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Seek Ye First Series The principle of reward By Tony Kostas   |   1975

The principle of reward

There are a number of references to rewards in the Bible. God is a rewarding God and he also emphasises to us that the rewards which he gives are the only ones worth seeking after. He is a jealous God and does not take kindly to people seeking after rewards from other sources. If we do this, we spoil his opportunity to be to us the true rewarder that he is.

Before referring to our main scripture from Matthew, let us look at Genesis 14:17-15:1.

“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorloamer, and the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.   And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high God.

And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.   And he gave him tithes of all.   And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the good to thyself.

And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

Save only that which the young man have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre;  let them take their portion.

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

Abram had fought against, and defeated, four kings who had in the course of a successful attack on Sodom and Gomorrah captured his nephew Lot. As Abram returned from the battle, he was met by two kings, the king of Sodom and Melchizedek king of Salem. Melchizedek  is described as “the priest of the most high God” and one traditional belief is that he was in fact, a Christophany, that is, an Old Testament appearance of Christ.

Whether or not this is so, he certainly represented God to Abram who acknowledged this by giving him tithes of all the spoil from the battle. Then when the king of Sodom met him, he asked only for the return of his citizens who had been captives of the four kings and insisted that Abram keep all the spoil as his reward for winning the battle.

This was not a particularly magnanimous gesture as Abram, who was the victor, was indeed entitled to the spoil from the king of Sodom’s enemies as it was he who defeated them. Nevertheless, Abram who knew that God’s reward was the one to prize above all, refused saying that he had vowed to God that the ungodly king of Sodom would never be able to boast that he had been instrumental in making Abram rich. It was after Abram had taken this stand and not yielded to the temptation to keep the spoil, that God spoke to him in a vision and encouraged him that he would indeed not lose out because God was his shield and his exceeding great reward.  (15:1).

Better still than saying, “I will reward you”, God said, “I am your exceeding great reward”. God himself was the guarantee that Abram would not go unrewarded for his faithfulness. Our main scripture for this study is Matthew 6:1-18 which we will separate into three groupings;  verses 14 which referred to Giving;  verses 515 which referred to Praying;  and verses 16-18 which refer to Fasting. We will cover them in that order.

Giving

Matthew 6:14

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them:  otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly”.

Giving speaks of the material and as we are relating our three groupings to the three parts of man  spirit, soul and body – we will place this into the category of body.

Giving is in the areas of the material and speaks of material substance accumulated or earned by physical toil or, “the sweat of your brow”. Men tend to think of their wealth or possessions as something for which they have worked, or striven, and to which they therefore have a distinct right. The harder a man has worked for that which he has, the more possessive he tends to be with it.

Giving of your substance is, in a real way, the giving of yourself, for you are giving of that into which you have invested yourself yet it is precisely because of this that such giving is meaningful to God. Jesus said that our giving is not to be undertaken in an attention-getting way. He was critical of the hypocrites who make their giving into a public affair so that they could win the praise of men.

It is sad that in our day there are individuals and so-called Christian organisations which encourage people to be that kind of hypocrite. Ego and pride and desire for esteem in the eyes of others are exploited so that money can be raised for “the Lord’ a work”. One common approach (and there are many) is for the preacher to stand before the congregation clutching a number of envelopes on which are written various amounts  $100, $50, $20, $10. He will them say something like, “I’m going to give you an opportunity to give to God tonight. I have here ten envelopes with $100 marked on them. Are there ten people here who will give $100 each to Jesus?

Ten prospective hypocrites raise their hands. “Come on up onto the platform”, says the speaker, “and take one of these envelopes and let all these people get a good look at you”.

With ten “generous givers” now paraded before them, the people are put through the same routine for the $50 envelopes, then the $20’s and finally the $10’s.  The psychological effect, of course, is to boost the image of those who give and to make those who do not (the ones still left in their seats after the $10 invitation) feel as though they have disobeyed God. This kind of approach to giving encourages people to give for the wrong reasons. It caters to their egos, makes them feel good and feeds their selfimportance. The simple fact, however, is that they are being manipulated for gain.

At the other extreme are those who are laboriously secretive in their giving and are terrified at the prospect of their right hand knowing what their left hand does. It is fine to give anonymously, but this is not the point of Jesus’ teaching. It is not that people know about your giving but rather what it means to you for them to know what you have given.

The hypocrites of whom Jesus spoke were specifically seeking a reward in being known and being admired as great givers. For them, secret or anonymous giving held no attraction, Their whole motivation, therefore, was wrong. Of course, one may give unobtrusively and still have the wrong motive. I have known some people to be very careful that the person whom they wanted to impress found out about their giving even though the giving itself was done in a quiet way.

