Day 394: Motives are important – 1 Thessalonians 2 vs 1 – 10

1-2 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi, just before we came to you, and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.  3-4 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.  5-6  Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!  As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

7-8 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. 9-10 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. You yourselves are our witnesses - and so is God - that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-9 New Living Translation paraphrase (English Standard Version link)

What is the significant truth that’s still so very important for today that Paul stresses in vs 3-4?

God knows the motives of people for why they do things, even when it comes to preaching His word. Paul was able to point back (in vs 1-2) to how he and his co-workers had continued to share the good news with the people in Thessalonica even though they had been badly treated by many who rejected the message they brought. This showed that he, Silas and Timothy had no ulterior motives in preaching about Jesus. They weren't out to get something from the people to whom they preached. On the contrary, they were bringing them wonderful news and were willing to suffer for telling it. What else were they willing to do which showed their motives were pure? (vs 9-10)

They were willing to work to provide for their own needs. They didn't demand the new Christians to look after them. Paul did point out that, as apostles, (i.e. people whose full time job was to take the gospel into the world) they were entitled to ask the Thessalonians for support. But what attitude and approach had they adopted instead? (vs 7-8)

They had shown those new Christians the sort of love that is willing to give far more than it ever receives. The sort of love we see in good mothers who constantly do so much, and give up so much, for their children. All of this suggests that, even in Paul's days, there were people guilty of using religion for the reasons he describes in vs 5-6. What do those verses show?

There were people then, just as there are so many today, who have ulterior motives in pushing religion. They use flattery to make their listeners feel important. They teach what their hearers like to hear about themselves, and promise wonderful things which are the very opposite of what Jesus told His disciples to expect as they took His message into the world. And the bottom line of such deceit is 'to get their money'! The biggest examples of these sort of preachers are the multi-millionaire TV evangelists. But they have many disciples deceiving smaller congregations with the same false gospel from the same impure motives.

But it's not only the preachers of greed who are to blame – those who enthusiastically welcome their message because they want God to make them wealthy are just as guilty. What was our motive for becoming a believer in Christ? And what are our motives for the things we do in Christ's name? It's never a bad idea to examine our hearts on such things. May we not be those who are looking for the praise of people – but only for the approval of our Lord and Saviour.