Pre-Tour 4 Note: Darwin's Observation

In pondering true agape love, “the steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good, the shalom, of another”, we realize how absolutely radical this is to the flow of the world and our culture.

Charles Darwin was a very interesting guy. And although I don’t agree with his theory, he did make some interesting observations. Here is one:

“…the instincts of each species is good for itself, but has never, as far as we can judge, been produced for the exclusive good of others.”

Isn’t this interesting! Darwin was observing, of course, a fallen world, and it was from that fallen world that he determined that everything moved in a state of pure selfishness... he called it the survival of the fittest, and wrongly believed that the various kinds of living creatures arose because of this self-centered flow of life. But he did rightly recognize the tendency toward selfishness.

We have called it the “all about me” syndrome.

But Darwin wrongly thought selfish instincts flow toward life. God says selfish instincts flow toward death.

Now, although Darwin missed some species that have symbiotic relationships, like crocodiles letting plover birds pick leeches off their gums or coyotes and badgers hunting together or the amazing relationship between Colombian tarantulas and dotted humming frogs, we have to hand it to him that he rightly observed a fallen world.

Think of what he might have observed if the world were tipped in the other direction? What would it be like if all of the species, instead of having “instincts” for themselves alone, had a sacrificial zeal that sought the true good of the others? 

I suppose the lion would lie down with the lamb… and the cobra would not strike the child.

And God, will, one day, tip everything back in that direction, but for now, it remains tipped toward death and selfishness.

And it is in this world that you and I have been sent to be agents of life…to have a sacrificial zeal for the true good, the shalom, of another.

This is radical…extremely radical.

But… here is where this gets troublesome.

Because, if God is true agape Love, then that means He has a sacrificial zeal that seeks your true good…your Shalom. Which means that He has a zeal, an intense fervor, for you to be abundant in selfless fruit…swimming upstream in a world that is flowing relentlessly in the opposite direction.

And it is in that hopeless, relentless flow, that the God of true agape love has placed His people…you and me.