Missionary Motivations

We have already seen that the great motivation for missions is love for God. (See Our Aim in Missions.) “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19). Other motivations also compel us to go and make disciples of the nations; these other motivations also flow from this love for God.

Fundamental Motivations

1. Burden for the lost:

There are still over 2 billion people in the world today who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should be burdened for those who are facing an eternity in hell unless they repent and believe in the only name, the name above all names, given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

2. Compassion for the broken:

The least and the last in this world live in abject poverty. Hunger, thirst, and sickness are a daily reality for them. Women, especially, are oppressed; millions of women live in the nightmare of the sex trafficking trade. Motivated by compassion for the forgotten and the outcasts, we go as though we are serving Jesus—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and those in prison (Matthew 25:34-36).

3. Outpouring of gratitude:

In our greatest motivation, love for God, we serve out of overwhelming gratitude because of his great love for us. Our service should come from the outpouring of thanksgiving to God for what he has done for us (Psalm 105:1-3). Those who are brimming with praise to God cannot contain themselves from speaking of him. Paul writes that those who speak will “cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:15).

Faulty Motivations

While there are fundamental motivations, which are pure and right, there are also faulty motivations that do not reflect a true love for God.

1. Vain self-glory:

Instead of being motivated by love for God, we often are motivated by love for self. This may be manifested in our preaching when we are seeking the praise of men and are motivated by the fear of man. But as Paul says, “let us not proclaim ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). After all, we pray to God our Father: your kingdom come, not my kingdom come. We can easily fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with others in a desire to build better ministries for our own name’s sake. In our service, nothing should be done out of selfish ambition or rivalry or vain conceit or vainglory (Philippians 2:3).

2. Discontentment:

Some are serving in a place because they are escaping from an undesirable situation and have not been sent by God. There may be dissatisfaction and discontentment with their home church or pastor. There may be rejection of their culture or people. However, healthy missionaries will not be looking for “greener grass” elsewhere but will water the grass wherever the Lord has placed them. There are vices with people in every place and culture on earth. The motivation to escape these troubles will only lead to the eventual realization that you will find troubles in all contexts of ministry.

Recognizing defective motivations in ourselves is the first step of repenting and turning our eyes away from self-service to a God-centered service. Only the true, fundamental motivations of love, compassion, urgency, and gratitude will sustain us in service to God for his glory. May the Lord purify our motivations of love and give us a true purpose in seeking his glory alone.