Is Love Fake If Motivated by Reward?
00:00:00.000 | Thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:08.160 | And today we have an anonymous question in the inbox.
00:00:11.600 | Here it is, Pastor John.
00:00:12.600 | Pastor John, I've heard you say that while you were working on your doctoral dissertation
00:00:16.700 | about Jesus' command to love your enemies, you read a lot of scholars who argued against
00:00:21.880 | being motivated to love by the promise of reward.
00:00:25.600 | And you said that this is simply unbiblical, that Jesus and the apostles motivate love
00:00:30.760 | all the time by encouraging us to pursue our own greater happiness.
00:00:34.780 | My question is, how then can that be love?
00:00:38.240 | How is this not just using other people for our own selfish ends?
00:00:42.360 | Didn't Paul say, "Love seeks not its own" in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 5?
00:00:47.920 | Pastor John, what would you say to these questions?
00:00:50.680 | I think that this is one of the most important questions that can be asked in the Christian
00:00:58.400 | life.
00:00:59.600 | We really need to settle it, whether we're going to feel guilty for being motivated by
00:01:06.340 | the promises of joy in God's presence that he offers us as a motivation for sacrifice
00:01:14.260 | in this world.
00:01:15.820 | This is absolutely huge.
00:01:18.020 | The Bible is full of commands to love people at cost to ourselves.
00:01:27.420 | We are often called to make great sacrifices in this world, even risking our lives or intentionally
00:01:36.400 | laying them down for others.
00:01:39.020 | If the Bible offers us motivations and incentives to do this by promising that there will be
00:01:44.900 | great reward because of it, and we think it's ethically inferior to be motivated that way,
00:01:51.260 | then we're going to turn away from the very strength that God offers us in the cause of
00:01:56.940 | love.
00:01:57.940 | So that's serious.
00:01:58.940 | We're not dabbling on the edge of things here.
00:02:02.220 | We're talking about the very center of motivation for Christian living.
00:02:09.260 | Jesus said, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your
00:02:17.220 | brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they should invite you in return and
00:02:22.000 | you be repaid.
00:02:24.160 | But when you give a feast, invite the poor and the crippled and the lame and the blind,
00:02:28.820 | and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you."
00:02:33.260 | And then he adds this, "For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
00:02:40.180 | That's Luke 14, 12 to 14.
00:02:43.200 | Jesus didn't add that last promise for nothing.
00:02:48.220 | It begins with the word "for," because you will be blessed in making sacrifices in this
00:02:54.500 | world to love others because you'll be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
00:02:59.580 | He intends for that to be a motivation, an incentive, a strengthening.
00:03:05.580 | We're not seeking payback here on the earth.
00:03:10.800 | That's the whole point.
00:03:11.980 | It's costly to love others.
00:03:13.780 | It's thankless many times to love others.
00:03:16.820 | The payback is later, at the resurrection of the just.
00:03:21.540 | And yes, I did continually run into this kind of thing when I was working on my dissertation.
00:03:29.740 | I read scholar after scholar who said the opposite.
00:03:33.900 | I'll give you one concrete example.
00:03:35.660 | I won't name him.
00:03:36.660 | I'll just give you the exact quote, and it's in his commentary on Luke 14 that I just read,
00:03:42.900 | and he says this, "The promise of reward for this kind of life is there as a fact.
00:03:51.380 | You don't live this way for the sake of the reward.
00:03:56.220 | If you do that, you're not living in the new way, but the old selfish way."
00:04:02.980 | Now, I believe that is simply wrong, and not only wrong, but damaging, damaging to the
00:04:10.740 | cause of love.
00:04:12.100 | Jesus gave that promise of reward at the resurrection, reward at the resurrection of the just precisely
00:04:20.500 | to motivate us.
00:04:21.980 | If that scholar were right, we would have to work to keep the promise out of our minds
00:04:29.820 | so that it wouldn't contaminate our motivation.
00:04:34.900 | But Jesus tells us to do just the opposite.
