Judging Motives

Which is more important, the action or the motive behind the action? For example if someone does a good deed, does the motive matter, or is it just great that a good deed was done? What if the good deed was done to outdo someone else’s good deed? And if someone does something wrong, but they didn’t mean to do wrong, their intention was actually good, but they didn’t think it through and some how in the method someone got hurt, was their action still wrong? Even our human courts seem to deal with the issue of why something was done, and not just focus on the crime. There are different punishments for the same wrong action that differs due to the motive behind the action. Is this how God looks at things?

"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. (1 Chr 28:9)

Are we to try to determine the motives of others? We often don’t even understand our own motives.

All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. (Prov 16:2)

Although motives are important, we have to be careful in trying to judge motives, yet do we not have to try to understand a person’s motives to help them deal with their wrong actions and do better in the future? And yet I have heard it said that we are to save the judging of motives to when the Lord returns.

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Cor 4:5)

Does this mean we are not to make any kind of judgment of a person’s motivation behind their action? Or is it saying that we function with an effort to understand motivation with the help of the Lord’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit, but we live in realization that we can’t understand completely and we await the Lord’s full revelation?

I am to remember that I am not to judge or I too will be judged, and in the same way I judge others I will be judged (Mat. 7:1-2). But the truth of the matter is that I need people to whom I am accountable who will help me see my true motives. I need to practice the Golden Rule in judging, in the same way I want others to practice it with me, but we need honest evaluations of our motives by people who love us and want to help us. I don’t need people thinking, “His attitude stinks,” and not tell me because they are condemning themselves for “judging me.” I need them to be careful about how they judge me and my motives and they need to have the right motivation in what they do to help me. But I don’t need them to just see that I did something wrong, and complain about it. I need them to help me understand why I did what I did and help me correct the problem and not do it again. On the other hand, I don’t need someone thinking that they know what my motivation is without getting to know me and talking to me about it. I don’t need to be assuming that I know exactly why another person did what they did and condemning them for it. In fact, I need to be questioning my own motivation for why I would do such a thing!

I think this whole idea of “not judging” is often misapplied, what do you think?