Check Your Motivations

Have you ever had to defend yourself before others?  Perhaps your motivations were questioned about something you said or did under difficult circumstances.  Whatever the case, it is never easy when you are doubted by either your enemies or your peers.  How should we handle these kinds of onslaughts when they come?  To whom do we appeal or should we just remain quiet? What is the right way to defend ourselves, our actions, or even our motivations?

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul actually is forced to take a defensive position in regard to his own personal and public ministries.  Paul’s ministry, although without blame and done with the highest of motivations had been treated with contempt by false teachers and criticized by those who wanted to stop the progress of the gospel by throwing mud at it and trying to make it look suspect or unsavory.

Paul answered his critics by exposing his actual motivations for ministry in light of the most important event either he or any of us will ever know: the Judgement Seat of Christ.  This judgment determines believers rewards, not their salvation.  Knowing that he, along with every other Christian believer would one day have to stand before the Lord to give an account of his or her life to God to determine their rewards, Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:9,

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.

In short, the apostle confirms what most of his audience already knew about him, and that was simply that Paul knew that he would be judged by Jesus one day for how he served Him.  He cared about no one else or anything else when it came to his service for Christ.  He wanted only to please Him with his life and service.  But Paul was not just satisfied about pleasing God himself, he wanted his fellow believers to have that same mindset.  In verse 11 Paul said,

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade others.

The apostle was not just focused on winning his own Christian race, he wanted his fellow Christians to be motivated by this impending judgment as well.  He wanted their lives to please God too!

Thirdly, Paul declared to his critics in 5:14,

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

The final motivation of service is perhaps the single most important one of all.  It is the one thing that will drive you to be a witness even when you are tired or troubled in life.  If every person you meet is lost and needs a Savior, that means every person you meet needs to hear about the love of God for sinners!

Strive to make your motivation line up with these principles. Then defending your motives will never be an issue!

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