Motivated by Love
May 21st, 2007
(By Nathan Williams)
What motivates you to continued faithfulness in ministry?
I believe this is a question we should stop and consider frequently. If you are honest with yourself, I think you will find that any number of things motivate you to faithfulness in ministry. Anything from the desire to continue earning a paycheck and supporting your family to a sincere love for the people to whom you are ministering. These along with so many other desires motivate us to service. While some secondary motivations are good and necessary and some are inherently sinful, there is one motivating factor that stands above all the rest to spur us on to continued faithfulness in ministry.
This one unequivocal truth is that the God of the universe has set His own personal love upon us. The Scriptures are saturated with explaining the love that God has for His people and they consistently tie this love into our motivation for loving others and service for Christ.
1 John 4:10-11: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
I fear that in our ministries we can lose sight of the love that God has for us. We extinguish passion for ministry by focusing on ourselves and others to the neglect of considering our loving God. Of course we need to think about others and keep a watch on ourselves, but not to the point where we neglect focusing on God and His love. We often need to get our attention refocused on the love God has for us and let this motivate us to faithful, fruitful ministry.
Here are two practical ways to consider the love of God:
I. Consider the Doctrine of Election
Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
God’s love for us is the basis for His election of us. He made us alive together with Christ because of the great love that He has for us. Election is truly a remarkable doctrine and one that will surely motivate us to praise and serve Christ. Scripture makes it clear that election is based on nothing inherently good within us (Rom. 9:11-13; Titus 3:4-7). God simply chose us for His own glory and His own good pleasure. Wayne Grudem summarizes the doctrine of election:
“Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.”
When we realize that every person born into the world is a natural God-hater, this doctrine becomes even more amazing. Scripture is clear that we have no interest in God and even rebel against Him from the day we are born (Rom. 3:10-18). Yet, God chose to pursue us with His love and give us a new heart that is able to love Him in return. The doctrine of election certainly gives us insight into the very heart of God and motivates us to serve this God in ministry.
II. Consider the Gospel
The doctrine of election is certainly a major part of the Gospel. God chose people for salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4). However, God not only chose them for salvation but then sent His only Son to become a man and die so He could secure the salvation of those He had chosen.
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The life and death of Christ are the demonstration of the love of God for us. Christ came to earth so that He could live a perfect and sinless life and then receive the wrath of God in death on our behalf. First John 4:10 tells us that God made Christ the propitiation for our sins. He completely satisfied the anger of God toward those of us who are Christians. The truly remarkable thing about this truth is that God put to death His only son for a bunch of sinners. Understanding the Gospel means understanding our own condition before a Holy God. When we begin to grasp the seriousness of our sin against God and the astounding story of the cross, then we will begin to grasp the depth of the love of God toward us.
“And that for such as these Christ should die is such a mystery, such a paradox, such an unprecedented instance of love, that it may well be our business to eternity to adore and wonder at it.” (Matthew Henry)
The challenge for those of us who have been Christians for some time is to continually be amazed by the love of God. We so easily get involved in ministry and get our attention focused on those around us that we forget to be motivated by the love of God. C.J. Mahaney speaks to our casual relationship with the love God has for us:
“The word amazement is related to the word maze, and its root meaning has to do with being perplexed and bewildered. But when you tell non-Christians, “God loves you,” they are not surprised, they are not stunned, they are not perplexed. Regrettably, the same is true among most evangelicals, who simply assume this gracious disposition of God-and therefore presume upon it.”
I hope you will be challenged to take a fresh look at the love God has for you and that this love will motivate you to pursue ministry with a renewed sense of purpose.
From Nathan’s sharing: “I fear that in our ministries we can lose sight of the love that God has for us. …I hope you will be challenged to take a fresh look at the love God has for you and that this love will motivate you to pursue ministry with a renewed sense of purpose.”
Could it be that how one functions or is perceived begins in how regeneration and salvation is embraced(by the servant and by those on the receiving end)? Would it be best that those discovering servanthood ~ whether in the pulpit or as a keeper at home or in any designed role ~ don’t portray ministry as “theirs” but rather as God working in and through His foreloved and beloved workmanship? Simply a yielding in humility and thanksgiving? That way it is less likely to begin or evolve into one of many pursuits(and won’t become a job or career in which a person grows weary) but rather it will be about God initiating, providing strength, and bringing every aspect of His sovereign plan involving us to fruition? His orchestrating and given desires rather than ministry being thought of or becoming human effort(too often for acceptance, accolades, and for $$$ or stuff remuneration)? To make known(being sober minded to not blaspheme the Word of God and by adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things) the riches of His glory ~ goodness, longsuffering, forbearance, righteousness ~ all to the praise of His glory?
The heart of worship should reflect steps of each righteous man or woman being ordered by the Lord; it is all about Him. God is amazing. He is awesome. He is good. Always has been. Always will be.
Timely and thought provoking, Nathan…appropriate for this child this very morning. God bless you for the gentle and edifying reminder.
That was a very encouraging lesson. Thanks.
A good prayer sometimes to pray is to ask the Lord to help us understand the depth of His love for us. (Ephesians)
I wanted to share with you a wonderful quote by St. Thomas:
“Yet holy teaching employs such authorities only in order to provide as it were extraneous arguments from probability. Its own proper authorities are those of canonical Scripture, and these it applied with convincing force. It has other proper authorities, the doctors of the Church, and these it looks to as its own, but for arguments that carry no more than probability. For our faith rests on the revelation made to the Prophets and Apostles who wrote the canonical books, not on a revelation, if such there be, made to any other teacher.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Question I, art. 8.