A Reflection On Rewards

When I wonder what I will gain from serving God

There is a false spirituality in the church that insists that we are never to serve God with an eye on the reward. Yet over and over again, Jesus uses reward as an incentive for His disciples to follow Him at all costs. Jesus assures us that even though the costs of discipleship are great, they will never outweigh the benefits. We serve Him knowing that there is surpassing value in our service and in the rewards we will reap from it. God is no one’s debtor. He is extravagant in His promises.

Jesus expects His disciples to leave everything behind. But it’s another of the many paradoxes of the gospel. In losing everything, we gain everything and more! Though we invest much of our lives in houses, property, and relationships with friends and relatives—all good things—the gospel is of inestimably greater worth. The gospel, if we accept it, will loosen our grip on all our attachments while making our attachment to Christ supreme. The cost of that is huge, but the reward is greater still.

Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 19:29