The First Motive for Obedience Considered…

There is a reward in serving God. There is a reward that follows obedience to His will. It is not wrong to consider the reward of serving God. It is not wrong to look ahead to the end of the way and consider what is there: to do so, cheers the soul, while on many a weary mile of life’s pathway. It brightens many a dark place. It helps us bear many a heavy burden, and nerves us to endure many a hardness. It helps us to ignore many things that if noticed, might keep us back, and causes hope to spring eternal in the human breast.

God offers us a reward, and holds it before our vision in order to encourage our faltering footsteps, but hope for a reward is based wholly upon self-interest. Service and obedience given to God that is moved by the hope of a reward, is essentially selfish. There are many professed Christians whose chief motive for trying to serve God is the hope of getting to heaven. When Christ was upon earth some people followed Him for the “loaves and fishes.” They followed Him because they were fed, not because they loved Him; not because they desired to become like Him; not because they wished to be ennobled in their characters; not because they wished to do Him honor; but that they might be fed. Service based upon the hope of reward, or obedience for what we can get out of it, is utterly unworthy. This can never rise to the dignity of true service, or to the loyalty required for true obedience. One in this condition cannot have the content of rich joy and satisfying pleasure nor the divine approbation that comes to those who serve from a higher motive.

It is perfectly proper for us to enjoy in anticipation the thing laid up in store for the Christian at the end of the race. It is perfectly proper for us to look forward to them with joyful eagerness. But this hope for reward, this self-interest, must be secondary to love as a motive if our service is ever to rise above the level of selfishness. We must hold the attitude of rendering service for love alone, just as if there were no reward. This is a fair test of our service. If we should suddenly receive a revelation from heaven that God had changed His plan, and that no reward would be given for services rendered, would we continue our service with the same earnestness and zeal that we give to it now? Of, losing our hope of reward, would we at once lose our zeal, our interest in God’s will, and our purpose to obey it? Job1:9 tells us that Satan asked God, “…Doth Job fear God for nought?” In other words, is Job’s obedience and worship influenced by an unselfish motive? Is it not true that he serves God because of the blessings that reward him? The trial proved that Job’s service had a higher motive behind it than that of self-interest. Service, whose only motive is hope of reward, is not acceptable to God because it does not consider God or His interest. It overlooks all unselfish considerations that would lead to true service and obedience. In reality, such service is not directed toward God, but toward self.

Even servants are commanded to serve their masters from an unselfish motive. They are to serve, “Not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Ephesians 6:6-7). Here the common, every-day service that is to be rendered to our fellow men is to be based upon goodwill and to be done from the same standpoint as though it were service rendered to God. If human service is to be put upon such a plane, certainly divine service should not be upon a lower one. If God takes note of service given to our fellow men, how much more will He take note of such service rendered to Himself?

A reward is offered to stimulate service. It is alright to anticipate our reward and rejoice in it, as God has said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:12). However, giving acceptable service to God must be the primary reason, and reward secondary. Selfish service is worthy of only a fraction of the reward that is merited by unselfish and loving service. Therefore, while the promise of heaven cheers our hearts and lightens our burdens, yet we should look beyond this reward and serve God for what He is and obey Him because He is deserving. We should have a feeling in our hearts that we should serve Him just as freely and earnestly as though no reward had been promised to us.

The Second Motive for Obedience Considered...

The second motive for obedience is fear. To realize God’s greatness, His love of holiness, His hatred of sin, and His punishment of evil doing, tends to excite fear in the heart. Fear tends to produce obedience in order to avoid the penalty of disobedience. The service that comes from fear is essentially selfish. This consideration in the mind, leading to obedience, is prompted by self-interest and self-preservation. Fear moves to obedience where there is no love, or only a little love. Where there is a heart of love that looks up and says, “Our Father,” there is no slavish fear that brings bondage and torment. Fear and love are opposites. He who obeys God because he is afraid of Him, because of the sword of vengeance that God holds, can never render to God the sort of service that comes from love. The fear of hell keeps many people from doing things that they otherwise would do, and it causes them to do many things that they otherwise would not do. But to serve God because we fear He will cast us into hell if we do not serve and obey Him is low, selfish, and degrading service. It degrades both God and man.

