You’re right; Jesus did command His followers to be focused on the needs of others, and not just on themselves. After all, this was Jesus’ own focus: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

But if you were the devil, wouldn’t you try to get Christians to focus only on themselves – even to the point of fighting with each other? Of course you would – because then they wouldn’t be urging people to give their lives to Christ, or demonstrating Christ’s love to a hurting world. Remember: Satan’s goal is to keep us from doing God’s will – and he’ll use every trick he can to accomplish this.

But when we follow Christ, we’ll begin to see the world the way He sees it. We’ll begin to see its suffering … we’ll begin to see its lostness and spiritual hopelessness – and we’ll want to do something about them. Christ’s command has never been cancelled: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). The Gospel is good news – and we dare not keep it to ourselves, because (as the Bible says) “Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Pray for your church, and ask God to use you to help lift its vision beyond itself. God wants to use your church to touch the world for Christ – and He will, as you renew your focus on Him.