Being diligent...motive is key.

Being thoughtful, careful, diligent, obedient, disciplined etc are all good and important things in themselves, not bad.

Though "obedience" can be legalistic and in fact often is, it does not have to be nor is it necessarily (true love driven faithfulness/obedience is never legalistic).

The question is why are we diligent and obedient. What is our motive/reason for being diligent, careful and thoughtful etc? 

Motive is the only difference between true God honoring behavior and feigned legalistic "obedience." Otherwise on the surface we can't tell the difference; they can look exactly the same.

There can only be one of two reasons (motivations) for our external obedience. Detecting the reason however, is not at all easy because we rarely know our own heart and the true motives behind our behavior. 

And what are those reasons? 

1.     To honor and bring attention to (glorify) God out of love and awe for him.

2.     To take care of myself. 

Everything we do, is done for one of these two reasons

Mixed motives

We complicate things however because our motives are #mixed. Rarely do we do anything with a pure (singleness of) motive. What is most important is which motive is primary i.e. leads/predominates. 

# being mixed doesn't mean there is a third motive, it simply means these two can be intertwined. They are still distinct nevertheless.

Self interest, good or bad?

Plus desiring both things (God's honor and our best) in itself is not necessarily bad. It's ok and in fact normal for us to desire our best. Christ assumes self interest (not condemn it) when he tells us to love our neighbors as (in the same way) we love ourselves  or care for (love) our wives as (in the same way) we care for our own body. 

In fact the appeal of the promises of God is to our best interest. The promise of eternal life is made to who? To me, to self i.e. a promise is a direct appeal to my self interest. I want life, not death and so do you. 

There is nothing wrong with our *wanting what is best for ourselves. Why would God appeal to it otherwise? It is no more wrong than it would be for God to want what's best for himself. Does God ever do anything that is ultimately against himself? It may appear so short term but never long-term. In fact our wanting what is best for us is because we are like God, who wants what's best for himself. This in part is what it means to be in his image. 


Gods glory and our best are not at odds 

The issue isn't us wanting our best, it is how is our best truly achieved; through independent self effort or as a result of pursuing God out of love for him in response to his love for us. 

Is our best the fruit of honoring God (which is legitimate) or the result of our **direct and independent pursuit of that best (which is not legitimate, since it involves trust in self as one's best provider, instead of God who is the only true provider and sustainer of all things)? 

The ***mystery of life (life as God originally designed it to be) is that pursuing and experiencing God, is in fact the best thing we can do for ourselves. And it is in him alone we find true life, joy, meaning purpose etc. 

Yet this is not the primary reason we are to pursue God. We pursue him simply because he's most glorious and worthy of our total pursuit. And because he is, our greatest joy is found in pursuing and knowing him. This is the "natural" (originally designed and intended) outcome of who God is and the way we are. To go contrary to this not only dishonors God, but is against us; our best interest and well being. 

To say it simply, desiring and pursuing God's highest glory is our greatest good and joy.

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*For an engaging article by Kyle Strobel (Professor of Spiritual Formation at Talbot Seminary) on whether self love is valid or not click here

**If pursuing a specific objective is honoring to God then we can and are to pursue it with all the energy God gives us. In this instance this would be a direct pursuit of something but it is something that God has told us to pursue. And since it is, that direct pursuit is obedience to God and therefore also honoring to him. Some examples would be to "go and disciple all nations" or "love God with all our heart soul mind and strength." Faithful obedience/direct action is the only legitimate response to these directions.

***true life, which is in God alone, is a mystery in the sense that it goes contrary to our fallen nature and therefore is not obvious, but mysterious to us in our present fallen condition. Who we were designed to be (i.e. those who find God to be our true life) and who we are "naturally" inclined to be (i.e. those who seek life apart from God due to our fallen state of rebellion) are contrary to each other.

This is true of both believers and unbelievers in the sense that we all are inclined away from God...even Christians. BUT as believers we have a new and additional dynamic within us i.e. the love of God shed about in our hearts by the Spirit of God. This new inclination empowers us to live once again as God originally designed us to live. And it is only by this new dynamic/power/love/Spirit that we can.