Perspective is everything. Everything. And when it comes to living a victorious Christian life for the glory of God, this idea of perspective becomes even more radical.
Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that your role in Christianity is not about motivating scores of Christians to get up and “Go” or even to serve one another. That is not our primary purpose. Evangelism and service in the church are important ingredients to the discipleship recipe—to be sure—but getting believers motivated about evangelism or ministry is a lower-tiered objective.
Don’t make the mistake of putting the cart of ministry before the horse of worship.
As believers, we so want to see God turn sinners away from the vain worship of idols and become disciples of the true and living God. Our desire is to behold the Lord Jesus Christ save a people for Himself, lifting the veil of unbelief from the eyes of poor wretches.
That is our sole aim, our singular purpose, and our main goal for ministry.
The act of ministry or going out into the nations with the gospel is essentially our supernatural response to the Master’s plan of discipleship. We “Go,” trusting in the Lord that He alone will “make” the disciples.
Yet even that, I believe, miserably fails to paint the true masterpiece of what our heart’s desire should be in fulfilling Great Commission Discipleship. Though the imperative verb in the Great Commission is to “make disciples,” our ultimate goal for discipleship should never be that shallow.
It is a glorious blessing to behold the Lord build His Church, but our primary motivation for ministry should not even be to save sinners from the pits of hell.
Then what is the reason for our existence, you ask? How does one live the victorious Christian life?
Answer: By loving and worshiping the God who saves!
Love and worship. This is victory!
Worshiping God is the church’s ultimate end, not to mention our beginning and middle. Great Commission Discipleship is simply the means in which worship of the divine Trinity is our end.
For example, in answering the question about what the motive for evangelism should be, J.I. Packer wrote, “There are, in fact, two motives that should spur us constantly to evangelize. The first is love to God and concern for His glory; the second is love to man and concern for his welfare” (J.I. Packer, Evangelism & The Sovereignty Of God, page 73).
You see, if your focus in ministry is taken off the worship of Almighty God, then whatever sits upon the throne of your motivation becomes a two-faced idol. (No, really, I think “idol” is the right word to use in such a case. I really do.)
If our ministries are all about attending committee meetings, painting the walls of the church facility, going or getting other people to “Go,” and not primarily about worshipping God through loving obedience to His commandments, then we have failed even before we’ve begun. The acts of both evangelism and discipleship would, then, run dangerously close to idolatry.
In other words, we’ve put the cart before the horse. Ministry takes the seat of worship. Failure at living the victorious Christian life becomes the inevitable outcome.
Mark Dever wrote, “…our love for people can prove inadequate. The motivating force for our whole life…must be our love for God” (Mark Dever, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, page 100).
And so, if our sole compulsion is to make disciples of Jesus Christ while being thoroughly involved in ministry and/or service, we may impress men but God is not amused.
Please don’t make the mistake of trying to impress men, because God is the gospel.
Live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, but live it in such a way that the focus of your living is for God to enjoy pleasure because of how you live.
QUESTION FOR COMMENTING BELOW: What things are happening in your life that have been causing you to lose a right perspective? What have you been doing to stop that from happening in the future?
* Photo credit: MyAngelG (Creative Commons)
What things are happening in your life that have been causing you to lose a right perspective? What have you been doing to stop that from happening in the future?