Whose Good Am I Seeking?

While reading 1 Corinthians 10, I came across a passage that made me pause and reflect on my own actions and intentions:

No man should seek his own interest, but rather that of his neighbour.

1 Corinthians 10:24 (CPDV)

Later in the same passage, Paul writes:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you may do, do everything for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 (CPDV)

These verses made me think about what it means to love our neighbour. Paul does not simply tell us to avoid harming others. He asks us not to seek only our own good, but the good of another.

In its immediate context, Paul is speaking about food sacrificed to idols and the way Christian freedom should be exercised with consideration for the conscience of another. His concern is not simply, “Am I permitted to do this?” but also, “What might my actions do to those around me?”. Even something that may be lawful for us should not become an occasion for harming another.

This gives us an important way of thinking about charity. Charity is more than giving something to someone in need. It is love of God and neighbour expressed in the way we seek the good of others, sometimes even at the cost of our own comfort or desires. And Paul places this alongside another principle: whatever we do should ultimately be done for the glory of God.

While thinking about this, I was reminded of God’s condemnation of the shepherds of Israel in Ezekiel:

Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the flock be fed by the shepherds?

Ezekiel 34:2 (CPDV)

The shepherds had been entrusted with the care of God’s people, yet instead of caring for the flock, they had sought their own good. God continues:

What was weak, you have not strengthened, and what was sick, you have not healed, and what was broken, you have not bound up, and what was cast aside, you have not led back again, and what was lost, you have not sought. Instead, you ruled over them with severity and with power.

Ezekiel 34:4 (CPDV)

Reading this made Paul’s words, “No man should seek his own interest, but rather that of his neighbour” feel even more striking to me. The shepherds had done almost exactly the opposite. Those entrusted to care for the flock had neglected the weak, the sick, the broken and the lost.

Yet God’s condemnation of the shepherds is not the end of the passage. His concern is ultimately for the sheep they have neglected:

Behold, I myself will seek my sheep, and I myself will visit them.

Ezekiel 34:11 (CPDV)

There is something incredibly hopeful here. God does not abandon His sheep because their shepherds have failed them. He says that He Himself will seek them. Later in the chapter, He promises:

And I will raise up over them ONE SHEPHERD, who will feed them, my servant David. He himself will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.

Ezekiel 34:23 (CPDV)

With this in mind, the description of Jesus in Matthew becomes particularly striking:

And Jesus traveled throughout all the cities and towns, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every illness and every infirmity. Then, seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them, because they were distressed and were reclining, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:35-36 (CPDV)

How can we not be moved by this passage? Jesus sees people who are distressed and without a shepherd, and His response is compassion. Ezekiel had spoken of God seeking His neglected sheep and of the shepherd from the line of David who would feed them. Now Jesus, the Son of David, looks upon people who are “like sheep without a shepherd.” And then, in John’s Gospel, Jesus says:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 10:11 (CPDV)

Here we arrive at something deeper than simply giving to another person. The Good Shepherd does not merely give something to His sheep. He gives Himself.

This is the pattern of love Christians are called to imitate. Paul tells the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), and Christ shows us what seeking the good of another ultimately looks like: He lays down His own life for His sheep.

If we are Christians, then charity cannot be reduced simply to occasional acts of generosity. We are called to become more like Christ. To love our neighbour, to seek the good of others, and to use what has been entrusted to us for their good rather than merely our own.

Perhaps, then, Paul’s words leave us with a more difficult question than simply, “Am I charitable?”

When I make decisions, whose good am I actually seeking?

And if everything is to be done for the glory of God, how much of what I do is really for His glory — and how much is ultimately for my own?