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4. Motives of Fulfilling the Moral Law.

The types of motives.

In solving the question of the element of the Christian morality, we also solved the question of its motives. Love towards God and a neighbor is the prime and purest motive toward the moral activity. It is akin to say a person that is involved with a science: if he loves it, he is motivated by the purest motives. That is why the more advanced is a being in moral completeness; the more this encourages — in the moral life — its altruistic love towards God and beings like him. Thus, God’s Angels are incited in their lives by the most pure love towards God and those around them. However, it is natural for a person to strive for serenity, joy, happiness, and the more he seeks this in the very love towards God and his neighbors and deeds which emanate from it, the higher and more complete is he in the moral sense. The more a person loves a discipline that he is involved in, the more he finds satisfaction, joy and happiness in it; and akin to this are the Lord Jesus Christ’s words: “And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21-23). Thus, in loving the Lord, the soul has the Lord within itself, the subject of its desires and aspirations. It is then that a person has complete joy, about which the Lord Savior mentioned to His disciples, while instructing them on the commandment of love, and also when He prayed to His Heavenly Father on the eve of His suffering (John 15:11;17:13). In his Epistle to the Ephesians, Ap. Paul concludes with the following words: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (6:24) — the Lord is proclaimed through those that love Him. A moral person thirsts for the future life in heaven. However, its not because he looks upon this as a payment or reward for his labors on earth (akin to a servant) but because in that future life, he hopes to achieve a full and immutable love towards — and by the strength of this love — unity with God, from which he will receive the harvest that emanates from it — the eternal joy.

We have depicted the highest and purest motive towards moral life. However, not everyone and not always is impelled by this lofty motive. Because our love for God is far from absolute, especially with people that are on the lower rungs of completeness, we are often forced to induce ourselves towards a moral life through different motives, which act upon us as coercion. Namely, on the one hand, God’s will is depicted as a demand for obedience, while on the other, as a memory of the expected punishment or reward, depending upon the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of God’s will. This point of view refers to those, for example, studying non-adults that force themselves to study disciplines and maintain good behavior, bearing in mind the commandments and the expected punishment or reward. We are often induced towards moral life by these directive motives found in both the Old and the New Testaments. On the one hand, It says: by example of the Holy One that has summoned you, you, too, be holy in all your deeds, for it is written: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1Peter 1:15-16). For such is the will of God (1Peter 2:15), for this is commendable (1 Peter 2:19); “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment (1 John 3:23).

On the other hand, it says: Fear God (1Peter 2:17). For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works (Mat. 16:27). For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Gal. 6:7). In particular: will receive the wages of unrighteousness (2Peter 2:13). For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1:18). Tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil (Rom. 2:9). For the end of those things is death (Rom. 6:21-23; 1:23). And on the opposite: if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments (Mat. 19:17) and he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat. 5:19). We shall reap if we do not lose heart (Gal. 6:9) — and our labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). There is laid up the crown or righteousness for those having good exploits (2 Tim. 4:7-8). For whoever gives a cup of water to drink in God’s name, he will by no means lose his reward (Mark 9:41) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). Or who is not familiar with the Lord Savior’s Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount for the meek, poor in spirit, timid etc. (Mat. 5:3 and f.). Everyone is aware of the Gospel’s depictions of the eternal suffering of sinners and eternal joy of the righteous.
The lowest form of motivation towards moral life is when a person compels himself towards it for the sake of sentient and transient blessings — and not spiritual and eternal ones. However, this type of impulsion is not totally excluded of the Holy Scripture. Particularly in the Old Testament, the chosen people were often exhorted by Moses and other Prophets toward serving God correctly and fulfilling their responsibilities, by pointing out the earthly rewards (in that instance) that awaited them. Even the New Testament states that all needed earthly blessings shall, of their own accord, materialize to the seekers of God’s Kingdom and His truth (Mat. 6:33). Anybody who leaves his home, brothers, or sisters, or mother or father, or his wife, or children, or his land for My name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life (Mat. 19:29). “Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim 4:8). And to the evil people, there is a prediction of them being besieged, ravaged and utterly destroyed (Luke 19:42-44).