He Blesses Us to Bless Us
(The following is an edited message, taken from an email discussion on the topic.)
There are some preachers who say that God blesses a person mainly or even solely for the reason that this person should bless other people, and that those will in turn bless others, and so on.
This is sometimes stated without any biblical support, but then at other times, a verse like Genesis 12:2 might be used: "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."
This is often applied not only to blessings in general, but also to salvation, so that these preachers will say that God saves you only because he wants you to help save others. The purpose for this teaching is often to encourage selflessness, evangelism, and a lifestyle in which one actively blesses other people. Sometimes the purpose is to defend the moral propriety of desiring and receiving blessings from God.
Although the purpose appears noble, the teaching itself is false. If God blesses you only to bless others, and if he blesses these other people only because he wants to bless others still, then it is really saying that God wishes to bless no one at all. If God saves you only because he wants you to help save others by preaching the gospel, and if he wants to save those who would believe your preaching only because he wants them to help save others still, then it means that God wishes to save no one at all.
God did not save me just to save someone else, for if so, he could just as easily save whomever he wants to save directly, without have to go through me. But he saved those other people through me to save others, they say, but then it means that he really wants to save no one, since everyone's salvation is only a means to another's salvation, who is also a means to another salvation, and so on forever. Such means have no ends, and therefore God has no "end" in mind, meaning that he wants to save no one.
It is self-defeating to adopt such a ridiculous doctrine in order to encourage selflessness and evangelism, or to justify our desire to receive blessings from God. God saved me to save me, and then by means of my preaching to save others whom he also wants to save, and so on. So all those whom God blesses and saves could be both means and ends, or rather, ends and means.
Relating this to your question, a Christian should pay attention to his own needs. This is not selfish in itself. This applies to prayer, inward reflection, biblical studies, eating, sleeping, and so on. It would be silly to sleep only so that others can sleep, or to help others sleep without getting any sleep.
July 14 2005 | Expositions, Spirituality