"...Scripture enjoins nothing but love, and censures nothing but lust, and moulds men's minds accordingly...By love I mean the impulse of one's mind to enjoy God of his own account and to enjoy oneself and one's neighbor on account of God. What unbridled lust does to corrupt a person's own mind and body is called wickedness and what it does to harm another person is called wrongdoing. All sins can be divided into these two kinds, but wickedness comes first. Once it has depleted the mind and as it were, bankrupted it, it rushes on to commit wrongdoing in order to remove the obstacles to wickedness or to find assistance for it. Similar, what love does to benefit itself is self-interest, and what it does to benefit a neighbor is known as kindness. And here self-interest comes first, because nobody can do good to another out of resources which he does not possess. The more the realm of lust is destroyed [through self-interest], the more the realm of love is increased." Augustine, On Christian Doctrine Book III Chapter 10
My instinct here is that many Christians would benefit from appropriate self-interest these days. Time spent learning the teachings of Jesus, spending time in silence instead of watching television, and perhaps exercising to relieve their stress would help them to see the value of actually serving others. As things currently stand, many people (myself included) complain about opportunities to serve other people.
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