“Action Versus Motive!”

“Action Versus Motive!”(I Cor.4:1-5).
There are always some Christians in your former parish who when they meet you will start with, “We miss you…”, bla bla bla! Do not try to stretch the conversation. If you do, you will end up promoting such Christians to discredit your successor.
Believe you me, these words remain true always: “He who gossips to you will gossip about you.” The same way they are telling you that they miss you is the same way they are telling your successor how you were a nightmare.
My advice to young ministers: “Always begin on a new page. You were not sent as an auditor or evaluator of your predecessor. Run on your lane.”
A minister coerced a presbytery to go in for a huge loan with which they constructed a manse/secretariat for the presbytery. Public opinion was all praise to the pastor for achieving so much in so little a time. The loan became a burden to the presbytery and the pastor pleaded and was moved out of that presbytery. It is about ten years now and he has had two successors. These successors have not executed a single project that is visible to the public. The public that does not know the story continue to praise that pastor while blaming his successors for having achieved nothing. What the public does not know is that these successors have engaged in paying a 30,000,000frs loan plus accrued interest.
It is never prudent to judge a book by its cover.
By the way, each person is unique in the same way that each fingerprint is unique. Besides, the Holy Spirit endows us with different gifts, but all are for the general good.
It is wrong to use the standards of one person’s endowment as a scale of measurement for another person.
In all walks of life people are measuring successes and failures by comparing successors with their predecessors. It should not be so!
When a pro-Paul group of Corinthian Christians tried to sow seeds of dissension through comparing Paul and Apollos, Paul silenced them by letting them know that both of them were “only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task…” One man planted, another man watered, but it is God who makes the plant to grow.
The story is different today. In the African continent servants of God have created intentional camps, gathering bands of Christians and naive clergy unto themselves, thus fragmenting the body of Christ. Disunity, rather than unity is rife even within the same denomination. Paul says the jealousy and quarelling is the clear sign that as Christians we are still worldly.
The jealousy and quarelling makes us judgmental. Paul felt the weight of the judgment upon himself and had this is to say: “…men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the sacred things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court…My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.”
Paul is not closing the door to justifiable rebuke and correction. We are not allowed to transform the LORD’S vineyard into private property and not expect to be reproved. If we have been given a trust, we should prove being faithful. It is only then that we can say we have a clear conscience; even so, that is not a proof of innocence.
We can convince the people with visible actions, but when the Great Judge comes he will judge our motives.
Question for personal reflection: Is the action a true application of the motive? Remember: People may applaud the act, but God sees the motive.
Prayer: Holy Spirit help me to act with a clear conscience from the place of faithful motive. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.