Yesterday we looked at how to strengthen faith, to become a strong believer. This week we’ll continue looking back at other writings on this site as well as new material to train our thinking and actions in order that both work simultaneously and in sync with our faith. We mentioned that we need to challenge ourselves if we want to change ourselves. One of the ways we can challenge our faith is in service to others, but before we do that we need to understand how that service is to be rendered. In that regard, motives are everything.

Perhaps because we’ve just celebrated Christmas the following analogy is an easy one to make. If you want to give someone a movie you could simply wrap it up, but it’s likely they’ll know what lay beneath the paper.  To disguise the gift, you first put it in a differently sized box. In this way what is wrapped doesn’t reveal what’s on the inside. Likewise, we can wrap ourselves up in the same package every Sunday — nice clothes, big smile, friendly demeanor — and still be something other than what we appear to be.

The world calls this “hypocrisy” and there is no other label they would like to affix to Christians. D.A. Carson, a twentieth-century theologian, once said, “It almost seems as if the greater the demand for holiness, the greater the opportunity for hypocrisy.” The problem is hypocrisy is easy. Everyone wants to be appreciated, but sometimes this healthy desire turns ugly. When we make our needs the point, when getting strokes from others becomes more important than serving God for his glory, we are on treacherous ground. Pastor Eli Dorman of Mulberry Street Church remarked, “It’s an enormous temptation to permit our unhealthy need for approval from others to be the chief motivating influence guiding our acts of service.”

So what should be our motivation? There are many possible motivations, but three in particular that Jesus teaches us. The first of these is obedience. In his first letter Peter tells all believers, “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God” (4.10). Serving some may appear to be difficult, but it really comes down to a few fundamental disciplines. Respect the person and be attentive to them, after all they are made in the image of God too. Practice humility and respond to the person in a way that is in line with your faith in Jesus. In this way, through serving with respect, humility and in line with your faith any task becomes an exercise of your love for God and others (more on this later).

The second motivation for serving others is rewards. Yep, I said it. There is nothing wrong with doing the right thing for God in order to obtain heavenly rewards. We are meant to enjoy the rewards of God. We are supposed to look forward to the treasures of heaven. Sometimes our reward is given to us in the here and now, other times it is given to us when we enter God’s presence on the other side of eternity. Jesus taught us (in Matthew 6.19-21), “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The third, and greatest motivator for serving others is Love. There is no substitute for real love. When we love others we automatically treat them with the respect they deserve and in proper humility. Do we really need a verse to prove this one? If so, there is none better than Luke 10.26-.27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

By adopting these ways of thinking and acting we shape our faith and our motives for ministering in God’s name.