My wife and I were high school sweethearts. There is not one memory of that time of my life that she is not a part of. Looking back (and yes, we were way too young to be dating seriously but I will save my views on this for another post), I just laugh at how I really thought I knew what true, biblical love was. Needless to say, our love has blossomed and matured greatly since those naive days! As I ponder those days, one of the things that sticks out to me the most is my motives on some things. Oh, I told her during those high school days how much I loved her; I bought her things, took her places, and would break anyone's jaw who even looked at her wrong (yes I was a little bit of a brawler back in the day). I made what I though were sacrifices, and did them with joy. However, looking back, there was just one huge problem (and since I have confessed so much already, I'll keep going). The problem was my motive. At the time, I thought I was doing these things out of genuine, biblical love, but looking back, I realize that I was doing them for the wrong reasons. I was doing them because I wanted her to like me, be impressed by me, and to keep her close to me, and not to mention that I wanted other people to see how good of a boyfriend I was. It is not that I didn't care about her, I was just really immature and had no idea what love was.
So often our relationship with God resembles an immature high school romance rather than a mature marriage. Especially when it comes to the motive of sacrifice. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:3 that "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Clearly, from this passage of scripture, rote sacrifice is not the end of the story. There is a much deeper thing going on, and that deeper thing is the motive behind the sacrifice. Sacrifice without love makes one a Pharisee; someone who is not interested in the glory of God and the betterment of others, but themselves. Sacrifice is for show. And this is reprehensible in God's eyes. Paul hits on the motive of love when he says further on in verse 5 that love is not to "seek its own" or literally, "does not seek itself." The idea here is that love is not selfish; it doesn't seek or do things for the benefit of self. As we have said before, true, biblical love does not factor itself into the equation. It does this when sacrifice is involved as well. Love does not sacrifice so that it can make a name for us. In fact, love doesn't even think of reciprocity at all. God is not pleased with us at all when we cloak our selfishness with sacrifice or spiritual lingo. Just look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. One of the most detestable sins is to use what is God's for the building up or our own kingdom, or to place His name on something that is infected with evil desires. We do this anytime we use our spiritual gifts for the wrong reasons, or place God's name on a sacrifice or decision that is infested with self seeking. So, how do we begin to have the right motive in our serving, giving, etc? There are several ways (in no particular order): 1. Be filled with the Spirit- Since the fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal, 5:22), when He is filling and controlling us, He will produce His fruit in us. This includes our motives as well. 2. Repent and ask for the proper desires- God is sovereign over our hearts, and is able to cleanse them and recreate new, godly desires within us. 3. Pray that God constantly checks your motives and keeps your heart pure- Part of being a fruitful disciple is abiding in Christ (John 15). If we are walking in stride with God, He will keep us pure as well as keep our motives in check. When we start to stray, He will either grant us the grace to resist the temptation or convict us and lead us to repentance. 4. Pray for a deeper revelation of the gospel- Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that they "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (3:18-19). Paul understands that being filled with the fullness of God only results in a deep understanding of the love of Christ as manifested in the gospel. When this vision takes root in our lives, it transforms us at the core of our being, and causes all of our life to express itself in a manner worthy of the gospel.
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