Love Your Enemies and Do Good: The Reward Is People, Not Prizes

The post opens with what it calls a paradox in God’s kingdom: everything we need for life comes as a gift of grace, yet Jesus also speaks of storing up rewards. The author takes up Luke 6:35 and argues that the reward is not salvation or sonship, since those come by grace alone, and not heavenly honors or privileges. Instead, the reward is found in looking at Jesus, who loved his enemies and gave himself for the ungrateful and wicked, not for praise but to save people.

From there, the post shifts the focus from prizes to people. The reward, as the author sees it, is that former enemies become friends, the ungrateful become thankful, and the wicked become righteous. Giving to others without expecting anything back reflects the unearned favor of the Father and shows the character of a child of the Most High. When God’s grace is passed on to others, his family grows, and the author identifies that growth as the great reward.

The author then addresses 1 Corinthians 3:8 and notes how talk of rewards can stir anxiety and a performance-driven mindset. In response, the post says that no one in Christ is poor, that believers are heirs of all things, and that pressure to produce comes not from the Spirit of grace. In the world, people are rewarded for results, but in the kingdom the harvest belongs to God, who alone gives growth and life.

Finally, the post draws on the Samaritan woman’s testimony in John 4 to describe a partnership: Jesus supplies the good news, and believers tell their own stories of what he has done. The author stresses that no miracles were needed for that town to believe, only a simple testimony. The takeaway the post offers is that anyone can point others to Jesus by sharing the grace they have received.

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