Backstabbing Assistants and Ulterior Motives

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 21:21-31

Thankfully, my children have mostly grown out of that age where they absolutely adored all of the Disney tween shows. I say "thankfully" because they can sometimes get a little annoying.  For me, one of the less annoying Disney franchises is High School Musical (probably because I have been involved in a lot of theater). In the third and final film, the primary antagonist, a blond senior girl named Sharpay, who runs the theater department, puts out an advertisement for a volunteer assistant. An attractive new student with a British accent shows up at her locker, ready to take the job. This new student does an amazing job acting as assistant to the high school theater queen…right up until the assistant betrays Sharpay and announces that all of her time as Sharpay's assistant has helped her learn how to run the school and take her rightful place as the new theater queen. The plot is a little corny but capitalizes on a very human tendency to do good or nice things for very wrong reasons.

The writer of Proverbs felt compelled to warn us about this tendency in ourselves in Proverbs 21:27. The NIV reads, "The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable--how much more so when brought with evil intent." The HCSB translates "evil intent" as "ulterior motives." Acts chapter 5 gives us an example of such a sacrifice.  Ananias and his wife Saphira have seen other believers sell property and donate proceeds to help fellow believers. They have seen the way the other disciples admire and respect such acts of selfless giving and they want to be looked at that way themselves. So they sell a piece of property with the intent of giving the proceeds to the Apostles to distribute as needed.  But Ananias and Saphira are only interested in how they will look, not in actually giving a sacrifice, so they can't help but hold back some of the funds from the sale while pretending to give everything. They were only interested in looking sacrificial, not in being sacrificial.

Like both Sharpay's assistant and the Ananiases and Saphiras of the world, we can easily fall into the trap of doing good things for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, we just want to look good. Sometimes, we want to show people that we are better than whoever has been badmouthing us. Sometimes, we are just interested in the tax break or in the connection we can make. Sometimes, our good deed makes someone we don't like look bad. Sometimes, it scores us political points at work or church. Numerous opportunities exist to do the right things for the wrong reasons. The writer of the proverb reminds us that such sacrifices are detestable.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think there is anything wrong with getting a benefit from doing the right thing. The problem exists when our primary motivation for doing good is how the act will benefit us. And if we find ourselves lying about, over-emphasizing, or drawing attention to our good deeds, chances are we're doing the right things for the wrong reasons. 

When we doubt our motives for doing good, we must ask ourselves, "Who am I doing this for?" If our primary motivation is how it will benefit ourselves, then let us be honest with ourselves and with those around us. Such honesty just might keep us from doing the right things for the wrong reasons.

Getting Yourself Killed Over a Real-Estate Deal

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:32-5:6

There is an interesting story in the book of Acts about some people who sold some land. At the end of chapter four, a man named Barnabas sold a piece of property and then brought the proceeds to the disciples to be passed out to those who were in need. That kind of thing was somewhat common in the Church in those days. But there was also a couple, Ananias and Saphira, who had heard about Barnabas' gift and were impressed by it. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by someone who sold a piece of property and just gave the money to the church, right? Well, Ananias and Saphira, we can only assume, wanted people to be impressed with them as well, but they didn't want to make the same sacrifice. So they came up with a plan. They sold a piece of property, then acted like they were giving all of the proceeds to the church when they were really keeping part of it for themselves. When Ananias came to present their gift to the apostles, Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds from the field? Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!” When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard (Acts 5:3-5, HCSB).

The story demonstrates how people can sometimes do the very same things for very different reasons and that our motivation really can mean the difference between sin and a good deed. Barnabas brought his gift because he wanted to help the poor within the Church. Ananias and Saphira brought their gift because they wanted to look good, as evidenced by the fact that they wanted everyone to believe they had given everything when they really hadn't. Their problem wasn't that they didn't give all of the proceeds from the sale to the Church; Peter made it very clear that the money was always theirs to do whatever they wanted with it. The problem was that they wanted to convince people (apparently, even God!) that they were better, more generous people than they really were. Barnabas and Ananias both sold property and gave the proceeds to the church but their motives were very different. One was an act of charity. Another was a selfish act of deceit.

How often do we engage in the same kind of behavior as Ananias and Saphira, doing the right thing for the wrong reasons? How often do we volunteer, not in order to help, but so that we look good? How often do we give just to get people to leave us alone or to assuage a guilty conscience rather than because it is right to meet a need? How often do we do things we really don't want to do just to win political points or convince someone of our moral superiority?

God judges us not just by our actions, but by the attitude of our hearts. God alone can always tell when an act of kindness is deceitful or when our generosity is really a photo-op. So don't stop doing the right thing, just make sure you adjust your heart so you're doing it for the right reasons.