Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Giving motives

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Now there seems to be a contradiction here in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:14-16. In our devotional yesterday, we looked at statements made by Jesus later in the Sermon on the Mount that clearly indicated that our good deed must be done in secret.

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. Matthew 6:3,4

But here, earlier in the same discourse, He had said that our good works should be seen by men. So we have to work through this to determine if we should operate in secrecy, or act in full public view.

To really sort this out we may need to start at a different place and work our way back here. Jesus had said about Himself that, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12.

This has caused Him some family problems when He appeared to move in secret. His brothers, therefore, said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” John 7:3,4

We know though, that later, Jesus did go up to the feast, “But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” John 7:10. And then suddenly, in the middle of the event there in Jerusalem at the temple, he made a dramatic entry, “Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.” John 7:14.

There are two things that we gather so far. The first is that we must move and act in God’s timing. There is a tendency to act in our timing and often this is as a result of impure motive. We’ll get back to the issue of motive shortly.

The second thing we gather here, is what our real burden is. Jesus said that He is the light of the world, but He also said that we are the light of the world. In other words, we are the light that He is. When He is not physically present, He remains present through us. So we have a light function that must be carried out.

Light will essentially reveal what is taking place. Since we are children of God, then the good works that we are doing will be illuminated by the light we are shining. Our presence in a place or circumstance to demonstrate the love of God will naturally show what it is we are doing for God. People will see God and His care and concern for them through us.

This brings us back to the question about motive. The child of God needs to act out of a pure motive. Purity of motive is very easy to understand here. Pure motive is to seek the glory of God and not our own glory.

The point of the secrecy in our giving and charitable deeds is not that we should remain anonymous, the point of the secrecy is that our good works should not be put on display by us with an effort to draw attention to ourselves and what we have done.

There are some persons who do good deeds in an effort to show what they have or what they can do in order to win the acclaim of men. Jesus is saying that that is an impure motive. Men need to see and experience the love of God and to give Him glory and to do that we need to get out of the way.

We know from observation and experience that those who have been blessed will shout about it. Here is an example from the life of Jesus. Jesus healed a man of leprosy “And He charged him to tell no one … However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.” Luke 5:14,15.

It is going to be very difficult to keep a good thing quiet for a long time. The recipients of God’s blessings will shout about it. The challenge for us is to do it from pure motives and to ensure that we let all the glory for it go to God.

There is an old Andraé Crouch song, My Tribute, with the chorus “To God be the glory.” There is a bridge that goes like this – Just let me live my life / Let it pleasing, Lord to Thee / And if I gain any praise / Let it go to Calvary

Andraé in this song dedicated the praise for his works to the Jesus of Calvary. He got his motives right and dedicated them to God beforehand.

We must be careful to avoid performance goodness, where we do good so that men might see and give us glory. However, if we do our good works in secret, with the right motive, as we shine as lights men would see our good works. Seen this way, men will give the glory to God and not us. God will reward us not men.

Think on these things:

1. What, if anything, motivates you to give?
2. What criteria do you use to determine your giving or involvement in a cause?
3. How do you respond to personal recognition that you receive for doing things for others?

Prayer focus:

Let us pray today that we would always serve others out of pure motives giving the glory to God.

In His Grace

Pastor Alex