The principle here concerning giving is simply that there is to be no praiseseeking nor credit seeking. Our giving must not be selfmotivated (verse 2). In the church care must be taken that people are not singled out for special treatment just because they may be giving more than others.

God’s favours cannot be bought and this is expressly forbidden in the Bible (James 2:14), Jesus made it clear that those who give for the adulation of men already have their reward and that is the only reward they will get. If you look for a reward from them then your mode of giving will reflect that. However, the recognition and praise which will be yours will cancel your right to any kind of reward from God.

Giving is to God.

The person or organisation to which we give or the use to which the money we give is put, are incidental. What really matters is that we give to God. And this is the reason for Jesus speaking so strongly against giving out of a wrong motivation. If we do not love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Luke 10:27), then there is no other acceptable motivation for our giving but if we give because of our love for God, we will give freely and without limit. Then God will be truly glorified and he will gladly be responsible to see that we receive our reward.

One of the best-known and most important Bible references to giving is 2 Corinthians 9:611,

“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity;  for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:  (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God”.

It is a lovely liberating thing to be able to give to God with no strings attached  to be glad of the opportunity to in this way, give of your self, your material being.

Praying

Matthew 6:5-15:

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:  for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.   Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret;  and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do:  for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.   Be not therefore like unto them:  for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

After this manner therefore pray ye:  Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Just as we noted that giving relates to the material realm and, therefore, to the body, so praying relates to the spiritual realm and, therefore, to the spirit. In giving we minister to God that which represents the “sweat of our brow” and in praying we give or offer, of our spirits to God.  Man is essentially tripartite (that is, he is a three-part being). Through the body he has world-consciousness. He is aware of all that is around him in the material world via his five body senses.

Through the soul he has self-consciousness. He is aware of his own thoughts, inner feelings and emotions.  (See Fasting further in this study.

Through the spirit he has God-consciousness. All that God says to and does in a man is via his spirit. It is the coming together of the spirit of God with the spirit of man which produces what we know as the new birth.

So when Jesus speaks of praying here, he is speaking of the way in which we relate to God in the realm of the spirit. It follows, therefore, that prayer is not intended to be a performance to impress men, or God, but an expectant reaching out to God who hears and responds (verses 713).

I have known many new Christians who were afraid to pray publicly because of feeling inadequate to express themselves as well as the other more experienced Christians. In my own experience as a new convert, I recall attending prayer meetings where it was obvious that, as the meeting went on and various ones prayed, they were all waiting to hear me utter my first public prayer. But I was too scared because I felt I had to keep up with their standard of eloquency.  Consequently, my first few public prayers were muttered with my head well-buried in my arms and my face hard against the pew along side which I was kneeling. That way they could not hear what I said!

What grand prayers we often hear in public gatherings of Christians. Especially from those who have a masterful grasp of “King James” English but how easy it is to replace true prayer with a performance.

Another aspect of such wrong use of prayer is when a person is ostensibly praying but, instead is speaking to another “over God’s shoulder”. Some people go to prayer meetings to get something off their chest to another who is at the same prayer meeting and others go so as to catch up on the latest news. It is amazing just what interesting little tit bits of gossip can be gathered in a prayer meeting while someone is “spilling the beans” to God about someone else! The religious hypocrites of whom Jesus spoke had a passion to be known for their religiosity they, therefore, made a great public performance of their praying so that people would be suitably impressed and consider them highly spiritual.

Having condemned this wrongly motivated public prayer performance, Jesus made the point that we have a God who hears and answers prayer. Our praying, therefore, should be an expectant reaching out to God. In this context he gave his disciples the principles of prayer in the form of an example which we have come to know as The Lord’s Prayer. He taught them how to reach out to God rather than how to impress people. It is an interesting commentary on man’s religious tendencies that Jesus clearly told them to not use vain repetitions (verse 7) and then went on to share with them The Lord’s Prayer which has, I suppose, become the most vainly repeated prayer in Christendom,

God knows the things we have need of before we even ask him but it is important that by our asking we demonstrate our dependance on him for these things.  We are to give ourselves to God in prayer.

In verses 14 and 15, it seems as if another thought is brought in. In fact, Jesus is pointing out the importance of forgiveness when it comes to relating to God in prayer. A right relationship with men makes the way for a right relationship with God.   An attitude of forgiveness toward others brings us into a forgiven relationship with God and thus we have unbroken fellowship with him.   Just as we have said that all true giving is to God, so all true praying must be to God. Jesus emphasises this in verses 5 and 6 where the clear teaching is that when we pray we are to get aside with God and truly pour our hearts out to him and let him know our total dependance upon him. It is not the length or eloquence of our prayers, but rather the true communion of our spirits with God that makes for effective praying.