00:04:39.180 | In Acts 20.35, Paul is talking to the elders, and he quotes Jesus.
00:04:45.060 | One of the few places where Jesus is quoted outside the Gospels in Acts 20.35, he says
00:04:51.060 | this, "We must help the weak, remembering"—now, that's the word I'm fastening on, not forgetting—"remembering
00:05:00.100 | the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
00:05:06.100 | Now, that scholar would say, "No, no, no, no.
00:05:08.880 | You shouldn't be constantly remembering that as you try to do good to people.
00:05:13.100 | Remember that.
00:05:14.100 | It's more blessed.
00:05:15.100 | It's more blessed.
00:05:16.100 | You should forget that.
00:05:17.100 | Keep that out of your mind because, yes, it's true, but it's going to contaminate your motivation
00:05:21.660 | if you keep remembering it."
00:05:24.100 | So I'm going to go with Jesus here and not that scholar.
00:05:27.460 | Jesus emphasizes, "Keep it in your mind.
00:05:30.460 | Remember, remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
00:05:34.240 | Keep the blessing in mind."
00:05:36.940 | And then he said in Luke 6.35, "Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing
00:05:46.620 | in return, and your reward will be great."
00:05:52.820 | So in other words, just like Luke 14, don't expect payback now.
00:05:57.700 | They're going to kill you, for goodness sakes.
00:05:59.940 | They're going to malign you and torture you and kill you, so expect trouble and affliction
00:06:06.760 | and ingratitude in this world, but oh, oh, remember, your reward will be great.
00:06:13.900 | Let that sustain you through it all.
00:06:17.220 | I think this is the explanation for what Paul meant.
00:06:24.460 | The questioner asked about 1 Corinthians 13.5, what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 13.5 when
00:06:30.460 | he said, "Love seeks not its own."
00:06:32.780 | That's the old King James Version, I guess.
00:06:35.940 | Love seeks not its own.
00:06:36.940 | It's a good literal translation.
00:06:38.660 | He did not mean that love should find no pleasure in or look for any pleasure from the beautiful
00:06:48.000 | act of love.
00:06:49.480 | He meant don't look for that reward by using people for material gain or advancement in
00:06:55.980 | this world.
00:06:57.140 | He didn't mean ignore the promise of great reward in heaven, and the reason we know this
00:07:03.500 | from 1 Corinthians 13, not just from the words of Jesus, but from the very context, two verses
00:07:10.220 | earlier, Paul says, "If I give away all that I have and deliver my body to be burned, but
00:07:19.740 | have not love, I gain nothing.
00:07:23.580 | I gain nothing.
00:07:24.700 | I gain nothing."
00:07:25.940 | The whole argument is you would be a fool to live in a way that gains nothing.
00:07:33.420 | And that's the exact point.
00:07:36.060 | You gain a great reward through giving your life for other people.
00:07:43.900 | So he's motivating love by long-term gain, not short-term profit, by manipulating people
00:07:50.640 | to get richer or to get famous or anything like that.
00:07:53.900 | So C.S. Lewis, you know this, Tony.
00:07:57.940 | We love this quote from his great sermon, what's the name of the sermon?
00:08:03.380 | The Weight of Glory.
00:08:04.380 | The Weight of Glory, yes, that's right.
00:08:05.960 | The Weight of Glory.
00:08:06.960 | "If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly
00:08:13.520 | to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this has crept in through Immanuel
00:08:20.420 | Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.
00:08:24.820 | Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the
00:08:30.820 | rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too
00:08:36.340 | strong but too weak."
00:08:37.820 | I remember the first time I read that I thought, "Oh, unbelievable.
00:08:41.460 | I can't believe he's saying this.
00:08:42.900 | This is so right."
00:08:43.900 | "We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite
00:08:50.620 | joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum
00:08:56.100 | because he cannot imagine what is meant by a holiday at the sea.
00:09:00.420 | We are far too easily pleased."
00:09:04.140 | So the crucial question is, how is this love?
