Christian theology and human experience teach us that the main reason why we do not experience lasting joy on earth is because selfishness often perverts our noblest strivings and motivations.
Sin can be described as a force that separates people from God and, hence, from one another. This is what selfishness does to us.
In contrast, a healthy self-love enables us to strike a balance between overestimating and underestimating our talents.
Self- love requires a truthful acceptance of ourselves in all our strengths and limitations, and this is the wellspring of love for others.
Selfishness deprives us of self-love, however, blinding us to truth and acceptance by keeping us in a state of unhealthy desiring.
– Philip St Romaine.