During my early years as a Christian, I sought to develop an “ordered” prayer life. I was assured by those around me that no Christian can be successful without such things as regular, systematic quiettimes and prayer lists, I found, however, (and I emphasise that this is a personal experience which I am using to illustrate a principle and not to establish a pattern for others) that instead of developing a true prayer relationship with God, I was moving into a stilted formal and unreal one. For me, prayer has now become far more natural than that.

I enjoy a freewheeling, spontaneous, heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus. There is no set time when I get together with God although there is a time (around midnight to 2 a.m.) when I am more likely to be engaged in specific prayer simply because that is a convenient time for me to be free of other demands and distractions. The important thing is that I have learned to live in an open communication relationship with God which makes “prayer without ceasing” a practical reality rather than an impossible religious exercise. When I sense the need in myself, or the urging of God’s spirit, I set aside such specific times as I have already mentioned, but not always for a “business conference”. I will often spend time simply luxuriating in God’s presence just as any lover will do with his loved one. Such times of bliss may not seem very constructive to some of “God’s workers” but there is, in fact, nothing more constructive than the flow of love and adoration between man and God.

A man’s relationship with God must be as natural as breathing. It must be as spontaneous in its expression as the various expressions of love between a man and his wife. The introduction of formal, set “love times” and “communication” times into a marriage does not enhance that marriage but rather quenches its reality and spontaneity and indicates insecurity in the marriage relationship.

Jesus enjoyed a beautiful, free-flowing relationship with God. He was always in communication with the Father. Sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken because he always sought to do His will and to live in a love relationship with Him.

Fasting

Matthew 6.16-18.

“Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:  for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly”.

In this third portion of our study, we come to fasting which relates to self or the soul, the mind and personality part of our being through which we have self-consciousness.   For some people the words of Jesus could threaten to take half the fun out of fasting! Certainly, in the case of the hypocrites of whom he spoke, it was most important that people knew of their self-denial.   During fast days, therefore, they would wear a particularly sad face and seek in various ways to get the message across so that others would be suitably impressed. Is fasting worthwhile if nobody else knows you are doing it? Of course fasting of itself is not the vital issue. There are highly disciplined but ungodly people who fast entirely for health reasons. Likewise, there are many non-Christian pagans who diligently observe fasting as a religious practice.

Fasting is an aspect of which is called in the Bible, “affliction of the soul”. It is an act of offering one’s self to God. It is not the bodily appetite that is denied in fasting rather it is the motivation of self-indulgence. Eating is far more than the satisfying of a bodily need. It certainly has a strong psychological aspect which is not wrong in itself, where self-control is suitably exercised. We do, however, need to recognise this psychological aspect of eating to see fasting as affliction of the soul rather than denial of the body.

In fasting, I offer my soul, my self to God, I bring my self into line and bring my natural appetite into subjection with a Godward emphasis. Jesus tells us that God wishes to reward those who fast but can only do it if their fasting is indeed Godward.  That is, to Him. We are to minister to God in our fasting.

Your whole being

We have seen, therefore, when you give your money you are to give it to God, when you pray you are to pray to God and when you fast, you are to fast to God.   We are speaking then of the offering of your whole being, spirit, soul and body to God and this offering is to be continual. Some words about Jesus in Hebrews 10.5,6 are important here.

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has thou prepared me:   In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure”.

When Jesus came he did not come to do that which the priests were already doing. That is, to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, Instead, God prepared for him a body so that he, as a man, could live before God and teach men by the example of his own life to offer themselves, spirit, soul and body as he did, to be a continual offering to God. Jesus’ entire life was just such an offering to God. He did not have to act as if he were religious or spiritual because he was an offering to God. He was so real and natural whilst being totally given over to the Father. And yet, he did not have to try to be anything because his relationship with God spoke for itself.

His mind was made up and it had a single aim  to please the Father. God, therefore, was pleased with the offering for that life. This is the simplicity of a true relationship with God. We are not to seek to impress, nor to create some kind of image, nor are we to be what we are not.

What we are to do is to continually offer ourselves to him in the confidence that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him as we see in Hebrews 11:6.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.

If you come to God then be sure that you come to God and then rest in the confidence that he always rewards diligent seekers. If you are not confident in his role as rewarder you will not freely rest in him but rather you will also be seeking to ensure that you do not miss out on your reward.

To believe that God is your “exceeding great reward”, is to believe that he will reward you for your diligent seeking and you can, therefore, freely give yourself to him without wondering if anyone noticed.

In the world people are taught to seek recognition, position and status but this is not to be so for God’s people. God sees, knows and rewards accordingly. The Principle of Reward, therefore, is so clearly related to the giving of the whole person in worship, the pouring out of yourself, spirit, soul and body to God in the knowledge that if you do so, you cannot help but be rewarded.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.

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