What’s the application of that then? Does it mean that, “If that preacher wanted a reward, he’d refuse a salary and we could put that money in the building fund?” I don’t think so. Paul has just said that we have a right to earn a salary, but that gives me a little bit of pause. I don’t have any right to complain about my workload or the hours I may sometimes have to work. There’s nothing heroic about getting up in the middle of the night to be with a family in crisis.
Is your reward simply the privilege of knowing you have been used of God to make a difference in someone else’s life? It seems to me there’s a lot more fulfillment and satisfaction when you understand that you were made to serve God—your earthly reward is to be able to look at lives that have been changed through your involvement, and your eternal reward is when you’re able to hear the Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Advertisement
Having gotten his perspective right on that vital issue, Paul then demonstrates the way that he has appropriated that truth into his life. That is, he makes no big deal about clinging to his rights so he can preach the gospel. Knowing that his ultimate reward comes from God, Paul is able to forsake his rights entirely and to focus on doing whatever it takes to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But, what good are rights if they don’t result in being able to say that serving God is its own reward? Paul essentially says, “I have freedoms in Christ but I am willing to limit those freedoms if it will further the cause of Christ.”
Jesus paid the ultimate cost for us. He became weak: “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (
Gal. 4:4-5). What more reward do you need?
