Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

God undoubtedly loves and cares for His followers, delights in giving them good things, and provides for them. And there are passages in the gospels that speak of temporal rewards for Christians (although accompanied by persecution)(Mark 10:29-30).

However, being a Christian is not primarily about "what's in it for me", especially with regard to material prosperity. It is about using the resources that God has placed at our disposal to carry out His expressed will and purposes (which is the reason that He entrusts us with those resources to begin with), in grateful response to the salvation and eternal life that He has made possible for us, out of pure grace and mercy, without any worthiness on our part.

In fact, Jesus' primary emphases about His followers' earthly lives were not on the temporal rewards or benefits they could expect to receive, but on the temptations to forget God and to live only for themselves that the acquisition of material prosperity could present (Luke 12:13-21), and the opposition and persecutions that they would experience as a result of being His disciples (John 15:18-21; 16:1-4). That was why He advised those who wanted to be His disciples to count the cost before making that commitment (Luke 14:25-33).

April 19 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report