Walking with the Wise #95: Righteous Reward

“The wicked earns deceptive wages,
but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.”
—Proverbs 11:18

If you are not following God, then you are considered to be wicked. And in today’s proverb the wicked earns wages through deceitfulness, but those who look to follow God and do what He says will get a reward. Jesus spoke a great deal about reward in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). And He assures us that anyone who places their trust in Him and tries to live according to the principles He lays out, will be blessed and rewarded.

As Christians we must continually be reminded the truth of this biblical principle—righteousness will be rewarded and wickedness will be judged. All around us there are friends, family members, colleagues, co-workers, classmates, and a cadre of other men and women who could care less about God’s Word and will do whatever their heart desires come what may. God wants us to know that our work and faithfulness will not go unrewarded.

C.S. Lewis dramatically illustrates this in his book, The Great Divorce. He imagines a world in between heaven and earth, where there are those who on their way to heaven and to hell. While in this world, he encounters a beautiful woman almost beyond description. He writes,

“I cannot now remember whether she was naked or clothed. If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass. If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to the clarity with which her inmost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country are not a disguise: the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living organs. A robe or a crown is there as much one of the wearer’s features as a lip or an eye.

But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable beauty of her face.

‘Is it? …is it?’ I whispered to my guide.

‘Not at all,’ said he. ‘It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.’

‘She seems to be…well, a person of particular importance?’

‘Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things’”—C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, p. 107.

Fame in our world is fleeting, but those who do righteousness in this world will find their fame in the next, just like Sarah Smith. Where is your fame, in this world in the next? As Lewis wrote, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither”―C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian. Amen.