Dr. Motes' Opinion

• Crime is usually caused by selfishness. Criminals, typically, are people who want what other people have but don't want to work for it. They normally don't care who they hurt to get it.

• Greed is just another word for selfishness.

• Pride is another form of selfishness.

• Selfishness causes some people to kill their unborn children. The child isn't convenient for them at the moment, and it wasn't convenient for them to take precautions beforehand.

• Most people vote based on selfishness. What can the candidate do for me?

• Selfishness causes some people to take more from society than they give in return.

• Selfishness causes some people to complain about the lack of police protection and high taxes simultaneously.

• Selfishness causes others to simultaneously complain about poor public education and high taxes. Obviously, there are exceptions here. Some schools do a poor job of educatiing children even with large budgets.

• Pollution is caused by selfishness -- some companies are more interested in profit than protecting the environment.

• War is caused by selfishness on the part of at least one country.

• Divorce is a product of the selfish desires of at least one of the two people involved. The goal of each member in a marriage should be to unselfishly give more than they take.

• Selfishness causes companies to be more interested in short-term profits than long-term growth. Managers usually change jobs every 3 or 4 years. Therefore, they want to see the company make a profit while they are there. They don't care if it makes a profit in the future.

• Some drivers are not courteous enough to let other drivers know what they are doing. It just takes too much effort to move their finger four inches and push a lever that takes only 5 ounces of force to push.

• Selfishness and the evil that follows from it will eventually destroy this society.

2000 years ago a man appeared on this earth who claimed to be the Son of God. He came to save the people of this earth from the destruction caused by sin (selfishness and the resulting evil and disobedience to God). Here are some principles that he taught:

• Love other people as much as you love yourself.

• Pray for your enemies.

• Do not love money or material possessions.

• If someone asks you for something, give them more than they ask for.

• Give to the poor.

His greatest commandment was to love God most of all. He said that if you love God (who created the earth and all its people) then you'll automatically do all these other things. Here's my comment to people who claim to be Christians. If we're not doing all the things I mentioned above then we must not love God. If we don't love God then we shouldn't claim to be Christians.

• The word Christian means Christ-like. I know of no person, including me, who deserves this term.

• Jesus once went to a fig tree to pick fruit that should have been in season. The tree had no fruit so he cursed it. It died immediately. This was a message to us. If we don't bear fruit, we should not call ourselves fruit trees. I no longer call myself a Christian -- I'm a born-again believer.

• Even if we do bear some fruit we should not let that be a source of pride before man. If we do, God said that we've already received our reward here on Earth. He is not obligated to reward us further for that fruit.

• Religious pride smells bad in the nose of God. If you love to pray before others and you love to recite the Word to others from memory, you may be doing it to receive admiration from man. God said for us to pray in private so he can reward us openly. He also wants us to put his Word in our hearts. He doesn't care if we put it in our mind. When we memorize scriptures we put it in our mind. When we memorize the intent and meaning of the scriptures we put it in our hearts.

• When you demonstrate to others what you know about the scriptures you may receive admiration from some. However, it has been said that a wise man doesn't care how much you know until he knows how much you care.