A visit with my sister in northern Mississippi in 2021

September 23, 2025 / 0 comments

Self – Not the World

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

  • Colossians 3:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

  • Romans 12:2

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

  • Philippians 2:3-4

Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.

  • Proverbs 4:25-26

“Augustine was the last great philosopher of Latin antiquity, and many would consider him the greatest. He was also the first philosopher whose philosophical quest took more the form of digging into his own inner life than of considering the reality outside himself or the society around him. And he contributed not just one but two of the finest books that there are in world literature: the Confessions (c. AD 400) and The City of God (c. AD 413-426)”

  • Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

  • C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

This last paragraph on the philosophy of St. Augustine of Hippo is amazing considering the attitude that the author made earlier in this chapter about St. Augustine and his heartburn about Christianity in general.  If you did not know what comments came before this, you might think that comment about Augustine’s focus on self rather than the world is a neutral comment.  It is probably a negative comment, in that possibly Augustine was the greatest of all ancient philosophers, but he did not address the world as a whole.

From a philosophical sense, did Augustine betray the world?  Absolutely not.

St. Augustine of Hippo was concerned about the soul of mankind much more than he was concerned about establishing a more modern view of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.  He was following the guidance of the Apostle Paul rather than the philosophy of Plato.

And if the world followed the pattern established by St. Augustine, then the world would have become a much better place.  In our present world, we are rejecting biblical values for worldly garbage.  Calling what is going on in secular society some sort of new “value” is impossible to even write with a straight face.

I wrote something recently, maybe a couple of months ago, about how the new worldview of morality shifted in the Twentieth Century to “just be better than Hitler.”

But the Scriptures above focus on self and our relationship with God.  They scream, rather than lightly suggest, to turn from whatever it is that the “world” is doing.

So, I am sorry if you think St. Augustine’s philosophy fell short because he focused on self, but if we all focused on being the best “me” that I can be by loving others and taking care of the poor and needy.  That is where the greatest philosophy in the world can be found.  If you do not see that, then you missed it.

Put the Bible in a pressure cooker and cook it down to the essentials and you get Jesus Christ dying for my sins, and the sins of all who believe and trust in Him.  I need to hate the sin in my life, wanting to not do it.  And the way to live is to love others and do whatever I can do for the needy, the poor, the sick, and widows and orphans.

When you read the fine print, it gets a little more complicated, but not by much.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.

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