ANNOUNCEMENT: Please check the new weekly segment following the bible commentary: From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye. Or you can scroll immediately to it, I won't mind.
The question of motivation is being brought up here. And we are supposed to check our motivation. We have been given the word of God to examine our motivation and, in this case, to disavow selfish ambition.
But the world is about fanning the flame of selfish ambition in people. They admire the one who would step on toes to get to the top, who would seek to crush others to achieve their aims. But God has a different view of such things. He wants us to be motivated by a consideration for others.
Worldly thinking says winner take all, and I have to crush you to get ahead, I have to stifle you to get my way, I have to choke you so that I can breathe. All these are coming from a base of selfishness. But the Christian says I don't have anything unless God has given it to me.
And every good and perfect gift comes from heaven from the Father of light in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning (James 1:17). Paul asked somewhere else, What do you have that you were not given. If you have been given, why then do you boast (1 Corinthians 4:7)?
Boasting comes when people are driven by selfish ambition, by competition. And even people helping others can be driven by selfish ambition.
These are the unspoken reasons for their actions: "I am doing this for you so that when I need your help you would give me that help." "I am doing this so that I can be seen as a good person."
But Jesus said when we make a feast, we should not invite those who can pay us back.
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid. But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:12-14)
Where is the blessing? The blessing is in not using your generosity as a scheme; rather, put your hope in God. Don't say I want to help other people's children so that people will help my children. You are no longer putting your hope in God, but rather in your goodness.
We are all like one who is unclean,
all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight.
We all wither like a leaf;
our sins carry us away like the wind. (Isaiah 64:6)
Don't even do it so that others can have a good image of you. That means that it is not really you, but you are a pretender, and God sees through that.
Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts.
Test me, and know my concerns.
See if there is any idolatrous way in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:23-24)
And we know things from a wrong motive because when the person does not reciprocate, you slander them as being ungrateful.
You do it to earn the praise of man (to be acknowledged by others, for your name to be called out), and God is not unaware that that is what is happening, making you a hypocrite.
John 5:44: How can you believe, if you accept praise from one another and don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?
The life of faith is the one lived based on the reality of the unseen, based on pleasing God and not about human likability.
So Paul is saying don't be motivated by just what you will get from something, and not vanity: the need to show off.
"...in humility be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself."
How do you even do that? That is only possible with humility. And one way we see your humility is from the words you speak. Humility is the opposite of pride/need to boast.
But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
What would you prefer? The accolades of men or grace from God. I know what I would choose.
But sometimes the pride in our hearts prevents us from regarding a fellow believer as more important than ourselves. So you have to treat fellow Christians with care, exactly how you will treat an important dignitary. Why? Because Jesus says he sees it as how you are treating him.
And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
That is a good way to think about your brother and sister. And Jesus is not done.
John 13:14-15: If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example—you should do just as I have done for you.
The washing of feet is reserved for the lowest of the lowest slaves.
But it is not this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, (Mark 10:43)
Back to the washing of the feet thing. Understand that Jesus did it as an illustration. They did not interpret it, and Jesus did not mean it to be a method for getting things from him, nor as a practice.
With the washing of the feet just before he died, he was creating a picture of a humble attitude. That is something that a slave does, a slave who knows his place is at the bottom of the totem pole in relation to the person whose feet are being washed. So that is a spiritual message. It's the same message as if you do not eat flesh and drink my blood, you are not my disciple. It's not a call to eat flesh and drink blood; it's a call to spiritual reality that Jesus unveiled. The washing of feet is like that; it is the heart of Christ acted out. So Paul wrote:
You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, (Philippians 2:5)
Welcome to a new weekly segment: From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
