Rewards

It’s interesting how subtly the “prosperity gospel” sneaks into our lives. If you are unfamiliar, the “prosperity gospel” is a transactional model of faith: if you do this, you’ll get that. It’s extremely blatant in some cases, with its proponents claiming material wealth for particular actions such as attending a given church or giving money somewhere. It’s much more subtle when practicing particular faith disciplines such as fasting or prayer or generosity, is promoted as a way to “get more of God in your life” or “grow closer to God”.

In Luke 7, we read a story of Jesus going to dinner with Simon the Pharisee. A woman of ill-repute weeps over Jesus’ feet, wipes her tears with her hair, and then pours expensive perfume on His feet. Simon gets called out for thinking contemptuously of her and also for skipping all the hospitality customs of the day. Jesus recognizes the woman’s sins – “and they are many” – and also recognizes how she has honored and worshipped Him. He forgives her sins.

Often the story is that she is honoring Him because He forgave her. But He doesn’t state her forgiveness until AFTER she had honored and worshipped Him. She appeared to have had no expectation that her actions would earn her anything other than scorn and perhaps disgraceful eviction from Simon’s house. Yet she worshipped.

Honor and worship are also explicit in the story in the Book of Daniel of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and King Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar built a great gold statue of himself and ordered everyone to bow down and worship it or be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down and worship anyone or anything besides God. They believed God was able to save them if they were thrown into the blazing furnace, but that even if God did not rescue them, they would only worship or bow down to God.

In both stories, and others throughout Scripture, worship is for the sake of honoring God. It is not to “get” something in return. IF we get something in return, e.g., rescued from a blazing furnace, a closer walk with God, strengthening of our faith, those are secondary benefits that God bestows because He loves us. Not because we fast or pray or give or any other action. We should engage in actions because we love and trust Him.

Transactional behavior is so very core to how we often conduct relationships. Would you still worship just because He is God, He is holy, He is the Creator?