Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Motivation will be the basis for the evaluation of your life at the Judgement Seat of Christ.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Relative pronoun – hosa – o@sa + adjective – hagna = aJgnav = that which is proper, pure, clean, innocent, modest.
It originally signifies “that which awakens awe and respect for that which is spiritual.”
2CO 5:10 “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or worthless.”
1CO 3:13 “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality or the motivation of each man’s work.”
Motivation reveals that which is located inside the individual’s heart impelling or inciting action.
Motivation can be mental or emotional, because you can do things that you do not feel like doing but you do it because your mental attitude says to – and that is proper motivation.
JAM 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
You need to guard your motivation because a motive is thought which determines a choice or induces action.
Proper motivation can encourage, influence, convince or persuade an individual to do what is right.
PRO 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.
As a part of proper motivation, we have purpose which is an appealing factor held out to persuade.
Motivation is something within that helps bring about an action or the desired result.
Impulse is an involuntary feeling prompting to act.
JAM 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,
Peter had an impulse to try to stop the Lord from going to Jerusalem where He would suffer, MAT 16:21-23.
PSA 7:9 For the righteous God tests the right lobes and the emotions [reins].
Motivation is the design or object one has in any action; it is one’s intention or purpose.
In the Christian life, the believer is motivated by B.D. in the soul and the filling of the Holy Spirit, which produces personal love for God, or by the lust pattern of the O.S.N. and Satan’s cosmic system, which produces good and evil.
The Word of God is the critic of motivation, HEB 4:12.
JOH 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
If you look closely at verse 12 you will see the things that it does and at verse 13, the reason why it works.
1. It pierces – diikneomai = to cut through.
2. It judges! Critic – kritikos – “judge” = to critique, judge, discern or evaluate.
JOH 12:47-18 And if anyone hears My doctrines, and does not guard them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My doctrines, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
It works because it is universal in scope – no one is hidden from God’s sight.
“All things are open” = all things are uncovered. “Laid bare” = to be totally and completely exposed.
1SA 16:7 “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Evil is the source of wrong motivation, PSA 21:11; 1CO 10:5-6; MAR 7:22-23.
PSA 21:11 “Though they were motivated to do evil against Thee, and devised a plot, They will not succeed.”
1CO 10:5-6 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low [by the sin unto death] in the desert. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved [evil things].
False motivation also hinders spiritual growth, PHI 2:14; JOB 17:11.
PHI 2:14 Keep on doing all things without sullen discontent [pouting] or argumentations [which undermine authority];
JOB 17:11 “My days are past, my motivations are torn apart, Even the desires of my right lobe.”
Divine motivation is the grace of God as seen in the predetermined plan of God, ROM 8:28; ROM 9:11; EPH 1:11; EPH 3:11; 2TI 1:9, described by – prothesis = a spiritual purpose.
The great issue in spiritual giving is motivation, 2CO 9:7 Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart[been motivated in his right lobe]; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful or a joyful giver.
For the mature believer, God turns evil motivation into grace blessing, GEN 50:20, DEU 23:5.
The motivation of the mature believer is often maligned,
EXO 17:3 But the people thirsted there for water; and they complained against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”
They did so because Moses was a constant challenge to their pride until finally their pride blew up and triggered the mechanism of jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, etc.