Doing The Right Thing For The Wrong Reason

My Utmost For His Highest

…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:20

 

"The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” [...] The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption. [...] The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature— He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well." CHAMBERS

(Matthew 19:21-22) ^"Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."  What does the characteristics of a disciple have to do with the rich young ruler?  Everything. The young man approached Jesus based upon his good works.  In fact, Jesus challenged him when the man addressed Jesus as "good teacher".  Jesus said "Why do you call Me good, only my Father in heaven is good."  The source of "goodness" is God .. not us. What we do, how we behave .. must come from a pure heart ... a pure heart comes from God ... That is why you can't be good enough ... nothing man does is good enough ... an act of kindness without a pure heart before God is not good enough.  You see it is not about the act of kindness, it is about the primacy .. the place that God holds in your life.  Jesus was saying to the man .. "I see that your heart is not right .. that you love something other than the Father ... you must lay that down ... and devote yourself to me first and then those things that you do will be done for the right reason."

I want to encourage you to not live your life with a divided heart.  It is either all for God or not at all.  There is no compromise.  Doing good things or intending to do good things does not make your heart right.  To get your heart right, you must pursue God.  How do you do that?  Reading the Word, praying, worshiping, sending time with like-minded believers. Does it seem like I say that a lot? I do, without apology.  Friend, those disciplines are core to living a successful Christian life.  Think about it.  No do more than that ... do it, for your sake and the sake of the kingdom.  ELGIN