Check Your Motives
Two young adults were involved in a car accident – a man and a woman. And at first, they were angry and accused each other of being at fault. When they finally calmed down, they decided to call the police and let them settle the matter. As they waited for the police to arrive, they began conversing with each other and discovered they were both single and had a lot in common. Chemistry started to flow between the two of them, and the young woman said, “You know, maybe it was God who brought us together through this accident.”
The young man, who was really attracted to the woman now, said, “Maybe so.”
Then the young woman said, “Well, I think it’s silly for us to stand out here in the cold. Let’s go sit in my car, where it’s a little warmer.” And the young man agreed.
As they sat talking in the car, the young woman said, “Hey, I just happened to be at the store, and I bought a bottle of wine, and I have some paper cups. How about if we have a toast to this chance meeting?”
The young man thought that was a great idea. So, they made a toast, and he gulped down his wine. Then he looked at the young woman and asked, “Aren’t you gonna drink yours?”
And she said, “Nah, I think I’ll just wait for the police to arrive.”
In Luke chapter 11, we come to a passage that deals with motives. Why do we do what we do? Why are we kind to people? Is it to help them or to manipulate them? Why do we worship God? Do we genuinely love him, or is it because that’s what we were trained to do from childhood? Why do we try to live a good life? Is it because we sincerely want to please God, or are we looking for personal advantages? The thing about motives is that they’re not always easy to identify or measure. But God always knows, since he doesn’t look at just outward appearances, but he sees right into our hearts.[i]
In the Old Testament, the Jewish people were doing the right things, but God knew their hearts were far from him.[ii] They were just going through the motions. In a word, they were hypocrites, or playactors. In Luke chapter 11, we’re gonna see how the religious leaders question Jesus’ motives, which, in turn, leads Jesus to expose their own hypocritical motives. And before we jump in, let me just say that I think there are three different categories of motives.
The first category is sincere motives.
The highest sincere motive stems from our love for God.
We can be sincerely motivated by a sense of duty. We might do things because God says so.
We might be sincerely motivated by a sense of positive guilt, which leads us to confess our sins and to repent.
And sometimes, we may be sincerely motivated to do things out of fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.[iii]
The second category is sinful motives.
If the highest motive in life is to love God, then the lowest motive is to serve Satan. When we succumb to sinful motives, we’re serving Satan. He’s got us right where he wants us. A person doing the right thing with the right motive is a righteous person. A person doing the right thing with the wrong motive is a deceiver, and we might call that person a hypocrite. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. His concern for the poor is a good motive. But robbing the rich? Wrong behavior. But the worst is when a person does the wrong thing with the wrong motives. That kind of person is simply evil. “I know it’s wrong to steal, but I want what I want. So, I’m gonna do it anyway.”
And the third category is mixed motives.
I’m a preacher because I want to fulfill God’s calling in my life, and I want people to come to know Jesus on a deeper level. I want people to grow in their walk with Jesus. But I often battle an underlying motive for preaching, and that is, I want people to like Jeremy Klein. I want you to laugh at my jokes and be moved by what I say. So, we can have mixed motives.
Our goal as we mature in Christ is to reach the point where our motives are entirely pure and align with our actions.
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[i] 1 Samuel 16:17.
[ii] Isaiah 29:13.
[iii] Proverbs 9:10.