What’s the motive?

Recognizing divine Love as the only legitimate motivator of God’s children helps us contribute to a kinder, safer world.

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When we hear about some heinous crime or violent act, one of the first questions that come to mind is, What was the motive? Perhaps, if we could understand the thinking behind what the perpetrator did, we could bring some sense to the senselessness in an effort to stop such crimes from occurring.

And in fact, discerning the underlying impulse is significant. Actions begin with thoughts, so by zeroing in on the thinking behind an act, we start to move into the arena where real change can happen. And this begins with understanding what it is that really motivates us.

Perceiving things from a material standpoint may lead us to believe that every individual is independently motivated – by their own mind; their own history; their own likes, dislikes, and proclivities. But Christian Science , which shifts perception to a spiritual basis, offers a very different picture of what we are.

Mary Baker Eddy , the discoverer of Christian Science, wrote of our true nature, which she generically identifies as man, “The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. ... Man is idea, the image, of Love; ... that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker” ( “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 475 ).

It’s God – good, divine Love, harmonious Mind – that governs each and every one of us. And because divine good is All and supreme, no one can ever stand outside this government.

This is our starting point for prayerfully perceiving every one of our brothers and sisters as who they actually are: not independent actors capable of having hateful thoughts or doing harm, but expressions of the one Mind, the one Love, God – capable only of living and acting in accord with Love, intelligent good.

We are not the first ones who have been called upon to see others in this Godlike light. In the book of Acts in the Bible, for instance, a disciple of Jesus named Ananias is tasked with going to meet a frightening figure: Saul of Tarsus, who has been terrorizing Christians. “Lord,” he says, “I have heard many reports about this man, and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem” ( 9:13 , New International Version).

Yet Ananias is called to look more deeply, to see more spiritually. “Go!” is the reply. “This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel” ( verse 15 , NIV). It’s a defining moment in Saul’s dramatic conversion to a follower of Jesus who would go on to become known as the Apostle Paul, one of Christianity’s most significant figures.

It was the Christ, Truth’s revelation of our God-given nature, that had earlier come to Saul to enlighten and transform him and that came to Ananias to show Saul in his true light. And so Christ comes to each of us today to reveal “Truth and Love as the motive-powers of man” ( Science and Health, p. 490 ).

We can each contribute to the collective good by welcoming Christ’s message of our true motives and nature – to act upon them ourselves and to see them in others, perhaps most especially those who seem least Christlike.

Once, I was called upon by a police detective in my hometown to pray about a child pornography case she had been investigating for several months. Although the police had one of the key players in custody, he wasn’t talking, and the case seemed to be at a standstill.

As I prayed, it came to me that those involved must be permanently innocent because they permanently reflect God. Their behavior would not seem to indicate that. But turning to God’s point of view to see their real nature, I could discern that they could not have any motive other than innocence – and that innocence, as a quality of God, could be their only true impetus.

Within two days, the man they had in custody started talking, and the case broke wide open. It was humbling to think of the result as not just bringing some justice but also being preventative, as the cycle of victimization, at least in this case, was stopped.

We all have a vital role to play in bearing witness to the Love that is God as the only true motivator of each of us. Realizing this and praying from this standpoint for a neighborhood, a community, or a world is bound to have healing effect.

Adapted from an editorial published in the Oct. 7, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel .

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