No Greater Reward

No Greater Reward

Read: Matthew 19:28-30

“Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

Matthew 19:29

“Theirs is an endless road, a hopeless maze, who seek for goods before they seek for God.”

—Bernard of Clairvaux

IN WORD 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 (at least nine times in the Sermon on the Mount alone—see Matthew 10:42; 16:27; and Luke 6:23 for other examples). He would not tell us about it if we were not supposed to consider it.

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.

The message in this verse is clear: 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!

IN DEED 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. Jesus would have us value our relationships, but He would have us value the gospel more—so much more, in fact, that He assumes many will leave even their closest relatives behind for His sake. 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.

Remind yourself that costly discipleship is really to our benefit—an investment with unparalleled returns. We are to humbly accept the extravagance of His promises.