Paul ends his book talking a lot about motives and about self-inspection. He’s telling us that we can seek to do even good things for the wrong reasons, and that we often attempt to change others because we want the praise and attention when good things happen in them. We naturally glory in us, in our accomplishments, in our influence over others. We must apply the gospel to our innermost motives and die to the praise, approval and pride of this world so we can point them to our great Father. No matter if we are a legalist or a liberalist, we want freedom and to be a new creation through Christ. In the end, we all seek to find our path to God, and we must stop looking within or at our accomplishments and start pointing people to God’s great grace in Christ and we must trust in his work and worth.
