Lesson 9 | Takeaways: discerning the key teaching points
Look for the motivations
It’s puzzling. When I speak on living by faith I often ask, "How many of you know that Jesus calls us to love our enemies?" Everyone nods and says they know this. Then I ask, "How many of you know the reason Jesus gives for why we should love our enemies?" Almost always the response is the same — very few know the reason. Why don’t we know the reason? Are we so good at loving our enemies that we don’t need Jesus’ reason? Um — no. I’m not so good at loving my enemies. And I’m pretty sure we all need help in this. And yet we remember only the command — but not the reason Jesus gives to help us obey the command. What is the reason? Here’s what Jesus taught in Luke 6:35, "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great." Jesus motivates our love for enemies with the promise of reward — more of his heart-satisfying presence. Here’s how this works: When we know that Christ has secured for us the joy of his presence forever — and that loving our enemies will bring us even more of that joy — we will be freed and motivated to love our enemies.
Remember from Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:22-24 that doing the will of God will come as a fruit of the transformation of our hearts and minds. And so Scripture very intentionally pushes into the motivations behind our choices. Its truth works to rewire the circuitry of our affections and desires so that we not only know the right thing to do, but have a godly motivation to actually do it.
These motivations may come positively, by way of promises or negatively, in the form of warnings. They may also work to realign our hearts toward the biblical values of loving God and loving our neighbor, so that our obedience seeks to bless others and glorify God.
The following video provides a great example of looking for both the positive and negative motivations surrounding a biblical command.