February 28, 2011
Reward in Full
I have a friend who is heavily involved in multiple missions and he is very adept at making opportunities to boast about his accomplishments and sacrifices. Jesus said, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” (Matt 6:2 NIV) I have visions of my friend checking over his heavenly accounts receivable spreadsheet and seeing: Gifts to the needy – rewarded in full, Visiting those in prisons – rewarded in full, Feeding the poor – rewarded in full.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----Our preacher preached on this text yesterday. His conclusion was much the same as yours. The reward you get from practicing your faith to be seen by men is simply the fact that your practice got seen by men. There is a greater reward to be had. When you practice your faith to benefit others purposefully, your reward is the benefit they receive. And that is a great reward. It carries on in the positive changes of their lives. And those changes multiply as they in turn benefit still others. Your Father sees that.
-----I agree with this idea. Joy is so important that Paul includes it in his thumbnail definition of the kingdom of God - righteousness, peace, and joy. Knowing the benefits you have caused others causes joy. But I think we stop short of realizing the full danger of improper motivation if we ponder only this aspect of reward.
-----Jesus’ message regarding hypocrites was not a coddling one. It included concepts like whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones. “So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” (Mat 23:28) And He warned us, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat 5:20)
-----If we have the courage to look at another aspect of this reward, we see that the Pharisees and scribes were meticulous in following God’s law, yet however much they speculated they were serving God they were actually serving their own perceptions of purpose. It wasn’t their great deal of obedience our righteousness must exceed. It is the misperception of purpose which we must exceed. So I see false and hypocritical ambition to be more dangerous than simply missing out on the joy of service. I see it as going right to the validation of what we truthfully are deep inside. Are we linked to God? If so, our purposes will be higher (but maybe not perfect) and our rewards coming. Or are we linked to ourselves? If so, we have our reward - ourselves - and we will die with ourselves.
-----We don’t really have opportunity to know fully how misplaced our brothers’ and sisters’ ultimate purposes might be. We can discern some of their purposes. But Jesus was not talking about being aware of their ultimate purposes. He was talking about being aware of our own.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Usually personal insecurity is responsible for someone to brag like that.
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