He gave his life in selfless love

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • 2 Samuel 9
  • Matthew 11:4-5
  • Matthew 15:30-31
  • Matthew 20:22-23
  • Matthew 20:28
  • Matthew 24:30-51
  • Matthew 26:26-29
  • Matthew 26:39-42
  • Matthew 26:56
  • Matthew 9:13
  • Mark 10:45
  • Mark 13:26-37
  • Mark 14:22-25
  • Mark 14:36
  • Mark 14:50
  • Mark 2:17
  • Luke 15:1-2
  • Luke 19:10
  • Luke 21:27
  • Luke 22:14-20
  • Luke 22:17-20
  • Luke 22:30
  • Luke 22:42
  • Luke 23:46
  • Luke 5:32
  • Luke 7:22
  • John 18:11
  • John 19:30
  • John 6:51
  • 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
  • 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
  • Ephesians 5:25
  • Philippians 2:6-7
  • 1 Timothy 1:15
  • 1 Peter 2:22-24
  • 1 John 3:5
Book Number:
  • 647

He gave his life in selfless love,
for sinners once he came;
he had no stain of sin himself
but bore our guilt and shame:
he took the cup of pain and death,
his blood was freely shed;
we see his body on the cross,
we share the living bread.

2. He did not come to call the good
but sinners to repent;
it was the lame, the deaf, the blind
for whom his life was spent:
to heal the sick, to find the lost-
it was for such he came,
and round his table all may come
to praise his holy name.

3. They heard him call his Father’s name-
then ‘Finished!’ was his cry;
like them we have forsaken him
and left him there to die:
the sins that crucified him then
are sins his blood has cured;
the love that bound him to the cross
our freedom has ensured.

4. His body broken once for us
is glorious now above;
the cup of blessing we receive,
a sharing of his love:
as in his presence we partake,
his dying we proclaim,
until the hour of majesty
when Jesus comes again.

© Author / Jubilate Hymns This is an unaltered JUBILATE text. Other JUBILATE texts can be found at www.jubilate.co.uk
Chris Porteous

The Church - The Lord's Supper

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Tune

  • Selfless Love
    Selfless Love
    Metre:
    • CMD (Common Metre Double: 86 86 D)
    Composer:
    • Maries, Andrew

The story behind the hymn

The 1980 Scripture Union supplement Songs of Worship saw the first publication of this hymn by Christopher Porteous, where 5 of his texts were included. It was written at Beckenham, Kent, in the 1970s, partly ‘to encourage young musicians at Christ Church’ where he belonged and where it was first sung. HTC then featured a version somewhat revised after discussion between author and editors. This has since become the bestknown of his hymns, appearing in many subsequent hymnals. It is rich in Scripture references, both from the Gospels and 1 Corinthians 10 and 11.

Andrew Maries’ tune SELFLESS LOVE was composed for the words at York, where he was a student, some time before 1980. It appeared with them in SW as a 14 14 14 14 metre with 4-line stzs, marked ‘Slow and tender’, and became his best-known composition to date. HTC set it as CMD, as it is here.

A look at the author

Porteous, Christopher Selwyn

b London 1935. Dulwich Coll. Articled clerk in local govt with Malling (Kent) Rural District Council 1954-60; he qualified as a Solicitor in 1960, first with London County Council (till 1962), then worked at New Scotland Yard as Legal Asst, Senr Legal Asst, Asst Solicitor, and (from 1987) Solicitor to the Commissioner of Police, until retirement in Beckenham, Kent, in 1985 and latterly to Birchington, nr Margate. He was active at Christ Ch Beckenham, as an authorised Reader (CofE appointment from 1958-2004) and wrote the history of that church; he has had other voluntary church responsibilities in Rochester Diocese and Board of Social Responsibility as well as the Law Society, the Assn of Police Lawyers (of which he was President, 1995-98) etc. At Birchington since 2004, he is a Pastoral Assistant at All Saints’ Church. He enjoys walking, gardening, music and writing; has published several articles in law magazines and verse in poetry anthologies including some in the Assn of Christian Writers (ACW) collections. Some 30 of his hymns are in print, written from 1970s onwards, featuring in Scripture Union, Jubilate and other books, his best-known text being published in several hymnals, as here. He has a concern for the current lack of reverence in worship and ‘the poor quality of some contemporary choruses’. No.647.