Fear torments the soul, but sincere and whole-hearted love casts out selfish fear and leaves only that fear, which is reverence. Love never questions God’s faithfulness, justice, love, kindness or tenderness. It draws near in full assurance of faith, while selfish fear shrinks and trembles and would flee away from God. Fear questions and distrusts. Love draws near to God, and desires that service should be more perfect and performed under the eye of it’s beloved, but selfish fear cannot abide to draw near to God. Fear’s obedience is a compelled obedience, not a willing service.

The Third Motive for Obedience Considered...

Duty may be a no higher motive than those already considered, or it may rise to a considerable higher level, depending upon the consideration from which the sense of duty arises. A lively sense of duty may come from fear, or be the effect of fear. One may feel under strong obligation to obey God, and he may obey Him as the moral ruler of the universe to whom he is bound as a slave to his master. A sense of duty may also arise from a feeling of gratitude and appreciation of God’s kindness. It is proper that we should feel that service is a duty, but duty-service is still a lower type of service than that which is taught in the Bible.

The sense of duty that arises from fear, drives one to feel that they must serve. Such service can never be easy and joyful. A Catholic priest once published a sermon saying, “Your religion does not make you happy. Your face shows you are not happy.” This could be said of the multitude of Protestants also---their religion is not a joyous religion; there is no glow of warmth, no joyous religion; there is no glow of warmth, no joyous spontaneous praise. The whole situation is summed up in saying, “Their religion does not make them happy.” Take away their "fear of hell", and they would lose all their religion in a day, except that which goes to make them respectable in the sight of men. They serve God in order to pacify Him, as the heathen attempt to pacify their god whom they fear and the demons that terrorize them. How different is the service that makes the “faces of the people to shine”.

What does service to his god bring to the heathen? It brings something, and something very real, if not something satisfying to the full desire of his heart. It brings a quietness of his fears, and a consciousness that he has done what he supposes to be his duty. It brings a temporary respite to his conscience, but it can produce no love for, or delight in, the object of his devotion and service. The heathen would fight to the death for his god, but he cannot love it. He serves his god because he fears it. The fact that he does not love it is shown by the many times that men punish their gods. Sometimes when the heathen’s prayers are not answered, he will shut up his god in a dark closet in order to punish it, or he may even beat it.

"The Christian" who serves his God through this type of fear and the sense of duty arising from it, will defend his God against the atheist and infidel, and fight for doctrines with determination. He must preserve his God and his religion, because he fears for himself. His service may be reluctant and forced, but he dare not discontinue it nor suffer it to be abused by others. From this service of fear has flowed the bitter persecution of past (and present) ages. All the strife and hatred between religious groups have been the fruit of this kind of religion. Those who love God do not hate their fellow men. Those whose service is a result of love do not try to bind a compulsory service on others. It is a religion based on fear and duty that uses forceful methods other than that compelling power---love, which constrains the heart to serve.

The feeling of duty, which issues from the sense of God’s deserving, is a far higher thing than that which comes from fear. It possesses elements of nobility. It may have many good qualities. It may produce a considerable degree of willingness in service. It may remove much of the hardness that is found in the service of fear. It may react to produce a degree of happiness and self-satisfaction. This is because God, not self, is mostly in view, and because the feeling of duty arises from a consideration of God’s worthiness, and does not have in it the consideration of self-interest. However, no matter how high this duty-service may rise, it still comes far short of being the highest type of service.

The sense of duty that arises from appreciation of God’s goodness and of gratitude to Him is the highest form of duty-service. Still this is far below the New Testament standard of service, both in character and effects. It is still duty-service, and so has in it the sense of moral compulsion. This sense of moral compulsion robs it of the richest quality of free service. “Ought” pushes to action, but is faulty in bringing any inner sense of satisfaction and true joy. It may bring an approving conscience and a sense of satisfaction because of duty performed, but never the sweet fruit that comes from service that proceeds from love.

