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EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, ALEXANDER MACLAREN
All work done from the same motive will receive
the same reward.
None need be startled by the thought that Christian
work is rewarded. Essentially, it is not deeds but character that is
rewarded. The ‘reward’ is the possession of God of which
such a character is capable, and the consequent blessedness which fills
such a soul, and cannot but fill it, and which can be enjoyed by no
other. The faithful servant enters into the joy of the Lord; the faithful
administrator of his Lord’s talents enters on the rule over cities
in number the same as the talents. Capacity for service is the result
of stewardship rightly administered here, and new opportunities yonder
are sure to be provided for new capacities.
God’s judgment takes little note of that which
men’s judgment all but exclusively notes. The conspicuousness
or success of a man’s deeds is nothing to Him. Differences of
power are of no account. It is faithfulness that is required
in a steward, and it is all the same whether the stewardship is of millions
or of farthings. The saints nearest the glory in heaven will
not always be the men whose words or deeds fill the pages of Church
history and resound through the ages. There will be astounding new principles
of nearness and comparative remoteness then.
Christ was repeating what David made a law in Israel,
when He said: ‘He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet
shall receive a prophet’s reward.’ Therein He recognises
the identity in spiritual stature and motive for service, of the prophet
and of his dumb helper, and assures us that those who, in widely different
ways but under the guidance of the same spirit and motives, have contributed
their respective shares to the one triumphant result shall be associated
and equalised in the immortal reward.
So remember that what is necessary in our indirect
work, if it is to be thus honoured, is that it should have our devotion,
and our love to Jesus and to men, throbbing in it, and that it should
be accompanied by direct work, in so far as we have opportunities for
that. Moneygiving may be made sacred, and by it, exercised in the right
spirit, we may ‘lay up in store for ourselves a good foundation’
and may ‘lay hold upon eternal life.