Motives For Missionaries

Motives For Missionaries Motives for Missionaries
R. C. Bell
Abilene Christian College, Abilene, Texas

INTRODUCTION
Christianity is not conservative, but liberal— even extravagant. It is not mechanical and perfunctory, hut warm and enthusiastic. It is not cold and calculating as if it were fearful of doing too much. It is not afraid of going to excess. Its cry is, “On, on, ever on; to the limit and beyond, with God’s aid.

Probably no one questions that apostle Paul is the strongest, biggest, and most useful Chris' kan that has ever lived. He was as ambitious as Alexander the Great, who, after conquering the world, wept, we are told, because there were not other worlds to conquer. As ambitious and dynamic as Caesar, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, or any other man who has ever trod this planet. Paul dreamed of conquer1’ng a world, too, and of building a world'wide empiie. Unlike these other men, however, he spent himself not for the great god Self and earthly things, but for “one Jesus’’ and for the kingdom of the one God.

Now, what made Paul do diligent, earnest, and urgent? What so animated and electrified hun? What drove him so unceasingly over land and sea, a homeless wanderer, a pilgrim of eternity? Answers to these questions yield the motives not only for his urgency, but also motives for the urgency which the church of our Lord lacks, but needs so much today. FOR GOD’S SAKE
In the first place, Paul preached and labored because he was jeab ous of God’s interests and honor. We are told that “God so loved the world that He gave Ilis only begotten Son. that whosoever be' lieveth on Hi should not perish, but have eternal life.” But this, though most certaiiily true, is not all the truth, '"here is something back of John 3:16. There is an additional and a deeper motive he- neath the Cross than God’s love for man. It is God’s love for Him' self. If this blunt statement seems objectionable, at first, suspend judgment till after a little study of the matter. Have you never wondered why God so loved the world of evil men that He gave His only Son to die for it? Never wondered why God manifested His grace and did such wonderful things for a totally urn worthy race? The answer is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where the motive of God and the deepest things in religion stand re' vealed. In the first chapter it is said that, in saving sinners, God worked “unto the praise of His glory”; and again said, more fully, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption in His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:6-7.) Therefore, God’s wondrous love terminates on Hinv self rather than upon man. All things revert to Him. It glorifies Him so to act toward us in Christ Jesus. Ultimately, He does every' thing for His own name’s sake. And we instinctively feel that this is right, would not have it different, and that here is a motive wholly worthy of such an unspeakably great, but otherwise inexplicable gift to the world. Dees it humble us to know that we do not have the first place in God’s thought? Why should we have? “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Then, consider the sense of security and the comfort we may get from the fact that His own eternal praise and glory are involved in His work of grace for us.

Furthermore, it seems that during the centuries before the cross God neither forgave nor ounished sin completely, so that there was danger of His holiness and intolerance of sin being misunderstood. May we not say there was danger of God’s name being scandalised? and that the cross prevented this? Certainly, the cross is a demon' stration of God’s righteousness as well as a propitiation for man’s uiv righteousness. The cross secures the honor of God and at the same time recovers fallen man. (Romans 3:25-26.) Therefore, both God and man are served by Christ’s death. God found something for the “praise of His glory,” and man something for the atonement of his sin. Suns and stars could not adequately set God forth; in addition to them, He needed sons and saints. And indeed He is enriched by possessing the church, for Paul prays that Christians might know, “what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:18.) God gains nothing in essential grace and glory by “His inheritance in the saints,” but He gains a medium through which to manifest His grace and a peoole through whom His glory may best be revealed. Calvary certainly vindicates God, for a God who uses the way of the cross in dealing with sin cannot be indifferent to sin. And both men and angels needed this demonstration of God’s character, for Paul says that he preached the “unsearchable riches of Christ to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things, to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:10.) Is it not arresting and stimulating to know that God cares for other worlds as well as ours? That we are linked to other beings in such a way that what happens to us has bear' ings upon them? That man’s world is a school for angels in which they watch the unfolding of God’s redemptive plans and learn of the excellencies of their Maker? And how encouraging to know that angels “do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation.” (Hebrews 1:14.) What human heart does not beat a little faster, beat a little warmer to learn reliably that in this big, mysterious uni' verse of our God’s, angelic and human interests and services are mutual!

