Il n'y a pas de i dans l'équipe. Don't panic, you haven't accidentally changed your language settings. Instead, I have decided to open this article with a translation (granted, from Google translate) of a common English cliche: "There is no I in team". The French word for team is équipe, a word which does, in fact, have a very noticeable I. This, of course, seriously undermines the logic of "there is no I in team". The point itself is solid; teamwork is about cooperation with others, and so it's quite foolish to focus on one's self. However, the reasoning is not so solid. Otherwise, the French would be able to be much more self centred within teams.
Recently, a meme crossed my timeline committing a similar fallacy. The point it is trying to convey is that we should live for others and not just ourselves, a very good rule to live by. The Creator Himself has commanded that we must love our neighbor as ourselves, a command He elevates so high that the only one higher is that we must love Him with every fiber of our being. Unfortunately, the meme does not rest upon such a solid foundation, appealing instead to nature. "Nothing in nature lives for itself", it declares.
Now, the first irony here is that half of the examples it gives do not live at all. The sun is not alive, nor does it intentionally give us its light or its warmth. In fact, if our planet was slightly closer to it, it would become an inhospitable wasteland, and if it was slightly further away, we would all freeze. The sun does not live for anyone, and it is by the sheer genius of our Creator that it doesn't wipe out everything and everyone we have ever loved.
Similarly, rivers do not live for anyone. They are bodies of water with no conscious thought. And while they are not as dangerous as the sun, anyone who has ever endured a local flood can tell you they can be as much a curse as a blessing.
But what about the plants? These do live. But first of all, they do not live in the sense that we do. They cannot make conscious choices. The products and services they provide are not of their own volition. They cannot choose where they are planted, what gets grafted on to them, what eats their fruit (or even the other bits of them) etc. Ironically, one could argue that, since fruit in particular is a part of their own reproductive cycle, they do live for themselves. Providing fruit to consumers is simply a means to an end, which isn't living for others whether it's conscious or not.
What's noteworthy is that no animals are listed as examples. Free agents, which may consciously choose how they interact with the world around them, are not mentioned. Why? Simply because they don't actually fit the analogy. Most living things are, in whole or in part, quite selfish. In fact, when you look to the animal kingdom, you see it red in tooth, claw, and, frankly, private parts. Animals treat each other in the most horrendous ways! When predators kill their prey, it is only as quick and painless as is convenient to the predator. "Stop struggling, let me eat you". Herbivores aren't too kind either. In Africa, hippos kill more people than lions, and do not even have the decency to eat or bury them. Orangutans, and indeed all apes, are quite capable of rape and pedophilia.
To be clear, there are lessons we can learn from nature. The Bible is filled with such lessons. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard!" (Proverbs 6:6). "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world...." (Psalm 19:1-4a).
But what if you do not heed this knowledge? What if you look only to nature, but ignore its testimonies to its Creator? Well then you have some very nasty problems. If I must live for others where nature "lives" for others, must I live for myself where nature lives for itself? I can't imagine baby seals enjoy it too much when sea otters rape them, but if I'm looking to nature and seeking to obey its laws, that's not really a line I get to draw. (Note: do not make the common straw man. I'm not saying if there is no God, everyone should rape seals, or even that if I stopped believing in Him, I would suddenly become a seal rapist).
But when you acknowledge that the world was created "very good" (Genesis 1:31) by a Creator whose work is perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4), yet the whole creation is affected (Romans 8:22) by a fall that began with the first sin (Romans 5:12), you realise, first of all, that there are lines that must be drawn. You don't get to just act like an animal, or justify your poor behavior, by showing that it is found in nature.
Ultimately, the only place morality can be found in nature is the human heart, where God has written His laws (Romans 2:14). But even then you will notice it has been tarnished. The Fall really did a number on us. While we, being made in God's image, are still capable of love, kindness, humility, and other good virtues, we do still act selfishly. We steal, we lie, we blaspheme, we commit adultery and other sexually immoral acts, we hate without cause, we covet, we commit a wide range of sins, almost as if we were programmed to do so.
Now, let us go back to our "nothing in nature lives for itself" analogy. Although it is folly to argue from analogy, you can use analogy to explain a truth. The sun does not shine for itself. Correct. It was designed to shine for us. It is an example of the greater serving the lesser. As it turns out, this truly is the law of nature. In some sense, everything serves something lesser than itself, whether it be a gigantic ball of Hellfire giving life to a tiny and insignificant pebble, or a fully grown animal giving life to an entirely new being, everything serves something lesser, in one form or another, to itself.
Of course, that lesser is not always value. It could be size, strength, longevity, anything really. Thus, again, there is a hole in the analogy. But when the Creator came to the Earth, He told us something very important: "...The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves." (Luke 22:25-27).
The Creator of Heaven and Earth, preceded by no one, succeeded by no one, beholden to no one, who owes no one, serves everyone. The fullness of the Godhead could have chosen to bodily dwell (Colossians 2:9) in any form He chose. He could easily have been born into a rich family. Even a king. He could have had thousands of servants to wait on Him hand and foot. Had it been His desire, He could have lived such a lavish life that He could have bribed the Emperor to kiss His boots. But He looked down at all the women of the Earth and chose one in particular: A humble maid. The fiancé of a carpenter. He could have lived a life of luxury, yet He fixed tables for a pittance.
But that wasn't where His humility ended. Yes, He worked His fingers to the bone to help the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, and even the rich (who, compared to His full glory, are nothing). But the greatest act of service He did for us was self sacrifice. At the close of His ministry, Jesus endured a fate worse than death itself. Though being guilty of a grand total of zero sins, be it by deed, word, or even thought, Jesus was given over to the most brutal form of the criminal justice system. Put through a sham of a trial, Jesus was stripped, beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross. There, He hung until He died.
But of course, it gets deeper still, because Jesus experienced more than just the physical element. Jesus endured the full wrath of God for sin. It's not as if God threw Him into the lake of fire for all eternity (nor did He need to, as Christ is Himself eternal, and thus a finite punishment sufficed), but Jesus literally endured the shame of our sin.
Thus, the Greater serves the lesser. God is not obligated to give us anything, not even the very life He gives us. Justice compels Him to deal with sin, but there is no good thing God owes anyone. Yet, He is pleased to give us eternal life in a Kingdom so unimaginably great (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9), our Earthly sufferings cannot be reasonably compared (Romans 8:18). This, paid for at His own great expense; a price none of us could have ever hoped to afford.
But this gift of life is not automatic. One must accept it in order to receive it. This requires us to repent of the sins that brought us death. Every time we obeyed the law of nature instead of the law of God, we must turn away from. For it is written, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). But before we can confess our sins, we must first confess that there is One to sin against, for it is written again, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6). Thus, in order to be saved, we must "...confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead..." (Romans 10:9). Then we will be saved.
There are many things we can learn from nature, but just as looking under the hood of a car will tell us next to nothing about those who made it, so also does nature have a limit to what it can teach us. If we are to understand how to live, we may look at the world we are designed to live in, but ultimately, we must look to the One who designed us to live in it. When we do this, not only will our ways on Earth be wise, but we will also do well when our time here ends. Let us therefore look to our God, and where we once went astray, following our own path, let us follow His narrow road to salvation.