Motives, fruit, and the glory of God

In a response to my last post, my friend Jay (I mean Adrian Peterson) asked: "What if a minister in church seems goal-driven, but is doing them because he wants to bring glory to God? How can we tell the difference?"

No one can discern the motives of someone's heart (OK, ultimately, they're sinful), but they're impossible to judge. For all we know, Benny Hinn, David Koresh, or Hitler thought they were glorifying God by their actions.

We can't know motives, but we're commanded to test people's fruit (and our own as well). A well-intentioned person can succeed at the same totally wrong things as ill-intentioned charlatans. So, to answer Jay's question about a leader who is goal driven, it requires we ask "What are his or her goals?" To say it's to glorify God isn't enough. Ultimately, even Satan's doing that through his rebellion and eventual defeat.

To get back to Jay's example, let's say a young pastor works hard to to "build up" a local church, thinking it's all to the glory of God. It may be what glorfies God and it may not (BTW, the old Cary Grant Christmas movie, The Bishop's Wife deftly illustrates this connundrum.) "Building up" a local "church" may require actions that God views as sinful (such as, competing for sheep with other local bodies of faith, comsuming resources while neglecting the poor, requiring personal allegiance of people, etc.). Another biggie is facilitating sins of omission by allowing people to think "church functions = Christianity."

We must remember Isaiah 1, where people expressed worship as God directed, but were somehow so off track that He hated their offerings. It reminds us of the old adage "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The litmus test of our fruit is Jesus Christ. Not His name, stuck like a label on our church events or His propitatory sacrifice we're banking on to get into heaven. Jesus Christ the person, who gave His life for others daily before giving it on the cross.

Do our "goals" reflect the ethics and concerns of Christ (ministering to the needy, giving to the poor, loving the lost)? Or are we blithely enjoying our materialistic lives, assuming that we glorify God in our holy huddle? Whether a pastor's goals accomplish the former, or enable the latter, answers Jay's doxological question. Test the fruit.

In sum, if our ministry doesn't look like Christ's, we'd better beware thinking it's pure and undefiled religion that pleases (glorifies) God.

Don't know if that answer's Jay's question, but it's Christocentric. And convicting. At least it is to the sinner who typed it ...

Look forward to your thoughts.