What does the Bible say about altruism?

Let us then now briefly consider this emphatically anti-Christian sin of selfishness. We call it anti-Christian because it is expressly recorded of Christ our Lord that He “pleased not Himself” (Rom. 15:3). This strikes at once at the root of the matter, for when we read (1 John 2:6) that we ought to walk as Christ, and remember these are the words of GOD, and then turn to the scripture just quoted, we must at once see that all selfishness is truly anti-Christian. If, however, example is not enough, we have the precept as well. “Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth (or good)” (1 Cor. 10:24). “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Phil. 2:4. Most touching of all, perhaps, to the heart that has tasted the love of Christ, to whom He is precious, is 2 Corin­thians 5:14, 15, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; ...He died for all, that they which live should not hence­forth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”

It is of the very nature of love to think of others. "Selfishness likes to be served; love delights to serve." We see this last exemplified to perfection in the blessed Lord. "God is love," and He gave His Son. We are born of God, and have the Spirit, and the outgoings of our hearts should be Godlike - they should go out for others.

Then a very simple example is given; of helping a poor brother. It is a bond fide case of need, and some one who has means to help; love makes itself known by giving material help to the needy man. "Let us not love with word, nor with tongue"; it would not be divine love to dismiss the poor brother with a blessing (I mean a verbal one, so well known) and the latest improved tract, but there is real giving, material help.

This raises a very serious question. Love to be love, divine love, must be practical. Love does not consist in what you say, but in what you do. So we read, “Whoso has this world’s goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17).

Firstly they were to be marked by a genuine concern for one another (c.f. Phil. 2:20). Compassion is not passive but what stirs one to act in view of need that is known. Elsewhere we read of ‘[the] bowels of mercy of our God’ and His intervention in Christ (Luke 1:78). Of Christ Himself we read: ‘And on leaving [the ship] [Jesus] saw a great crowd, and he was moved with compassion for them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things’ (Mark 6:34). He provided appropriate spiritual food to meet their spiritual need, as well as material food before He sent them away (see also 1 John 3:17).

This being so, seeing that believers are told to be imitators of God, as dear children, and that the Church is here to set forth Christ in His ways on earth, it is manifest that believers must be here in the same character of givers, for unless they are so, the character of God and of Christ is belied, and we are proved false witnesses of Christ. "Freely ye have received, freely give," is what the Lord said to His own. The disciples, who were to go out without money, were yet to shew boundless liberality. The widow, who cast in two mites, her all, is most highly praised: while the Apostle Paul, in speaking of giving, quotes the strong language of the 112th Psalm, "He hath dispersed abroad; He hath given to the poor; His righteousness remaineth for ever." (2 Cor. 9:9.)

These, and many other instances, which will occur to every reader, shew how God gives, how Christ gave, how believers should give; and that while of course the spiritual must ever be of incomparably more importance than the earthly, and the moral than the material, yet the giving necessarily includes material things, and care and thoughtfulness for others in matters pertaining to this life. (See James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17; 2 Cor, 9:7, etc.)

Christian giving is something that has to come from the heart before it can have real value before God. If there is not a ‘willing mind' (2 Cor. 8:12 ), then the giving is just a legal thing. Practical Christianity is not a matter of keeping rules and regulations. It is the answer of our love to Him that reflects itself in every area and aspect of our life. We love because He first loved us, and we give (ourselves and from our substance) because He first gave to us (Himself and all kinds of blessings).

First of all let us notice that giving is not a matter of charity. In the passage from the Old Testament, quoted in 2 Corinthians 9:9, we read, "He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor; his righteousness [not his charity, his righteousness] remains for ever." That expression clearly shows that for a Christian to give is not in any sense a matter of charity, but of common and ordinary righteousness. The fact is that God has poured in so much upon us, that it is only righteous that we should be dispensers of blessing to others. Further, in verse 10, the apostle speaks, not of increasing the fruits of their benevolence, charity, or largeness of heart, but of their righteousness. We must learn to regard the matter of giving as something that we are responsible to do, so that if we neglect it, we neglect that which is a matter of plain righteousness.

But, on the other side, alms-giving, as here classed by the Lord Himself as a form of righteousness, is a significant witness to us that mercy is not something supererogatory, but the ministry of love is itself a debt ― a due. A man who withholds from another what he can give him for his need is not even righteous; and this removes also the thought of merit from the mercy shown. Only in a world of habitual unrighteousness could the thought of the fulfilment of duty associate with it any thought of merit. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin," says the apostle (James 4:17). And the Lord bids us on the other hand, "When ye shall have done all things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done" ― not we have not done ― "that which was our duty to do" (Luke 17:10). And with the comparative righteousness which is all that is ours at best, ― a righteousness that still leaves us inners, ― how impossible should be the claim of merit! But to love, with all that this implies, is mere commanded duty; yea, to love one's neighbor as oneself is the injunction of the law. While the Christian standard rises higher still in its law of self-sacrifice, and all the marvelous enforcement of this in the example of Him who has given us life through His death. For those who have known this, there is no possible margin of devotedness outside of that duty which His love has endeared.

This makes all plain, when men ask if we are not to do anything for the world. If there is sorrow and want, am I not to help sufferers? Surely if there be a peculiar duty to the household of faith, I am also bound to do good unto all men; but there is no yoking together with others outside Christ in this, and no communion. The worldly man gives because he is generous, or feels for the need of the person, or is expected to give. The child of God does it because it is the will of God. The one acts on the ground of nature, the other in faith. Even in the most ordinary necessary acts, as eating and drinking, I may and ought to do it all to God's glory.