselves fulfilled.

 

[JaneFrances]

This is a such an important thing to consider!

I suppose, as sinful people, we do always tend to lean in the direction of what serves our interests. We are in a constant effort to achieve that perfect communion with will with God, which turns our self-interest into perfect love. That’s why our conversion and salvation is such a journey.

We keep falling, but He picks us up. He loves us perfectly, all giving. We love him imperfectly. This is our constant struggle.

The ideal is always that we would live well and obey out of love and thanksgiving without the selfish promptings that result from our brokeness. Yet, because we are humans who, through sin, have fallen short of the glory of God we tend to keep our eyes on the prize, so to speak. St. Paul talks about this: “I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line” (1 Cor. 9: 26). The finish line is our salvation. On the way, we pray for perseverance and that God’s grace would change our selfish wills into selfless love of Him.

 

[LilyM]

First of all I don’t JUST want heaven for myself - I want it for everyone from my closest friend to my most bitter enemy. Certainly I don’t want hell for anyone - well, maybe a decent spell in purgatory for some … so I DO want heaven for them, right?

Secondly, and more importantly, it’s not just me wanting heaven for myself - Jesus wants heaven for me, the Father wants it, Mary and all the angels and Saints do too (again, they want it for everybody as well). I want it to make them happy as well as myself.

Nothing selfish in any of that, I don’t think. If what’s good for you is also good for others if you get it, then it’s fine.

 

[BlestOne]

nobody:

Christianity, among other religions, promises the way to everlasting life, or heaven. If we ask ourselves why we practice our religion, honestly we may say, “to get to heaven.” But our religion also tells us to not be selfish. Isn’t the desire for heaven for ourselves a selfish desire? How can we do both - desire our own salvation, but not be selfish with our thoughts and motivations?

Instead of the response “To get to heaven” try replacing it with “Becoming a saint” or “To be Holy” What is a saint? Someone who exemplifies the life that our Lord wants for us, a person who sets the example of holiness by living a Godly life right? What I think is important is that this is not a solitary journey…you set the example to your spouse, your children and everyone you come into contact with right? Wouldn’t you want them to see an example of our Lord in you?
Another point, To love another person, you have to love yourself. There is nothing bad or wrong with loving yourself, afterall, you are a child of God. He created you and made you in his image. You should love yourself as a reflection of God. The problem lies in when you indulge yourself or love yourself to the exclusion of others. This is selfishness. Don’t confuse self love for selfishness.

 

[Flopfoot]

Imagine this - if heaven and hell got swapped around, all the good people going to hell, all the bad people going to heaven. What would you do? That would be a real catch 22. Would you really want to live a good life, the kind of life that would get you sent to hell?

Of course, no such situation is possible, it is purely hypothetical because God would never make something like that. It’s sort of an axiom of the universe, because the promise of heaven is something that gives us the hope and strength to get through this life when times are hard. The point is that anything we do to ‘get into heaven’ is in fact a good thing, something that God would want us to do. So God has no problem with that being motivation for our actions.

Someone mentioned perfect and imperfect contrition, and it is worth mentioning that imperfect contrition (being sorry for your sins because by them you lose heaven) is actually sufficient for a valid reconciliation and forgiveness of your sins.

This doesn’t mean that we can always be thinking of ourselves, because in order to get into heaven we need to love others, understand their needs and put them first. However, doing good for others is never an excuse to sin, because God comes before others. So in doing good for others, we might sacrifice a lot in terms of physically but we never sacrifice anything spiritually, we never put our souls in danger. By always putting God first, as a result we are in fact always putting our attempts to get into heaven first.

The clincher, though, is this - even Jesus makes this distinction between selfishness for physical things and “selfishness” for wanting to get into heaven. He says to not store up treasure for ourselves on earth where moth and rust destroy, but to store up treasure for ourselves in heaven. Jesus actually tells us to store up treasure - something we would normally equate with selfishness, but when it comes to spiritual things, we have got permission from God himself.

Never feel selfish for wanting to get into heaven.

 

[1ke]

nobody:

Christianity, among other religions, promises the way to everlasting life, or heaven. If we ask ourselves why we practice our religion, honestly we may say, “to get to heaven.” But our religion also tells us to not be selfish. Isn’t the desire for heaven for ourselves a selfish desire? How can we do both - desire our own salvation, but not be selfish with our thoughts and motivations?

Heaven, the Beatific Vision, is our natural destiny-- God created us for it. So, no it’s not selfish to desire heaven for ourselves.

It’s like saying desiring air for our lungs is selfish. Our lungs are intended to breath air, and our souls are intended to see God.

 

[PraRFLEsEkHm]

nobody:

Christianity, among other religions, promises the way to everlasting life, or heaven. If we ask ourselves why we practice our religion, honestly we may say, “to get to heaven.” But our religion also tells us to not be selfish. Isn’t the desire for heaven for ourselves a selfish desire? How can we do both - desire our own salvation, but not be selfish with our thoughts and motivations?

I think the key here, is not to be SO selfish with our desire to get to heaven, that we leave out loving everyone else BUT ourselves, and likeminded people.

In other words, not taking the time to talk to people who, in our estimation, are not ‘worth it’.
Focusing on heaven as the goal, rather than God (who is in heaven) and pleasing Him by searching for His will in our lives rather than massaging our ego and doing what we think ought to please Him.

Also - the idea of imperfect contrition, or doing things for the selfish reason of “I want to go to heaven rather than hell” or “Because God tells me to” rather than a pure and perfect love for God just because He is God, is the reason for the need of Purgatory. To cleanse, perfect/puify, instruct us.

Does that make sense?

Peace

John

 

[Fidelis]

The great C.S. Lewis answered this question this way:

“We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about ‘pie in the sky’ and of being told that we are trying to ‘escape’ from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is ‘pie in the sky,’ or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is written into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced, whether it is useful at political meetings or not.”

I would add that, given the proposition that we believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell, and that the first is eternal bliss and the second eternal torment, to not want to gain the first and avoid the second would not only not be purely selfish, it would be insane.