God — The Great Rewarder

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Title: God — The Great Rewarder ------------------- Date: 3/1/2003
Keywords: “rewards”
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Passage: Matthew 6:1-18*

1. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

2. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

3. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing 4. that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

5. And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

6. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

7. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

8. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.

9. Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.

10. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

11. Give us this day our daily bread.

12. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]’

14. For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

16. And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

17. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face

18. so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Questions

1. Matthew’s sixth chapter is full of comments from Jesus about receiving rewards from God. Can you pick out those activities or attitudes from the verses above that Jesus says will bring reward to the child of God?

 

2. Does the concept of God giving rewards for certain behaviors and attitudes seem to contradict the message of grace?

 

Practical help

We enter the Christian life by faith alone in Christ alone. We receive God’s grace through no merit of our own, but solely through the merits of Jesus. Further, as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we are to walk in Him (Colossians 2:6) — by faith; by relying on His grace.

Realizing that we are saved and kept by God’s grace, we are also told repeatedly in the Bible that God rewards His children for faith-fulness. Hebrews 11, which out of all the New Testament gives the greatest place to faith, provides the following requirement for whoever would come to God in the way that He must be approached: He who comes to God must believe that He is (that God exists) and that He is a rewareder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Very often, the rewards God has in mind are not specifically spelled out. We are left to trust that our very good heavenly Father knows how to reward His children in a way that will seem like a very great reward to us.

Stay away from porn. God sees your sacrificial refusal to yield to temptation. He sees your efforts at self-control. If Jesus says that He will reward for prayer, for giving, for forgiving others, and for fasting, He also can be trusted to reward for your practice of godly self-control.

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."