Honest Motives Before GodSýnishorn

Righteous Motives

Not only are we not alone in our struggle with the purity of our motives, but the awareness of the struggle itself is also a good thing. This knowledge of the battle within us is an indicator of our salvation. Before we came to know Christ, we used to live under the sway of the enemy. The Bible tells us that we followed the way of this world, being dead in our sins, and blindly satisfying the cravings, desires, and thoughts of our flesh. However, when we accepted Christ as our Savior, we were born again. We were born to be a new person, a new creation. 

The Scripture instructs us to take off our old self as we would take off dirty old clothes. We are to put it away. We need to be made new in the attitudes of our minds. This, however, is not an easy matter. There is a struggle between our old man and our new man. When we get saved, we get introduced into this battle. This is a war between light and darkness. The main battlefield is our mind. 

The Lord saves us. He gives us a new name. He gives us His Spirit. However, as long as we still live on this earth, the flesh still abides in us as well. That means that there is a sin nature that is still at work in every Christian. It will be so until we are glorified in heaven. That is why we are introduced into this new battle as a result of our salvation. When we were of the world, we had no problem to be completely and utterly given over to the flesh. Now, our spirit wants to do the righteous things of God, but our flesh does not want to do them. 

That is why the Scripture tells us that we need to put our flesh to death daily. We need to crucify it and its selfish desires, thoughts, attitudes, motives, and ambitions. This is a war. This is our righteous fight of faith. We must battle with sin. The good news is that we are not alone in our struggle. Christ gave us His Holy Spirit to help us fight this battle. That is how we are called God’s new creation. God’s own Spirit abides in us. He gives us the power to put our old nature to death and to live according to our new nature. The Spirit of God gives us righteous motives.