I sincerely believe that the devil works double time on our motives for doing the good that we do. Even if Satan doesn’t stop us from doing good works like performing Christian service, or obeying God’s commands, he can still get us in our motives for doing good. And that’s why I’ve now found myself often warning my friends in Christ: “The devil is in the motives; watch out.”
Take for example our reason for obeying God. In an earlier post, I talked about God’s promised blessings in exchange for obedience. Read it here: OBEDIENCE AND BLESSINGS. In that article, I shared some reflections about the verses where God promised tremendous blessings to his chosen people should they choose Him as their one and only God, and to obey all His commands. Obedience brings blessings. I explained that, in fact, blessings are not God’s response to our obedience; rather He has blessed us first, He has loved us first, even before we accept Him as our God and even before we obey Him.
What’s in it for me?
Our leader in our Ligaya District, Joseph Mora, once preached about the joy we derive in serving the Lord. He hit it spot on when he said (and I paraphrase liberally here), “especially for those of us who are doing well in service, or are considered very good at what we do, it is important to be mindful about what kind of self-satisfaction we derive from our successes.” The devil would be the first to lavish all the praise and complements to us for a preaching, a service, or a ministry gone well; he’d do anything to rob the glory of the Lord, and we wouldn’t be the wiser for it.
Obeying with the expectation of blessings is a dangerous trap that Satan would love to set along the path of discipleship. If we do good, or, in this case, obey God with the expectation and belief that by obeying God we will be blessed (which is what the motto prescribes), then isn’t our motivation self-serving? And is not therefore our obedience a matter of negotiated reward? I shudder to think that by teaching disciples to obey with the expectation of reward, we would end up producing selfish and manipulative disciples, who will serve the Lord with the all-too-familiar-and-all-too-worldly response that goes, “What’s in it for me?”
As we know, no one is spared from troubles, whether obedient to God or not. And when they do, then we hear remarks like, “After all I’ve done for You, this is what You do to your loyal servants.” Oh boy. Lord, have mercy. We only need to look at one example in the Bible (among the long line of martyrs) where blessings didn’t come to the deserving: John the Baptist. What kind of blessing did he receive? None; at least none in the sense that this motto might so juicily imply.
Instead of motivating people to obey God by dangling a proverbial carrot in front of our greedy noses, why not consider this truth: We obey God out of gratitude to a generous Father, and to honor the god of all gods, and in allegiance to the king of kings.
LEARNING FROM THE ACT OF CONTRITION
The Catholic Act of Contrition prayer reminds us of the right attitude of repentance for our disobedience. In a sort of reverse way, we learn the reason for obedience, by studying the devout prayer of repentance. In this prayer, we pray and declare to God that we are heartily sorry for our offense “because of Your just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love.” Let me break that down as follows:
- “Because of your just punishments” – this principally refers to our dread of the disciplinary consequences of our misbehavior. And in the context of the topic of this message, we dread the withholding of blessings. Therefore, the more accurate proper motto should NOT be “obedience brings blessings”, but rather: “disobedience and non-repentance withholds blessings”. It’s not as catchy and Madison Avenue-ish, but it’s the truth. And the truth is this: we are already blessed by a generous* God, and disobedience of God is really choosing NOT to receive any more of the blessings that we have been receiving. (*“generous” meaning giving more than what is needed, and more than what is deserved”.)
- “Because they offend thee, my God” – any offense of a civil law is a crime against society whose members agree and assume that everyone (all citizens) abide by the same rules of law primarily for the sake of peace and order and justice. A violation of the law is not an offense against the actual lawgiver or the lawmaker. On the other hand, in the case of God’s law, it is “personal”. Even if the law of God was about how to relate to a neighbor in love, breaking that law is an offense not just against the neighbor, but primarily against God, the lawgiver.
- And true repentance is not begrudgingly given because one might think it is an oppressive law, or think it is unnecessary burden, or that blind compliance is a violation of one’s dignity. Instead, we say we are sorry because we have offended You — “Who art all good and deserving of all my love.” This is a statement of deep regret for an offense against someone who does not deserve it, and someone who has gone through extreme measures to demonstrate His unconditional love for us.
Obedience to God should not be rendered with a selfish motive of receiving rewards and blessings. In the way that sincere repentance returns one back to the real reason for obedience, we render our obedience to God because (a) He is so good and generous that He has already blessed us and made us His own; (b) such goodness deserves a loving response of allegiance, of loyalty, of faithfulness, and of obedience.
Next time you are tempted not to obey God, remember how He loved you first. We obey Him because we honor Him and are grateful for who He is and what He has done. As for the blessings, we are forever grateful, and humbly acknowledge that we deserve nothing, and He deserves our endless love. May we continue to grow in the knowledge of God’s love, so that our life of obedience and service will give glory to Him who deserves our love.
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