This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12,13).
But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Most authorities define altruism as a consideration of other people without any thought of self as a principle of conduct. Altruism is a modern secular humanist concept, which attempts to describe selflessness as an evolved trait rather than a spiritual one. It is the secular version of the Christian concept of agape love, agape being the Greek word from which the word love is translated in the cited texts. Being created in the image of God, one of the characteristics of man is that he has the capability to be truly selfless and self-sacrificing, and once in a while, he actually displays it.
Denying the creation, the biological evolutionist combs the earth for animals that display altruism in their social life. If man is to be explained in evolutionary terms, his behavior has to be explained as well. But how does self-sacrificing behavior evolve? Wouldn't those organisms with the self-sacrificing trait extinguish themselves? What benefit is there in being self-sacrificing? Evolutionists cannot explain altruism.
Altruism is the reduction of agape into nothing but an evolved trait--it is cold and sterile. True agape is God's love, and when a human being expresses it, it is high praise to God who made him in his own image. The expression of agape is what makes us fully human and it is to be the dominant characteristic of God's children.
Grace&Peace,
Tom
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