What makes us do the things we do? It would be an interesting exercise to compare our answers with the motives that the New Testament appeals to in its teach­ing on growing as a Christian. Indeed, we find that the New Testament does not appeal to just one motive, but raises quite a number of considerations for the Christian to ponder.

The first one to look at is gratitude for mercy. In Luke 7 we read of an unnamed woman who is referred to as a sinner. Her tears fall on Jesus’ feet, and she kisses them as she anoints them with an alabaster flask of ointment. It was, of course, rather more usual to anoint a person’s head rather than his feet. Such behaviour was regarded by Simon the Pharisee as unseemly, but Jesus recognised what was motivating the woman:

I tell you, her sins, which are many, are for­given — for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.Luke 7:47

Sometimes one reads of a person who donates his kidney to another person. The receiver of the organ is naturally very grateful to the donor. How much more so for the Christian who has experienced forgiveness, acquittal for all his sins, adop­tion into God’s family, and has the promise of life everlasting. One cannot receive grace, and remain the same. The woman who was a sinner is a model for all Christians. Hence Paul can write to the Christians at Rome:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Rom. 12:1

What they do is grounded in the mercy of God revealed especially in Jesus Christ.

A second motive is related to this: it is love of Christ. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples:

If you love Me, you will keep My com­mandments. John 14:15

The fact that Christ has declared His mind on a subject should be suffi­cient for any Christian man or woman. Out of love for Him, we obey. The great Anglican mis­sionary to the Muslim world, Henry Martyn, once saw a picture of Jesus bowing down and clinging to the robes of Mohammed. He wept at this, and said:

I could not endure existence if Jesus were not to be glorified. It would be hell to me, if He were always thus to be dishonoured.

Love of Christ made Martyn a missionary to those who did not know the true Christ.

After the death of Martyn in 1812, Charles Simeon in Cambridge kept a por­trait of the missionary and imagined it saying to him, “Be serious — be in earnest — Don’t trifle — don’t trifle.” Simeon’s response was “And I won’t trifle — I won’t trifle.” As Paul said: “the love of Christ controls (or constrains) us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Paul is referring firstly to the love of Christ for His people rather than their love for Him, but the implication is clear that the divine love leads to a response of faith, obedience, and a life of self-sacrifice.

More simply, we may say that some things are, without any equivocation, right. Paul tells the younger generation at Ephesus: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1). To obey one’s parents is what God com­mands in His written law (e.g. Ex. 20:12) and is in harmony with the law of God written on the hearts of all mankind (Rom. 2:14-16). It is part of the God-given reality of how the world is to work. It is natural and right and good. To reject this is to fly in the face of what is obvi­ously and unequivocally right.

We can also say that if we obey God, it will have good consequences. Paul says that for children to obey their parents is right, but he also adds that this is to be done “that it may go well with you” (Eph. 6:3). Paul tells husbands that “He who loves his wife loves himself” (Eph. 5:28). In other words, godliness is good for you, and ungodliness will harm you.

In addition, the Bible expects Christians to be motivated by a desire to benefit others. Paul declares that a Christian has the right to eat meat which has first been sacrificed to a pagan god. However, he or she may not necessarily make use of that right. There are other considerations: “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Cor. 8:13). Just because we have the right to do something does not prove that we ought to do it. If it will harm others, we ought to refrain.

Finally, the Christian recognises that there is a judgment to come. We will reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7-9). The apos­tle Peter writes of the judgment to come after Christ has appeared the second time in glory. He then draws some very practi­cal conclusions for Christian holiness:

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 2 Pet. 3:14

If there is no judgment, the motivation to be found in a sanctified state is taken away.

These motivations all go together in the life of the Christian. Our motivation may be summed up in the words of Frances Ridley Havergal:

Jesus, let me always be,
In Thy service, glad and free.