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This House Believes Black Lives Matter intentions are more important than its methods. Thus, Cambridge Union will debate tomorrow night. Well, yes, intentions matter. Of course they do. Remember the widow praised by Jesus for giving away her last mite, referring to a Jewish coin, like the tiny insect of the same name because so small and worth almost nothing. And yet her sacrifice made it generosity beyond price. You, God said to Samuel, see the outside but I see the heart: and he chose a puny shepherd lad to be King instead of all his strapping older brothers. He tests the heart and knows the mind: His eyes are everywhere, seeing evil as well as good. And yet look at all the characters He chose to do his work. Abraham, father of three monotheistic faiths, offered his wife to other men to save himself; not once but twice. Moses was a murderer, Jacob a cheat, the hero King David – that same weedy boy close to God’s own heart – was both, killing a soldier because he fancied his wife. His son Solomon inherited this entitlement, with a harem of a thousand. Elijah brought down fire on his enemies while his successor Elishah set a bear on a bunch of children, or at best a gang of adolescents. When we meet “Saint” Paul he’s intent on murder and even after conversion comes across as tetchy and arrogant. Not many I’d like to have dinner with. It’s hard to think of any biblical heroes without deep flaws. Agents to advance the narrative of antiquity rather than models of morality for us to emulate. I have no idea how the students at the Cambridge Union will vote tomorrow. But I hope they acknowledge that both matter: motive and method, means and ends. God cares about our intentions because these shape our character, which he loves. But also about our results because these change the world, which He created. Oskar Schindler was allegedly a gambler, womaniser and black marketeer but he saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust . President Trump made no secret of his lust for credit in his work for peace. But each was acting for the greater good of humanity. So if the Nobel peace prize committee decide to give the American President the award for his work to achieve a lasting settlement and security for both peoples, won’t the peace prize have been put to good use? Only one person, though, has ever demonstrated perfection in both: with a heart as pure as God’s and such power to change history that we date it from His birth.