Hence, the church is the medium through which God chose to manifest His wisdom, grace, and glory to the moral universe, both human and divine. And we know that angels were interested in Christ and His kingdom, both as a matter of prophecy and as history, for Peter, speaking of these things long after Christ’s life on earth ended said, “which things angels desire to look into.” (1 Peter 1:12.) Good angels hovered about at His birth and during His infancy. They ministered to Him after His temptation in the wilderness, strength' ened Him in the garden, and visited His tomb. They are not omnis' dent, for they are only creatures, as men are, and learn God’s wisdom and goodness as these are unfolded in Christ and His church. They, like men, are students of church history. And may it not be possible that they still have problems, as good and smart men have, about His second coming? If they do, surely they do not become opinionated, contentious and unbrotherly concerning things about which there is a chance of their being mistaken until more is revealed. Surely they can be tolerant, humble students of the great subject and not know (?) things which may not be true. Surely they, in their partial knowb edge, can fellowship each other, awaiting in “faith, hope, love, these three,” a time when all shall be “fully known”; for surely they realise that the unknown part of things imperfectly revealed as yet, should not be the occasion of disrupting the fellowship of brethren, divine or human, any more than partial knowledge—nay, even erroneous views —concerning the nature of the kingdom they were expecting broke, either with their Lord or with each other, the fellowship and com' radeship of the hundred and twenty brethren in Jerusalem just before Pentecost. Not only is the church God’s medium for manifesting His mani' fold wisdom, grace, and glory to men and angels of this age, but whatever ages are still hidden in God’s scroll of the future may learn of God through the church, for Paul says that sinners are saved by grace, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7.)

Here is to be found the deepest thing in redemption and the prime motive for all Christian work of every kind. Every man who is con' verted and is loyal to God, who appreciates and loves God is jealous of all His interests and rights. Paul was this kind of Christian and, therefore, could not bear to see God suffer loss of any kind. When he considered the unspeakablv great price God oaid for enslaved man’s redemption, he knew that God valued man highly and had a keen sense of loss when even a single individual got away from Him. Paul was so devoted to God’s cause that when he saw the Lord of the har' vest losing souls to Satan, he was outraged at the robbery and moved to the quick. If a sheep was getting away from the great Shepherd, Paul’s heart burned within him, and no danger or sacrifice was suffi' cient to prevent his taking the Owner’s part against all comers. Though surpassingly content and restful in Christ as to personal dis' position, he was exceedingly active and restless in his official work as ambassador for the King. Every man Paul baptised into Christ or every Christian he moved to greater zeal was, to him, but enlarging the instrument through which God’s many excellencies were made known to men and angels. This was the first cause of Paul’s mighty and peerlessly fruitful life. It was his meat and very life and made him the most efficient and dynamic Christian of the centuries. Does not this explanation of Paul’s urgency, zeal, and success also explain, at least in part, our task of these things today? Are we so thoroughly converted to God that we put His interest and pleasure before our own? Are we jealous of His honor, glory, and name as Paul was? How much are we interested in His harvest and His flock? Do we care when He is robbed and abused by open enemy or false friend? God is grieved at the loss of one soul, but are we con' cerned about His grief? It moves us not! Is this loyalty and love? The nature of love is such that it must always work for the pleasure and profit of the one loved. A lover is very jealous of his beloved. The mother tongue of love is, ‘’Thou are mine and I am thine.” Are we really in love with God? Paul was. FOR MAN’S SAKE
In the second place, Paul preached and labored because the world of men in which he lived was separated from God by sin and conse' quently doomed to misery in time and in eternity. An eternal hell of fire for impenitent sinners was as real to him as the vice and wretched' ness in the Godless civilization of Pagan Rome around him. He knew the nature of sin too well to thmk that men rumed by it in time could be blessed in eternity unless the practice and love of sin were de' stroyed. He knew that a religion which could not save from sin now could not save from hell after a while. He knew nothing of die shah low doctrine that sinners, who never hear the Gospel will not be con' demned in the next world. He never thought that ignorance could save anybody. He understood rather that sin was a deep, fatal disease which would ruin men forever unless a remedy were found; that dis-ease had to be cured before ease could be had. As a man in water does not drown because he fails to get into a life boat, but because he is in the water, so sinners die the second death, not because they fail to accept Christ, but because they are sinners. It is sin that separates from God and life. Christ is the only remedy for sin, and sinners who never come to Him just remain condemned here and hereafter.

