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All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.
Proverbs 16:2
It's easy sometimes to be led by wrong motives. After all, we spend a lot of time in our feelings, and usually it's some feeling that motivates us to do or say things. As a Christian, I have done good things with the right motive. I have done good things with a wrong motive, but I have also done wrong and not so good things with a wrong and not so good motive. I believe we can all fall into the trap of the "my good outweighs my bad" mentality and excuse ourselves for our wrongdoings and bad behavior. I believe there have been times that I entertained the thought that because God knows I love Him, and serve Him, and truly desire to build His kingdom, that He will overlook my little flaws. I mean He knows we are only human right? He knows that no one is perfect. He has already forgiven me for all my sins, past, present and future, so He understands I mess up sometimes.
I recently heard a teaching by John Bevere on the Fear of God that made me realize that just because I love God, I couldn't lose my fear of Him.
The fear of the Lord is an awareness that you are in the presence of a holy, just, and almighty God and that He will hold you accountable for your motives, thoughts, words, and actions.
Even if my good actions and motives outweigh my bad, I am not exempt from being held accountable, even though I am saved and belong to Him, I answer to Him and He does not excuse my bad behavior.
We certainly are not perfect, we are certainly forgiven, but we should constantly evaluate our own motives and be willing to be honest with ourselves about why we are choosing a certain action.
As the Lord has been dealing with me about this and I have been searching His Word, I think Oswald Chambers sums it up very nicely. (Oswald always gets me; he doesn't let me off the hook!)
The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption.- Oswald Chambers
It's my prayer for myself and for you that as we ask God to be His hands and His feet, that we ask Him to have His heart and purity in love too. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that no matter what we do if we don't have love, we have done nothing.