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Unselfish Service the Law of Heaven
Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of
true education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as
the guide of life. The first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”
Mark 12:30
. To love
Him, the Infinite, the Omniscient One, with the whole strength and
mind and heart, means the highest development of every power. It
means that in the whole being—the body, the mind, as well as the
soul—the image of God is to be restored.
Like the first is the second commandment, “Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself.”
Mark 12:31
. The law of love calls for
the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our
fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others,
brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all
true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest
culture of every faculty.
The Result of Self-Seeking
Lucifer in heaven desired to be first in power and authority; he
wanted to be God, to have the rulership of heaven; and to this end
he won many of the angels to his side. When with his rebel host
he was cast out from the courts of God, the work of rebellion and
self-seeking was continued on earth. Through the temptation to
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self-indulgence and ambition Satan accomplished the fall of our first
parents; and from that time to the present the gratification of human
ambition and the indulgence of selfish hopes and desires have proved
the ruin of mankind.
Under God, Adam was to stand at the head of the earthly family,
to maintain the principles of the heavenly family. This would have
brought peace and happiness. But the law that none “liveth to him-
self” (
Romans 14:7
), Satan was determined to oppose. He desired
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