Christ does not cause sin. He removes it. Nor does Christianity cause suffering. The greatest sufferers on earth today are Christless peoples. Rather, Christianity explains suffering (as far as mortals may understand it) by revealing that it is not always punitive, but that the wise Father oftentimes uses it, in love, as a tool to chisel His children into forms of beauty and to further His own ends and glory. Paul believed and taught all this. No man knew better than Paul the dark depths of man’s sad failure and his dire need. In the last half of the first chapter of Romans, he tears the rags from the Black Death of Pagan morals and indelibly brands the brow of heathenism with the stigma of her vices. He knew, too, the cause of all the crime and suffering during the long, cruel centuries. Idolatry was not the primeval religion. Men in the beginning knew God, but when “they refused to have God in their knowledge, He gave them up to a reprobate mind to do these things which are not fitting.” (Romans 1:28.) Only after men abandoned God did He give “them up unto vile passions,” and unto unnamable vices and shames. Idolatry, sensuality, and then all manner of immoralities is the order. A moral society without God is as impossible as an irrigated garden without water. This is the teaching of both the Bible and secular history. A doctrine that does not begin with man’s sin, need, and failure is not from God. “If we say we have no sin . . . we make Him a liar.” (1 John 1:240.) That is, man helies God when he says he needs no blood atonement, for all God’s ways and works manward assume that man is a helpless sinner. The Bible is the only book that dares paint the picture of sin in all its horrors and blank despair, for it alone has an adequate remedy for sin as it is.

