A Meditation On Motivation

The word motivation technically relates to energy or force. Gradually it has come to mean ‘that which impels one to take a certain line of action’.

Paul, of course, does not use such a word. The closest he and others come to this is the word ‘constraint’ (e.g. II Cor. 5:14). We know that the energy or life force– especially for Christian service–is the Holy Spirit. In another sense love is the motivating force. On the practical level, what was it that drove the early Christians to proclaim the Gospel, even to martyrdom?

The answer must be that their own experience of salvation, of being redeemed from the bondage of sin and evil, of having their sins forgiven, of being justified, sanctified and adopted, mast have been so dynamic as to fully liberate them. This was how they knew the love of God in action. In fact their hearts were flooded with love by the Holy Spirit who also came to live in them and empower them.

We can see it also from a slightly different viewpoint. What must have been the effect of seeing Christ risen from the dead? Because he has not, just now– at this point of time in our age–risen, and appeared to us, we are not so deeply affected. Yet today the Spirit has to make that resurrection and triumph over death and sin just as immediate and total to us, as he did to the early believers. The reality of Christ, and his presence by the Holy Spirit was so vivid that they could not but talk about it.

Were we to listen hear, meditate, and realise, then we would be just as motivated or constrained as they were. If we were to know dynamically the new birth by the word of truth (James 1:18; I Pet. 1:22-23), the ‘washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5-7), then we too would be greatly motivated. As it is we need–time and again–to come back to the overwhelming grace and love of God in order to receive fresh constraint and (thus) driving power.



From Proclaiming Christ's Gospel In Today's World, by Geoffrey C. Bingham, p.25.