The term “gold-digger” summons a certain caricature of a human that most find revolting. Typically, it conjures up an image of a trophy wife who cares for a man three times her age for reasons that serve only her. At the end of the day, what motivates her to devote herself to her husband is the pay-out when he finally kicks the bucket. She’s not interested in his family. She’s not interested in his past. She’s not interested in him. She’s interested in the pay-out, and so long as she’s got that coming, she’ll do whatever is necessary to that end.

As despicable as this kind of person may be, and however easy it is to despise someone like this, you might be surprised to recognize some familiar features in your own heart. You may be a bit of a gold-digger yourself. Consider these three questions:

Why do you worship God?

In Isaiah 29:13 the Great Prophet hit Israel right between the eyes with a heavy indictment that Jesus would later repeat. They knew the right things to say, and they knew how to busy themselves with actions they presumed God cared about, but at the end of the day, their hearts were far from God. They had reasons for worshipping God, but their hearts were somewhere else.

Is your heart somewhere else?

This generation may be dying out, but there are still unsaved church-goers that go to church, sing the songs, and even go to Bible studies. They go because it is “the right thing to do”. People go to college because they believe it’s “the right thing to do”, they rotate their tires because it’s “the right thing to do”. But let’s put that reasoning into another relationship and see if it sounds right.

If a wife were to look over at her husband after 20 years of marriage and say “Wow, 20 years! We’re still together! Even after all the disagreements, the crazy pregnancies, my intruding parents, how’d you stick with me for so long?” How do you think she would feel if his answer was “Well honey, it’s the right thing to do”?

The answer is true enough! But it might need some explanation. There are may reasons people stay married. But there is only one good reason. It is because they express their love for each other in devotion. It should not be because divorce is expensive or that you’re looking forward to his or her cash when they die. The same is true for a genuine relationship with God.

When you hear things like “the will of God”, what comes to mind?

Some people hear “the will of God” and they suspect that these are the things required of them in order to get what they have coming. They’re nervous about dying and they want to know what they can do to have some peace of mind. They want to know the bare minimum requirements for making it to heaven by the skin of their teeth.

Others hear “the will of God” and they eagerly search out God’s word to know his thoughts and actions they spend time in prayer telling God how they feel about him. They do all this because they want to know how to please God. They’re going to meet him one day and they want to hear “well done”.

One of these attitudes reflects the mind of a gold-digger and the other reflects the mind of a woman in love.

So, when it comes to why you do the things you do for Jesus, why do you do them?