Looking Out For Number Two
“Look out for Number One” they say, “if you don’t, no one else will.”
Actually, it wasn’t some generic “they” who said this first, it was Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein. He was boss of the Jewish mob in New York City during the Prohibition era, so I guess you could say he lived it out, too. He certainly took care of himself. He probably took care of a lot of other people as well, if you know what I mean.
Maybe the quote is too vague. There are just so many ways of “looking out” for yourself. Thankfully, most people don’t do it by becoming kingpins. But we still take the kingpin’s advice: Look out for number one. Follow your own bliss. Take care of your own self. After all, The Brain’s logic seems bullet-proof: “if you don’t, no one else will.” Isn’t that how the world works?
It’s how the world stopped working, actually, and why it doesn’t work. Our world was never meant to be a place where we all promote our own interests above everything and everyone else. We were never meant to each be our own individual rulers, working to build our own individual kingdoms on top of each other. I know of another Jewish man who gave very different instructions for how our lives should work. The Apostle Paul said,
“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
Did Paul not understand that in the real world selfish people will take advantage of you if you let them? That they will forget your needs and push their way past you if you don’t speak up and push back?
No, he didn’t forget. The reason he says we don’t need to worry about looking after our own interests is not because he thought our interests don’t matter. It’s because he knew our interests were are already looked after. Paul knows that in Christ, God’s people already have everything: A home. A family. A kingdom. An inheritance. Love. Security. Hope. Peace. Purpose. Joy. Everything! And yes, along with everything we also have difficulty in this world. Everybody gets that here. But those who are trusting and following Jesus never face that difficulty alone, or without the solid hope of all his promises.
In other words, if you bring Number One to Jesus, then Number One is already looked after, and looked after in far better ways for far longer than you’d ever manage on your own. And when Number One is looked after so well, our attention can be turned a different direction—away from Number One and on to Number Two, and Three, and Forty-Five. We can “value others above ourselves” because ourselves are already valued by God more than we can comprehend. We don’t need to fight to further our own interests. We don’t need to compete. The interests of ourselves are already looked after, completely, when we trust in Christ. You couldn’t look after them better if you tried. Number One is safe with Jesus. How are the other numbers today?