The Fourth Motive for Obedience Considered...

The greatest and highest motive for obedience is love. It rises to a lofty height, far above all other motives for service. Hope of reward, fear, or duty can never inspire to obedience and service as love inspires. God’s greatest appeal is to our love. What we will not do from fear or from a sense of duty, or for a reward, we will do from love. “Thou shalt,” prefaced many of the commands of the Old Testament because from the very nature of the case, God could not appeal to the highest motive. Few people in that day had learned to love God. Few, therefore, could serve Him from the highest motive. Moreover, since the whole nation of Israel were to be His people, the “thou shalt’s” were necessary, and even then they often failed in their purpose to produce obedience.

In the New Testament we do not find the multiplied “thou shalt’s.” The emphasis is here laid upon love. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and only he that dwells in love dwells in God. So Jesus could say, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He could make no stronger appeal. No “thou shalt” is necessary to love. So it is said, “He that loveth hath fulfilled the law.” Jesus said in John 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words:” so if there is love, there is obedience. The one who loves obeys, not because he must, but because all his heart’s desire is bound up in doing what will please his Lord. The language of his heart is, “I delight to do thy will.” Love’s service arises to that sublime altitude where fear is forgotten, and the sense of duty fades. Love yields supreme service, because within itself it is supreme devotion, and the object of its affection fills its horizon. Only a divided love is double-minded service. Only a divided love finds service troublesome or compulsory. When we love God with all our hearts, His service is the delight of our hearts. Love to our fellow man does not divide our love to God. It is simply that love--- over-running or running-over =). The higher the floodtide of love rises toward God, the more it overflows to mankind. Because of this, the Bible teaches that if we love God, we shall love our brethren also.

There is no selfish fear in love; so he who loves serves not from fear. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart,” and then it follows that “him only shalt thou serve”; not because it is a thing commanded, but because it is the gushing forth of love’s pen-up fountain. “Love not the world,” is not so much a command as the condition of possible service to God. God’s “thou shalt not’s” are not meant to imprison us, to shut us up behind iron bars and to limit our activities, but they are meant to be wall of protection for us.

When the love of God raises us up to heavenly places (the rapture? =), we can truly realize that we are not of this world, and that we do not have the world’s spirit, nor desire what it desires. We are not inclined to walk in its ways; for the sweet fruit of love is so much more satisfying that our souls have no desire to feed upon earthly vanities. If we obey God only because we hope for a reward, or from fear, or from a sense of duty, such language as “joy unspeakable and full of glory” will be a foreign tongue to our souls. It will have a strange sound in our ears and be void of meaning. The spirit of grace and of glory rests alone on those who by love, serve. True joy is found only in the souls that love.

One characteristic of loving service is, the more we love, the more imperfect our service will seem; the less adequate it will appear to fill the measure of what we feel should be the service that is deserved by our beloved. We may be conscious that we are doing our best, but when we have done our best, we shall feel that our best is not good enough. The more we love, the more our spirits cry out, “Oh, that I might serve Him more worthily!” The man, or woman who feels that he or she is giving to God the full measure of service that God deserves to have given to Him, is looking so much to self that God is lost sight of.

The service of love is a humble service. The heart cries out, “How great is my Master; how worthy is He!” When the heart begins to feel or say, “How great am I,” it proves that self-love has increased and love to God has decreased. We may serve God acceptably and please Him, and yet if we love Him fervently we shall not be satisfied with the service that we are rendering; for love always urges forward on to more devotion. It ever presses on to greater and more perfect service. He who is thoroughly satisfied with the service he is rendering to God is thoroughly self-righteous. Love loses sight of self in the adoration of its object. It can never satisfy itself in service, and service is never hard where the heart truly loves.

Love is the highest of all motives of service; it produces the highest type of service, the greatest service. It ennobles him who serves and glorifies Him who is served. [ The End ]