Today my message is called “Jesus on Motives.” Motives are the inward thoughts or reasons behind our words and behaviors. Other people can’t see your motives, only you and God truly know the motives behind your actions. Motives have a lot to do with our hearts. As we are going through the Sermon on the Mount, we are seeing that Jesus had a lot to say about our heart attitudes or motives.
Why should you be concerned with your motives? We’re going to see today that when you do the right things with the right motives, God will bless you. If you do the right things with the wrong motives, you get zero blessing. And of course if you do the wrong things in life, things won’t go well with you. Sometimes people wonder why God blesses others who appear to be doing the same things they are, but they aren’t blessed. One of the possible reasons could be motives.
We are carefully studying Jesus’ words, because as we learn to follow them with God’s help, our lives will be blessed in increased measure.
Matthew 6:1 (NIV) “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
This statement by Jesus sums up everything we’re going to be talking about today. He says the His disciples must not do good things before others with the motivation to be seen by others. If you have this wrong motivation, you will get no blessing or reward from God.
Now, if you’ve been following this message series, we talked earlier about Jesus’ statement in
Matthew 5:16 (NIV) In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Isn’t that a contradiction? In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us to let others see our good deeds and in Matthew 6, He says don’t do your good deeds before men. No, it’s not a contradiction, it’s a difference of motives. In Matthew 5, the motivation in doing good deeds before people is so that God is praised. In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us to not do our good deeds before men in order to be seen or praised by them. Jesus is warning us against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who had wrong motives.
John 12:43 (NIV) for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
That is a wrong motivation for good deeds. So what we have here is truth in tension. We are to do good deeds before others, so God is praised. Yet, we must be careful not to do those same good deeds in order to receive praise for ourselves.
In this passage, in Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus is going to instruct us about three kinds of good deeds. In each instance, Jesus begins his instruction by saying, When you … and then goes on. Jesus is assuming, or perhaps we should say commanding every follower to practice these three things in their lives. But when we practice them, we must have the right heart attitude or motivation in order to be rewarded or blessed by God.
Listen to my October 24, 2010 message “Jesus on Motives.”