Motives

Proverbs 16:2

      If someone could invent a Motive Detector, they could make a mint. You could weed out all the con artists of the world. Thieves would become a thing of the past. Wave it over potential mates, politicians, babysitters, chaperones. We could even wave it over ourselves, in private of course, just to check to see if our motives were on track.

      It can be hard to know someone’s motives for doing what they do. I sometimes even wonder about my own. Do I write this BLOG to get famous? I hope not, because the few people who read it haven’t been very successful at getting the word out! Why do we do some of the things we do? So often we don’t even consider why we are doing something. We just do it out of habit.

      Our proverb gets to this very difficult hidden matter of motive and the fact that sometimes our motives aren’t pure. The LORD isn’t fooled by this. He sees the motives. Knowing our own motives means that we must slow down and take time to think, reflect, pray, consider.

      What do we do if our motives are mixed, part of us doing something for the right reasons, and part doing it for selfish reasons? We must either pray through the selfish part, or find a way to accomplish the task in a different way that eliminates the selfish side.

      We all have mixed motives at times. We all do things with selfish motives. We occasionally do things with pure motives. We as humans are a mixed up lot.

Claim to be God

John 10:30-39

Have you noticed that lying about your credentials can get you in trouble! In recent years there have been several people who hit the news because the fudged their education or experience on their official biographies. Even the President’s own biography that was published for years in connection with his writing said that he was a “Kenyan born” person. This was even written by the AP in their news coverage of him when he was running for US Senate in 2004. The claims we make about ourselves can get us in trouble, so be careful what you claim. This has not gotten the President in trouble because the Media has chosen to ignore it. But I digress!

In our passage today, Jesus’ words, His claims about His identity get Him in trouble. He says that He and the Father are one. That might not be such a bad thing, except His opponents hear His words as a claim to deity. They want to stone Him on the spot. No time even for a trial.

And Jesus has opportunity to back down from their understanding of what He said. But, again, Jesus ramps up the claim with an illustration. This kind of argument uses the lesser to prove the greater.

I gave my wife an engagement ring with a diamond on it. It looks really nice, even after 33 years. It was my grandmother’s ring, so it has been looking really good for a very long time. But I went to see the Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC a few years ago. Now that is a diamond! If my wife’s ring has a diamond and it looks good, how much more does the Hope Diamond look good.

Jesus has made the claim that He is God. His opponents are ready to kill Him immediately. Jesus’ defense is simple. The Old Testament called the people of the Old Testament “gods” (v35). God’s Word only came to them. My claim to being called God is more valid since I am unique and sent by the Father on a mission (v36). Jesus was set apart prior to His coming here to earth. He certainly deserves to be called God even more than the Israelites.

Jesus then appeals to the things He does as being the same things that God does. He does this to emphasize, not diminish His claim to be God. He says that there is a mutuality about Him and the Father. And when he says this, they again want to kill Him immediately.

Jesus could have backed down and said, “Hey, you guys. You are getting this all wrong. I’m just trying to stir things up a bit, trying to get you to be more serious about following God. Don’t take what I say as a reflection of what I really believe.” But He didn’t.

And Jesus followers were willing to die defending what they knew to be true. Only idiots die for a lie willingly.