C. S. LEWIS ON: PURSUING THE PROMISES OF GOD - SEEKING GOD'S REWARD
May 06, 2023
To seek the future reward that God offers us is not selfish - it's obedient. It's a pursuit that pleases our Father in heaven, since it is His great joy to reward us in the Kingdom to come.
Here’s a snippet from C. S. Lewis’ lecture: The Weight Of Glory, and my thoughts on his brilliant insight:
“…We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of reward. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it. A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.”
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MY THOUGHTS ON WHAT CS LEWIS IS SAYING:
Seeking and attaining God’s promised reward is not selfish or a mercenary affair, but the natural result of a pure heart doing His will. By following Jesus - being His friend by joining Him in His love for all people, there is not only reward in this life - knowing Him - but the friendship will culminate in being a co-ruler in the kingdom to come. The reward of “co-ruler” is not something tagged on, but the consummation of our cultivated friendship with Him in this life.
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In other words, as I enjoy and cultivate that intimate friendship with Jesus in this life, joining Him in what He is doing (which is loving all people), I will be equipped to handle a place of intimate co-rulership with Him in the kingdom to come. If I’m not cultivating this intimate friendship with Him here and now - being His apprentice…learning to love others as He has loved me - I will not appreciate or be equipped or be qualified to handle a position of co-rulership in the kingdom to come.
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“The one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” - Jesus (Rev. 3:21, 22)
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