Motivated to Serve

II Corinthians 4:15-5:9

My great grandfather left Germany when he was 13 years old. He got aboard a ship to the United States and arrived near the end of the Civil war. Apparently he went through terrible hardship on the journey. Once he arrived in the U.S., since he spoke no English, he faced other hardships. He was a participant in the Oklahoma land rush, and proved up on his claim. We know only a few of the details of his life, as my grandfather last saw him when my grand father was about seven, and didn’t remember much.

In Germany, our family had had a small farm of about five acres. Great Granddad’s older brother would automatically inherit that, and there was nothing else. Germany was in a severely depressed state and people were dying of starvation. Great Granddad risked coming to the U.S. because he hoped for something better in the future. Believing in the future, he endured many hardships along the way so he and his family could have something better.

Hebrews 11:13-16 describes the commitment of the Old Testament saints. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

They did not see the end result of their labors. Just as many of the immigrants to the U.S. did not live to see what they were seeking. Hebrews 11: 39-40 describes this. “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”

The spiritual motivation for serving God is that same attitude of hoping for something better, even though the complete benefits may not be seen in our lifetimes. Our actions now will benefit the next generation of Christians. We endure the tribulations because of our expectations for the future.

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:15-18)

Unlike those coming to America, we have assurance that we will receive an eternal reward, even though the earthly one may be small. I Corinthians 15 assures us that our expectation is not blind faith, but has a basis in the fact of Christ’s resurrection. We don’t just hope, we know that salvation is real. Even if we die, we will receive the promised life in Heaven for eternity.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.“ (II Corinthians 5:1-4)

Our salvation is the result of God’s work, and we are kept by the power of God according to I Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

We have received the proof of our salvation in the form of the Holy Spirit. Part of his job is to assure us of our salvation according to Romans 8:16. If he is not there, Romans 8:9 tells us, we are not God’s children. We are able to be confident of the result.

“Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 2co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.” (II Corinthians 5:5-9)

We know that we are saved, and we know that if we were to die, we would instantly be with the Lord. What happens on this earth is rather minor. We don’t seek to die, but it is not the end. We want to please the Lord that prepared these things for us.