"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."(NIV) James 4: 17
Self-centeredness, in other words, saying "All of self, and none of God" is to live without ordering one's life after the Lord's will.
The Bible speaks not for such an attitude but obligates us to do the Lord's will (Matt. 7:21-23).
We learn from 2 Corinthians 8:12 that the Lord does not expect of us anything that we are not able to do.
We learn lesson from the Bible as to the importance of doing his will. For instance, in the parable of the good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite sinned by not doing what they knew to be good and right. In Matthew 25:24-30, the man who received one talent from his master knew he was responsible for using it, but he choose to bury it rather than use it for his master's profit. He sinned against his master and was cast into punishment since he knew to do good, but he did not do it. Our Lord, warns that many will be delivered to everlasting fire because they failed to do what was right toward their brethren.
Today, as believers in Christ Jesus, we are instructed to study God’s word and apply the Lord's will to our life.
It is his will that we esteem each other better than our own selves. It is his desire that we respond to the heart beat of others in need. We are encouraged to speak lovingly over our neighbors, loving our brethren in deed and truth (Proverbs 11:9, 1 John 3:17-18).
The Bible warns us against sins of ignorance and as such, we will have no excuse on the judgement day. We, as believers in Christ Jesus, have this eternal advantage to "understand what the will of the Lord is" that we may do it (Eph. 5:17).
Our life on earth is brief and uncertain. It is "a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead we ought to say, "if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that" (Jas. 4:14-15).
2 Corinthians 5:15 says "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
The time has come that we ought to say, "None of self, and all of God,". We must always live the life of Christ in us by never omitting the Lord's will from our lives (Gal. 2:20).
Living without ordering one's life after the Lord's will is to sin against the Almighty. If we omit the will of the Lord from our life, even after knowing what it is, brings us into sin.
We are encouraged, this day, to commit ourselves to "do" every God-given responsibility.
Hymn: Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow
Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be,
When I let the Savior's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
All of self, and none of Thee,
All of self and none of Thee.