00:09:08.020 | And I've got two short and I think simple and I hope compelling answers for why is it
00:09:14.620 | love to be motivated to love people, to sacrifice for people, give your life for people for
00:09:20.740 | the sake of reward?
00:09:23.020 | Answer number one, there is nothing morally inferior about looking for reward for our
00:09:28.940 | behavior provided that the reward is ultimately more of Christ as the supreme joy of our souls.
00:09:37.100 | And the reason that's not morally inferior is that Christ is most glorified in us when
00:09:43.060 | we're most satisfied in Christ.
00:09:45.740 | The glory of Christ is at stake.
00:09:48.740 | It's simply not virtue.
00:09:50.620 | It's not an honor to Christ to say, I can imagine somebody trying to say this, "Well,
00:09:55.820 | I'm going to suffer for Christ and it makes no difference to me whether it leads to knowing
00:10:02.520 | and enjoying Christ better."
00:10:04.140 | That's not a virtue.
00:10:06.020 | That's self-sufficiency cloaked as a sacrifice.
00:10:10.060 | It is right.
00:10:11.060 | It is a great honor to Christ to be motivated by a desire for more of him that comes through
00:10:19.820 | loving people.
00:10:21.500 | Here's the last one.
00:10:22.500 | This is probably the most important.
00:10:24.660 | It is loving to sacrifice for others with a view to reward, wanting reward, aiming at
00:10:30.180 | reward if our aim is that in being sustained by this reward of more of Christ, we win people
00:10:40.860 | to come with us into the reward.
00:10:44.100 | That's the goal.
00:10:45.380 | That's the goal.
00:10:46.380 | And we can't do that if we don't love the reward.
00:10:49.660 | There would be nothing to welcome these people into, to entice them into, if we have stopped
00:10:53.940 | delighting in the very reward we get through loving others.
00:10:57.460 | So 1 Peter 2 says, "Conduct yourselves among the Gentiles in an honorable way, so that
00:11:03.500 | when they speak evil against you, they may see your good deeds."
00:11:09.020 | And then, I'm paraphrasing now, "Join you in glorifying God on the day of visitation."
00:11:16.900 | Our motive is never—mark this—our motive is never to return good for evil so that we
00:11:27.600 | get the reward and they don't.
00:11:30.220 | Let me say that again.
00:11:33.800 | My motive in returning to someone good for evil is never, "I get a reward, you don't."
00:11:43.580 | I want them—my motive is in seeking to love them.
00:11:47.620 | I want them to join me.
00:11:48.980 | I want them to see in my very behavior the all-satisfying worth of Jesus Christ.
00:11:56.020 | So my conclusion is never, never, never forget, but always remember, remember that it is more
00:12:03.740 | blessed to give than to receive.
00:12:05.940 | Your reward will be great in heaven.
00:12:08.500 | No matter the cost of love here, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just,
00:12:14.620 | and a great and wonderful part of that reward will be that in loving people like this, you
00:12:21.660 | will win many of them to join you in enjoying the reward.
00:12:26.820 | Yes, precious motive for Christian charity.
00:12:30.180 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:31.580 | And speaking of glorious themes in the Bible, J.I.
00:12:34.060 | Packer, in his magnificent book, Knowing God, wrote this, "If you want to judge how well
00:12:39.220 | a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being
00:12:44.220 | God's child."
00:12:45.620 | Precious.
00:12:46.620 | So just how key is the theme of sonship in our faith and in our Bibles?
00:12:52.300 | I'm going to call up Don Carson.
00:12:54.020 | He's going to explain, and that is on the podcast tomorrow.
00:12:56.620 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:12:57.940 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor, John
00:13:02.980 | Piper.
00:13:03.980 | We'll see you tomorrow.
00:13:03.980 | [END]
00:13:04.480 | 1.
00:13:05.480 | John Piper, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the
00:13:06.480 | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
00:13:07.480 | Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church
00:13:08.480 | of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
00:13:09.480 | Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church
00:13:10.480 | of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
00:13:11.480 | Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church
00:13:12.480 | of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day