Missionary Motives

Introduction

2 Corinthians 5:14 "For the love of Christ constraineth us..."
All believer's are, or ought to be, constraineth by the love of Jesus Christ.
to serve Him from conversion to death or rapture. Unfortunately, many Christians vague ideas as to why they should serve Christ, but no definite, concrete thinking on this very important matter.
Meaning of "constrained": It means compelled, impelled, driven forward.
In the Old Testament men were compelled by the law and in the New Testament were compelled by love. Which is the greater power? I believe Love is.

Many believers would be willing to serve Jesus if He called them to Bible School and full time service, but while waiting for this special call they do not feel any particular need or urge to serve the Master, Jesus Christ the Savior!
To understand a text one must study the context. The context of 2 Corinthians 5:14 give us several incentives for service:

Missionary Challenge

Introduction

Refer also to Operation World P.J. Johnstone. 1986 edition, and Ten Sending Churches, MARC Europe.

There are more people alive today than the total number of people ever live on the planet earth .
There are 5 billion people in the world today. At least one half of these have never once heard the Gospel. It is estimated that 80, 000 unsaved people die every day, approximately 55 people every single minute.
More that one third of the world's population is communistic (1, 558, 430, 000).
Moslems are advancing rapidly, with the new confidence that oil wealth has given Muslim nations.
There are only 85, 000 active Protestant Missionaries in the world today.
The Philippines is a great mission field, with unreached islands, barrios and tribes.
Of the 50 million people in the Philippines, probably 36 million are Roman Catholic; 4.2 million Aglipayan, 4 million muslims, 1 million pagans, with only 6 million protestants- and many of these only nominal professing believers.
Surely this present a tremendous challenge spread the pure Gospel.
There are at least 87 languages spoken in the Philippines, so it is impossible to reach everyone by radio or foreign missionaries.
Foreign missionaries are hindered by the heat of the tropics, and language barriers.
Filipinos are born linguistic and find it comparatively easily to live on the meager diet of rice, fish, and bananas of the remote islands and forest.

Conclusion

The Challenge is to wait upon the Lord for the revelation of His will for your life and then obey it regardless of the price, Luke 9:62.

Source: One hundred Bible Lessons
By: Alban Douglas