24:10 What's In It For Me? Series

So as Jesus was tying up his early morning session, after having spoken on topics as diverse as murder, adultery and lying. He had told people why and how they would be blessed and I’m sure there were some in the group who were thinking, “Sure but what’s in it for me?’ As we move ahead in Chapter six of Matthew we are immediately confronted with the question, “What is the place of the reward motive in the Christian’s life?” Are we good for goodness sake or are we good in order to get the carrot at the end of the stick or are we good in order to avoid getting the end of the stick. Three times in the portion of scripture Christ speaks of those rewarding those who give him the service he expects. In Matthew 6:4, 6 and 18 Christ speaks about what I call “The Reward Factor”

Now I realize that there are some who would hold that the reward factor should have no place in the Christian’s life and should have no bearing on the Christian’s behaviour. They would tell us that yes we should be good simply for goodness sakes. They tell us that virtue is it’s own reward, and that this whole concept of the reward factor should be banished from the Christian’s life. They are like one old saint who said “I wish I could quench with water the fires of hell and burn with fire the joys of heaven so I could serve Christ out of pure motives.”

Now on the surface that is all very good and noble, but it is not the view that Christ held. Instead he told us that if we had the right kind of charitable giving, the right kind of prayer habits and the right kind of fasting that there would be a reward for us. A mansion just over the hilltop so to speak. And these are not isolated instances, In Matthew 5:11-12 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. Christ tells us that is we bear persecution in His name, we will be rewarded, in Mark 9:41 If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded. He says if we do good in his name there’ll be a reward for us and in Luke 6:35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great.

Jesus talks about rewards, Paul talks about rewards, Peter talks about rewards, John talks about rewards. The reward factor in the Christian experience is a fact of life, and it was recognized and promoted by the Lord himself. It is abundantly clear that Jesus did not hesitate to speak in terms of rewards and punishment, so let’s not become more spiritual on the subject then Jesus was.

The first thing that we need to note is that it is an obvious rule of life that any action which achieves nothing is futile and meaningless. The second thing is that to banish from all sin and punishment from the idea of religion is to say that injustice has the last word. It cannot be reasonably said that the good man and the bad man will have the same ultimate fate. Because that would simply mean that God didn’t care. That He didn’t care if you were good or if you were evil. And there would be no point in being good, and no special reason why a man should live one kind of life or another. To eliminate rewards and punishment is to say that in God there is neither justice nor love. We need the reward factor just to make sense out of life.

But what was Christ’s view of the reward factor?

1) When Jesus Spoke Of Reward He Was Definitely Not Speaking Of Material Rewards. In the Old Testament goodness and prosperity were close kinfolk. If a man was good and righteous then he would prosper financially, he would have a wonderful family and his fields would flourish. If a man experienced bad luck then it was automatically assumed that he had done something wrong. You don’t have to look much further then the book of Job to find this philosophy. In the book of Job 4:7 Job’s friend Eliphaz asks Job “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?” In other words, “hey Job, bad things don’t happen to good people” another of Job’s friends asks a similar question in Job 8:6 and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.