The Big Mo — God cares about Why
One of the most famous scriptures in the bible is John 3:16. As a believer, that scripture is so important to me for an obvious reason, it is the bedrock of the Christian faith. It talks about the hope extended to the entire world in the person of Jesus Christ.
But its essence goes beyond that, it also highlights something equally as important, God’s Motive; what I like to call God’s Big Mo. Why did God send Jesus? Because He “so loved the world”.
Motive is so important even God had to make His known. Motive is such a big deal to God, so much that He doesn’t judge actions independently but He judges them within the context of the motivation. The great King Solomon says it this way, “People think that whatever they do is right, but the Lord judges their reason for doing it.”*
Motive asks the question Why?. If we will live a life that honors God then this is a question we should never stop asking ourselves. It refines our intent and puts our actions against the bigger picture. Our actions matter little, no matter how noble, when they are out of alignment with God’s grand scheme. While the world is concerned about What you do, God is most concerned about Why.
Love is the greatest Why
I Corinthians 13 captures Apostle Paul’s exposé on Love. In his writing, he establishes one thing, Love like Faith is action. Love can only be truly expressed by doing something. However, this action only counts when the motive is right.
There are many reasons why we can do a thing but Love is the greatest reason we can ever have. Think about Paul’s words. Did he really mean that I can be burned as a martyr and that action still won’t count? Well, he meant it enough to write it down. This is why I think Love is the greatest Why; it is a concept that emanates from God and that’s putting it mildly, it’s actually the very essence of God.
The world generally regards Momentum** as The Big Mo but I have a strong feeling that if I had the opportunity to ask God what His Big Mo is, He’ll say MO-tive.
Love is the ultimate motive and its own incentive
The quality of our actions are only as good as our reasons for doing them and the reason determines their value with God. Love is the ultimate, against its standard all human endeavor must be measured and can only be truly measured.
Love is its own incentive. Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them. The fruit of love sown is more love to show. Nothing empowers to give love like receiving it. The reward for loving is more love in the world.
*Proverbs 16:2 (ERV)
**Big Mo meaning “Big Momentum” is a concept that was first used in sports and then later politics. Momentum was observed to have a huge impact on sports. Successful teams seemed to have momentum on their side and while in momentum, they were hard to stop. This same impact has been observed in the political terrain especially during political campaigns. More recently, momentum has also been observed in even more areas of human life. Learn more.
