September 16, 2015

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”   James 3:13-18

“Philosophy has spoken worthily in our own day of altruism…The Christian reminds himself that the principle of altruism was discovered nineteen centuries ago, and never was stated in more incisive terms…Every modern idea outside physical science which has sap in it and bears fruit was sown in Christ’s garden, and has been watered by Christ’s Spirit. Altruism is written in everlasting and resplendent character on the Cross of Christ…” A Sermon, “Public Spirit” in Respectable Sins John Watson (1850 – 1907) “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 836)

There was a study completed recently on the issue of altruism. The study wanted to see if we are born with an “altruistic gene” or not. The study was designed by two people named Barragan and Dweck. They enlisted 34 one and two-year-olds and split them into two groups. In the first group, the experimenter would roll a ball back and forth with the child and chat. After a few minutes, the experimenter would “accidentally” knock an object off the table, and observe whether the child would help pick it up. In the second group, the experimenter and the child would each play with their own ball, known as “parallel play,” while the experimenter engaged in the same kind of chitchat. Again, after a few minutes, the experimenter would knock an object off the table. The children who engaged in reciprocal play were three times more likely to help pick up the items as the children who had engaged in only parallel play. When the scientists repeated the experiment under slightly different conditions with older children, the reciprocal-play group was two times more likely to lend a hand.

The results suggest that altruistic behavior may be governed more by relationships, even brief ones, than instincts. One of the arguments for innate altruism was that it was an evolutionarily beneficial adaptation – instinctively caring for others would result in reciprocal care, improving one’s own chances of survival. “And there still might be evolutionary pressures toward altruism”, Dweck said. We have evolved automatic forms of empathy and special brain cells called mirror neurons that allow us to gauge others’ emotions.

“I think, as humans, our claim to fame is our flexibility – our ability to adapt to new situations,” Dweck said. (Stanford Report, Dec. 18, 2014 — Stanford psychologists show that altruism is not simply innate, by Bjorn Carey)

If we believe that altruism is more likely a result that is governed by relationships, this helps to support the claim that we should and must live and worship and interact within a community of Christians. As we develop our relationship with Christ, we develop relationships with others who are developing their relationships with Christ, and then live and interact with people who find it their ministry to help others.

Pastor Dave