Another thing that influenced Paul much in his missionary activities is the nature and intrinsic value of man. Paul knew that man’s true place is higher than he occupies in this world, and that his reach exceeds his grasp. As the ruins of a massive castle or elaborate temple afford a glimpse of former grandeur, so the men whom Paul met in Jerusalem, Athens, or Rome seemed to him mere ruins of what man was before he fell and was capable of being again by the grace and help of God. This contradiction between man as he is and as he feels he should be has always challenged thinkers. It is unique; no other creature of earth feels it. To Paul, man, though fallen and terribly damaged by sin, was a noble, God-like being, who could be restored, at least, to his primitive condition in Eden, and was probably capable of advancement far beyond that status. As we have seen, the price a wise buyer gives for a thing indicates its value, and the inestimably great ransom God gave for fallen man’s restoration helped Paul to a proper estimation of human nature. He knew that God was a close economist and would not use greater means to accomplish a desired end than real values justified. He saw what God thought of mankind as a whole, and that He was no respecter of races or individuals, no matter what man thought, taught, or practiced concerning such. Man is a moral being, made in the image and likeness of God. He is not a mere animal, incapable of a revelation from God, but he is a deathless spirit whom mere things can never satisfy; he has insatiable yearnings for higher and finer things than earth affords and can grow and ripen indefinitely (perhaps endlessly; who knows?); a being to whom, no matter to what depths fallen, a revelation and an uplift from God are possible. With an understanding, therefore, of God’s design for His noble creature, man, and with a compassion for poor, wrecked man similar to Christ’s even, Paul became “all things to all men,” and with unsurpassed energy and seal took upon himself the life task to retrieve man’s error by persuading every man he could to accept God’s proffered aid. His love for man was passing strange. He could wish himself anathema from Christ for Israel, and he loved Gentiles no less. Behold his love, labor, and suffering for men! Love is a self-emptying grace. Its language is sacrifice. Its motto, “I give thee myself.” “Love feels no load.” How easily we can do things for one we love. Things that cost, too. How much a wife can do and endure for the husband she loves. Do we love people or do we just pretend that we do9 Bible love is not a mere feeling, but a life. It is a controlling life-principle which leads to right thinking and right doing. Love needs no “publicity man” to advertise itself. It, like murder, “will out.” If I have it, you can tell it on me. What do we care if people, after living miserably all their lives on earth, die and go to perdition? Do we truly care? Paul truly did care. He understood that man had marred in the making, that his career had been temporarily arrested, but, that in Christ, past mistakes could be corrected and man yet reach his Maker’s original design. This was Paul’s second big motive for world-wide evangelism, and without faith in man’s possibilities who could find sufficient inspiration for the huge undertaking? Pure love for man, growing out of a sympathetic understanding of him, led Paul on. FOR HIS OWN SAKE
In the third place, Paul preached and labored because he wanted, after life on earth was over, to go to heaven himself. He puts it this way: “And I do all things for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof.” (1 Corinthians 9:23.) A preacher finds much in his experience to operate against personal consecration. As a lens, though it focus rays of the sun to kindle a fire, remains cold itself, so a preacher, though he convey light and heat to others, may drift into mere formalism and professionalism and be cold and dark himself. He, after preaching to others, may himself be lost. Paul realised this, for he wrote: “But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.” (1 Corinthians 9:27.) Moreover, he knew that the great blessings and hopes of the gospel carried correspondingly great obligations; that a Christian owed a desperate debt to all unsaved men and must, as an honorable man, pay his debt. And Paul knew that, since the gospel was a trust committed to him for others, he must deliver it lest he prove to be a faithless steward. “For woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:16.) He saw the naked bones of the ter' rible truth that even he might be eternally lost, took warning, and be' stirred himself. This third motive, obviously, contributed to the mak' ing of the great worker among the Gentiles. But did Paul have to work and suffer as he did in order to go to heaven? If he did, what chance is there for the most of us, do you suppose? In the back of Paul’s head may have been the desire to have “authority over ten cities” in heaven rather over only five or fewer. Desire for personal reward in heaven is commendable and Scriptural. This kind of selfishness is all right. But it is not the loft' iest or the most powerful incentive to human activity. If this had been Paul’s sole or even his main interest, the sum of his life'work would have been much decreased, you may be sure. He did not work merely to escape the lake of fire either. It takes something more po' tent than fear to produce such a life. Paul was so glad and apprecia' tive because God in love and grace had pardoned him and thousands of other Christians, none of whom had merit or desert, that he could not help loving Him back. He was not working so much for future salvation, it seems, as he was because of past salvation. Furthermore, when he thought about the millions more of lost souls whom God could justify through faith in Christ as soon as they learned of Christ, he just could not be still or keep quiet. He had to show his compas' sion for ruined men and his gratitude to God in such a handsome way that he could not begin to do half enough to satisfy his own happy, adoring soul. His love so constrained him that, had he been ten men, his service would have been increased tenfold. It drove him, biasing and flaming, up and down the world. This is the way of the Gospel with a big, tender, generous man. Indeed, Christianity is not cold and calculating and conservative. Indeed, its motto is ,“On, on, ever on; to the limit and beyond.”

Devotion to a noble cause is the secret of a happy life. Paul was a hopeful, happy man. His ship tossed and pitched in the storm of life, but he knew that it would not capsise. No catastrophe could befall him, for he knew whom he had believed. If it were God’s way, likely, he would be glad to leave heaven for a while, come back to earth, and live his life all over again, as he lived it so many centuries ago, just for the privilege-—not duty—of preaching the Gospel once more. And yet some of us preachers whine and complain about our hardships and sacrifices. May not a preacher get his weight and sise along here somewhere? Christians should be weighed as well as counted. Paul, in God’s balances, may outweigh the three thousand baptised on Pentecost. What mortal man has outworked, outfought, outlived, or outdied apostle Paul!

