C. S. Lewis made a distinction between selfishness (which he saw as natural) and self-centeredness, which he saw as evil. He wrote that even altruistic motives would be corrupted by self-centeredness, since the view reality upon which the altruism was based would be warped and clouded by the person’s self-centered interpretation of all evidence.

G. K. Chesterton wrote that love is not blind, but it is bound. We must love everyone because of their potential, but not stop loving them because of their faults. I believe he called it a pragmatic universal patriotism, but a patriotism to our fellow man, not to a country…and not a blind patriotism either.

I also recently heard someone say that God makes holy everything He touches, but the same cannot be said of us. So a Christian’s only job is to love God and love others; making someone else holy is way above the pay grade of a mere Christian.