Written by Dene Hughes, Staff for Kansai Region
Thanks for your interest in the English side of what KGK is doing – hopefully by reading these blogs in English you will get a feel for the kinds of workers that KGK has invited to work with them from around the world and within Japan.
My name is Dene Hughes, and I come from Australia, partnered with a mission agency called CMS and working with KGK in the Kansai region.
In my conversation with students, I often hear concerns about what motivates them – in particular, they sense their motivation to live as a Christian is not pure. They sense perhaps some selfishness, or some hunger for their own benefit, even as they attempt to obey God in their daily life. This is not just the kind of conversation I’ve had in Japan – before coming here, working for AFES in Australia, this was not an uncommon theme.
Christian students don’t just want to do the right thing, but they want to do it for the right reasons – for God’s reasons. To please God. Not to please themselves.
This concern is noble. We are encouraged to see ourselves and the world differently now we belong to Christ. Consider what Paul says: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15).
The shape of our lives should be that we live for Christ, who died for us. Not that we live for ourselves. The students concerned about their motivation for doing the right thing are on the right track – they want to live for Christ, to be compelled by his love, not compelled by self-seeking.
If I’m honest about this, I have to say two things:
1. From my perspective, most of the time the student asking the question is already living for Christ and I already admire them. So I don’t see a need for any radical change.
2. I personally have never once felt a “pure motivation” within myself – I always have mixed motives as I attempt to live for Christ. So how can I answer the student’s concern?
To dig into number 1 a little more, the Christian student is often comparing themselves to other Christians and comparing their own complex heart condition with a simple observation of the outward behaviour of someone else. If each of us could see the complicated mess that is each heart, they may not be so worried. Also, Paul is not comparing one Christian to another but comparing pre-Christ, to post-Christ. Left to our own devices, humans unavoidably live for ourselves. But now that Christ has changed us, a new reason to live invades our hearts!
So, when a Christian has even a small amount of drive towards pleasing God, towards living for Christ, this is a miracle. When I say, “I already admire them” and their behaviour, what I mean is: I can see that God is working within them so they are not an average selfish human, but a reflective, careful, other-person-loving, living-for-Christ kind of person! Awesome!
Thinking a bit more about number 2, the difficulty is that I end up comparing my spiritual state to the student who is telling me their concern. And I wonder if my motivation will ever get better, will I ever purely live for Christ?
Other than wanting to please Christ, the usual things at work in my heart are:
a) I want to be respected
b) I want to have an impact
c) I want to feel satisfaction
d) I am afraid of failure
Recently my family and I were watching this video (https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/matthew-6-9-13-prayer-jesus/?utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_video) about the Lord’s Prayer. And when I compare my motives above with the Lord’s Prayer, they are not entirely wrong motives, rather, they are misdirected!
Think about a) “I want to be respected”. The opening prayer request in the Lord’s Prayer is that God would be respected – “hallowed by your name”. So wanting respect seems like a natural impulse for someone made in God’s image. And Jesus encourages us to pray that the respect will be directed towards our Heavenly Father.
What about b), “I want to have an impact”? Jesus directs us to pray for an impact too: “may your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. So, the desire to have an impact is understandable – Jesus redirects this desire such that we seek God’s impact on God’s world.
Selfish motives c) and d) sound quite different on the surface but are answered by the rest of the same prayer. I am often seeking satisfaction (c) or fulfilment from experiences or interactions, as if I can harvest and eat my fill as a result of my own efforts. But the prayer asks for God to supply what we really need. The want for satisfaction isn’t wrong, but I often look for it in the wrong direction. Does God satisfy me? Do I seek satisfaction from him?
Regarding fear of failure (d), the prayer does seem to address a parallel concern – that we won’t be led into evil, that we will not fail when facing temptation. The failure I fear is usually to do with the eyes of others who might be watching me. But the prayer redirects us to understand that God is watching us – a failure from his perspective is different, and we should re-educate our senses to fear what displeases God, rather than trying desperately to please all the other eyes which are on us.
In short, the Lord’s Prayer addresses my motivations that appear selfish, not by saying “stop thinking that”, “stop worrying about that”, but rather, “re-direct that desire to God.”
So, for example when I find myself wanting the dopamine hit of feeling respected, instead of just pushing it down or feeling impure, I can ask my Father – “please use my efforts now to increase people’s respect for you, God.” When I am feeling powerless and that my words have no impact, I can plead with God to use me in making his kingdom come here, just as it is in heaven. When I feel compelled by dissatisfaction, I can ask God to give me the food that I need today. When I am inactive due to fear, I can remember that God is my Father and Jesus welcomes me to speak to him, to be honest about the risks I’m facing like trouble or temptation.
Respect, impact, satisfaction, fear – all those motives swirling around in my complicated heart are all represented in the Lord’s Prayer. And each one is re-directed by the prayer toward God.
To quote Paul again from the same letter, in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we’re told what the Spirit is doing in our hearts: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
One of the reasons our hearts are mixed in motivation is that we are a construction zone. We are in the process of being changed into the likeness of Jesus. Paul’s focus isn’t the old motivations that might linger, but on the Spirit who is changing us. The result might be that we think things as if they are our very own thoughts, but they’re Christ’s thoughts and motivations – since, we are being transformed to be more and more like Christ.
And those motives which at times seem so unlike Christ, may just need some re-direction, since the glory belongs to him, even as we reflect that glory more and more.