One of the biggest hangups we struggle with in the process of creating gospel appointments or having gospel conversations is the feeling that we’re being disingenuous or dishonest. In other words, we don’t want to bring up Christ, because we don’t want the person we’re with to think that the only reason we wanted to spend time with them was so we could get them saved. This is a good thing to be worried about, by the way. We don’t want our friends, coworkers, and neighbors to think the only reason we want to develop relationships with them is just so that we can talk to them about Jesus. And so, more often than not, we think we’re being loving and caring by not bringing Him up. This is where an important distinction needs to be made between ulterior motives and ultimate motives.
Ulterior Motives
Ulterior motives aren’t good, and they’re what we don’t want to be driven or defined by. This is simply because they cause us to pursue people with one goal in mind, and then enable us to ditch them once that goal is (or isn’t) accomplished. I’ve met some of the friendliest people in the world, who ended up being driven by ulterior motives. Initially, they seemed genuinely interested in my life and excited about spending time with me until I didn’t join their “Multi-Level Marketing” team. One guy literally cancelled our lunch and stopped returning my texts when I told him I wasn’t interested in his vision for my financial freedom. That’s disingenuous. That’s anti-gospel and we should avoid that kind of pursuit at all costs. (NOTE: this is not a blanket bash of MLMs. . . just a bash on the kind of tactics that cause us to treat image bearers of God as mere commodities).
Ultimate motives
Ultimate motives, on the other hand, are completely different and actually drive everything we do as followers of Jesus. They are what compel us to seek out the lost and pursue relationships with them, AND keep those relationships even when they do (or don’t) receive Jesus. Jesus, himself, is the perfect example of someone who was driven by ultimate motives. For 3 ½ years he poured his life into a group of 12 men. He taught them, fed them, served them, and ultimately gave his life for them, so that they could live with him in his kingdom. Here’s the thing. . . everything he did with and for them was marked by a single-mindedness and zeal for their eternal well-being. He was motivated by his mission - to seek and save the lost. And yet, at the same time, everything he did for them was marked by humility and faithfulness even when he knew the process would be slow, and all of them would eventually abandon him, (and even betray him!). And yet, Jesus never cancelled his dinner plans with them, or ghosted them on messenger, or unfollowed them on Instagram. Even on the night of his betrayal, he picked up a towel and washed his betrayer’s feet!
SUMMARY
This is what it looks like to be driven by ultimate motives. Like Jesus, we want to see our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors enter into his kingdom and that desire drives every lunch we schedule, and every conversation we have. It is the most loving, caring, and genuine motive in the world, and anything less is actually uncaring, unloving, and disingenuous! And yet, at the same time, that ultimate motive compels us to hang in there even if we don’t see immediate results. It compels us to love, serve, and invest with a kind of faithfulness and humility that can only be described as supernatural (empowered by the Spirit). That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what we’ve been called to do as His followers.
BEN DAVEY | Lead Pastor
