Motivation and Love

Some personal experiences over the last few years have given me a fascination with motivation. How are people motivated? How are people motivated to adopt an idea? How are people motivated to repent? How are people motivated to surrender to Christ? How are people motivated to obey God's word? How are people motivated to make changes that are in their own best interest?

Last night Jennie and I had a 2.5 hour conversation about this topic and her comments have inspired this posting. These questions about motivation have been answered in various ways by various people but here is what Jennie and I came up with last night .....

The apostle Paul wrote that it is God’s love that motivates us to repent. Romans 2:4 says: “… do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

The apostle John also wrote of the importance of love. He commanded us to love one another …..

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John also said that the God that we follow is one who loves …..

1 John 4:10 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.

John also said that an indication that God abides in us is our love for others …..

1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

The apostle also points out that we are motivated to love God because God first loved us ……

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

Paul believed this as well and he connected the dots. He said that “God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) So Paul is saying that God demonstrated His love for us, even during a stage in our lives when our minds were not inclined to obey Him and we had sin in our lives. Why? I believe because our ability to obey God is a response of being loved ourselves, whether that love comes from God directly or from His people.

The goal of loving others was highly valued by Christ. Matthew records this instance of Christ being interrogated by the Pharisees (Matthew 22: 34 – 40):

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Jesus also said that people would know that we are His followers if we love each other.

There are a lot of folks out there who know a lot. They’ve matured in Christ and have a lot of wisdom. But if that maturity is not accompanied by love, it means nothing. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:2: “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”