Motives Matter

Chuckle:  In a very dark church building, a man said, "I make a motion we buy a chandelier." Another said, "I'm against it for three reasons: No one knows how to spell it to order it. There isn't anyone in the church who can play it. And third, we need more light in here!"

Quote: “It is motive alone that gives character to the actions of men.” –Jean De La Bruyere

MOTIVES MATTER

“. . . let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:16 NLT). “Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired (by other people) because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1 NLT).

Our passage is from the lips of Jesus Himself as He delivered what is called the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, Jesus teaches His followers the finer points of godly living. Here we discover that Jesus is more interested in the condition of our hearts than He our specific acts of kindness. He teaches us to do good deeds in ministry to others, but our motives for these good deeds determine their acceptance by God and our ultimate rewards in heaven.

Notice the apparent contradiction in our two Scripture verses. First, Jesus tells us to do good deeds for all to see. Then He tells us not to do acts of righteousness to be seen of people. But close study of Jesus’ words reveals no contradiction at all. The differential factor is motive – why do we do good deeds. Do we do them to bring attention, honor, and glory to ourselves by the praise of other people, or do we do them to bring praise, honor, and glory to our Lord?

In our first verse, Jesus says our motive for our good deeds should be to cause people to praise our Father in heaven. In our second verse, Jesus warns us about doing good deeds to be seen by people to bring their praise to ourselves. Doing good to bring honor to God will result in His rewarding us for such service. On the other hand, if our motive for doing good is to bring glory to ourselves, we will not be rewarded by our heavenly Father. So, we see that motives really do matter to God because they reveal the condition of our hearts.

Satan will tempt us, in his sly and subtle ways, to pervert our motives for serving our Lord. We may have the purest intentions when we begin to do acts of kindness for others and honestly want them to bring glory to the Father. Then, low and behold, people begin to praise us for our actions and Satan tells us it’s OK to bask in the warmth of that praise for what we have done. Then pride begins to raise its ugly head and our motives gradually change from bringing honor to God to bringing honor to ourselves. This is what Jesus is warning us about.

“The Lord’s searchlight penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. God loathes the sacrifice of an evil person, especially when it is brought with ulterior motives” (Proverbs 20:27; 21:27 NLT).

Love, Jerry & Dotse