Missionary Motivations

When I think about the motivations of missionaries, one motivation rises to the top and two motivations support that ultimate one.

The one ultimate motivation is the glory of God. I know that’s a phrase that’s thrown around a lot, but it really is significant. God is the focus. Unfortunately, this is such an ethereal phrase that we don’t know exactly what it means. I find it helpful to break down the ways we glorify God into the ways in which we are like God and the ways we are not like God. We both imitate God, and we submit to him in the ways in which he has limited us as humans. Great gain comes from godliness and contentment (1 Tim. 6:6). As this relates to our motivations in missions, godliness and contentment correspond to compassion and obedience. God tells Jonah to be like him and have compassion on the Ninevites. One way we are godly is to be compassionate. Secondly, we are to be content. God commands us to go into all the world with the gospel. Contentment is accepting the lot that God has given to us, and a big part of that lot is the call to obey the Great Commission. We glorify God in missions when we are motivated by compassion and obedience.

While God’s glory is the ultimate goal, the two supporting motivations for global, cross-cultural missions are obedience and compassion. Obedience will get you to the mission field, but compassion should keep you there. Now, of course, you should go with compassion, too, but what I mean by compassion is a personal connection to people. Before you go, you don’t have that connection. It’s when you get to the field and you know people there, your heart will break for them. Compassion is what keeps you there, because you know the people that you have been sharing the gospel with, and they have not yet believed.

It's the disobedience of the nations that keep them in darkness. But it is our obedience that brings the light into that darkness. Many people are motivated by doing justice and rescuing the oppressed. But the greatest injustice is against God. Ungodly people are not giving God the worship that he deserves. Our living sacrifices give God the worship he deserves, demonstrating that God is worthy of whatever cost he may ask of us. We go into all the world because God is worthy of our going. Obedience is our motivation.

There are also some bad motivations. The primary bad motivation that is often touted when trying to encourage people to become missionaries is the false motivation of guilt. You might hear something like this: “You should be doing something, but you’re not doing enough. The need is so great, and if we all did our part, then the task would be finished. But the task isn’t getting finished because we’re not all doing our part (meaning you are not doing your part). So, get your act together.” That is the motivation of guilt. We often confuse the motivation of guilt with the motivation of obedience. We obey not because we have to but because we worship God and we want to please him. We don’t have guilt because we are redeemed.

Our motivations need to be the same as God’s. John 3:16-17 makes that clear. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God is motivated by love. More specifically, God loves to redeem fallen humanity. God wants his creatures that he has made into his image to believe in him and not perish but have eternal life. He loves us so much that he sent his only Son, who is his perfect image, to redeem us. And Jesus was obedient in being sent by the Father. The question for every missionary and every Christian for that matter is whether we have the same love that God has. Do we love to see rebels become adopted sons? Are we motivated by love? And do we love to obey? God’s glory is worth the work of missions.