Observe that when Christ first put to sea and Paul and Barnabas, beginning the great Christian odyssey which has not yet ended, sailed away from Antioch to Cyprus there was but one congregation involved. It is significant that the church, during the most fruitful era it has experienced, had little organisation and executive machinery The simplicity of Christ s methods is what pulled John the Baptist. Christ had not met hi.s expectations. No ax had been used and there had been no baptism of fire. After eighteen months, John was amazed at what Christ was not doing. He had no political program, and He cared so little for organisation that John thought He never could get His kingdom under wav. Surely His methods were wrong! To him, m prison, it looked as though Herod, not Jesus, was king. Nevertheless, Christs simple way was carried over into His church Ills church is not so much an organised institution as it is a living organ' ism. Like the human body, it is animated by one Spirit and instinct with one Life and, consequently, needs no mechanical organisation to assure un1’ty and efficiency. The very simplicity of the executive machinery of the New Testament church has continued to puttie men until now, and they still think it is wrong in method and try to improve upon it. Will men ever learn to trust God and be wise enough to believe that human mechanics can never take the place of divine dynamics?

Observe further, that Paul did not wait about starting until the one congregation concerned promised to support him. He went to the Gentile nations, “sent forth by the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 13:4.' The preceding verse says the church sent him, hut this means that the church at Antioch merely released hun from local duties that he might obey the Spirit, and it is not recorded that it ever gave hmi a cent, He sallied forth on his high crusade against the mighty kingdom of Satan, as was fitting the need, under greater authority and with better support than any church or missionary society could give. May we never forget that the church of our Lord is a living body instinct with one life and controlled and actuated, immediately, by one Head, and that each member, preacher included, is directly accountable, as in the human body, to that Head. As the eye must continue to see, even though the ear fails to hear, so the preacher must continue to go, even though the church can not or will not send. Of course, the ideal would be for every branch, to use another Bible figure, to bear its fiuit, but. if some branches fail to do so, the only obedient, loyal, and loving thing to do is for other branches to try to make up for the deficiency by bearing more fruit themselves. Do you suppose Paul ever thought of this?

CONCLUSION
This sermon-lecture has tiied to emphasise three motives that com-bined to make Paul the greatest servant of God which Christianity has produced Fust, he was jealous of God’s rights and interests with a selfish, holy jealousy; second, he was truly an understanding, sympa-thetic lover of men; and third, he was determined, regardless of cost, to take no chances and make sure of eternal life for himself. These motives made Paul a very big man, towering above others. He was great and influential during his life among men, and, since his “de' parture,” he “yet speaketh” in a still louder voice and will never cease to challenge and inspire men to lofty living and lofty dying. In an unbodied state, apparently, he has been with Christ these many cem turies, conscious and happy, but he has not yet entered into his final and full reward. He will receive this when he comes back with his Lord, who will “fashion anew the body of his humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,” and Paul himself will again live in his very own body, made spiritual and immortal, throughout eternity. Thus Paul, “spirit and soul and body, will be preserved eru tire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as he prayed the Thessalonians might be. (1 Thessalonians 5:23.) If these same motives leaven our lives, we also will rise to the same glorious com summation.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Why is it appropriate for a missionary study to center about the apostle Paul?
2. What was Paul’s great ambition in life?
3. In what way did his ambition resemble Napoleon’s? In what way did it differ from Napoleon’s?
4. In this address, what three motives are used in an effort to account for Paul’s work and life?
5. Which one of the three contributed the least to his making?
6. In what sense was Paul selfish?
7. How does the sentence, “Love God and do as you please,” help to explain Paul’s life?
8. How do you account for the fact that Paul lived a contented, happy life?
9. Did Paul draw a salary? Would it have been wrong for a church to pay him a salary?
10. What will the second coming of Christ mean to Paul?
11. What view of the nature and worth of mankind does this address set forth?