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Bible Dictionaries
Reward (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or REWARD.—1. The NT word for this is μισθός, which appears in its more literal sense as ‘hire’ (Matthew 20:8, Luke 10:7) or ‘wages’ (John 4:36). Besides μισθός, St. Paul twice uses ἀντιμισθία (Romans 1:27, 2 Corinthians 6:13); while Ep. to Heb. uses μισθαποδοσία (Hebrews 2:2; Hebrews 10:35; Hebrews 11:26). Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 prefers, in passages where the Greek has a verb,—ἀποδίδωμι, cf. μισθαποδοσία,—the colourless rendering ‘recompense’ (Matthew 6:6, Matthew 6:18). It might be questioned whether, in the 17th cent., the English word ‘reward’ had so definitely as now the sense of a favourable or desirable retribution. Or is there a touch of conscious paradox in the translation ‘reward evil for good’ (Psalms 35:12)? But see Psalms 7:4, Hebrews 2:2. On the other hand, Hooker (Ecclcs. Polity, Books i.–vi., 1592 or 1594) already employs the expression ‘rewards and punishments, Which stamps a favourable sense upon the ‘rewards’; cf. also—
‘A man, that fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hast ta’en with equal thanks.’—Hamlet, iii. ii. 71.
At Luke 23:41 ‘due reward of our deeds,’ Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 , stands for a periphrasis in the Greek.
2. Christ’s teaching is popular, and He has no hesitation in using the conception of ‘reward in heaven’ as a stimulus to zeal (e.g. Matthew 5:12; Matthew 6:20). Reward on carth is also found among His promises, if apparently with a touch of irony (cf. Mark 10:30). Yet we cannot conceal from ourselves that reward, like the cognate conception of merit, belongs to a secondary order of moral categories. ‘Merit lives from man to man, and not from man, O Lord, to thee.’ In public life the bad citizen is punished, while the good citizen’s reward is—life as a citizen! Literal ‘rewards’ are for the nursery or primary school. There is perhaps more of morality in ‘punishment.’ Moral protoplasm—potential goodness—may exist in the much decried fear of hell oftener than in the hope of heaven. Punishment emphasizes guilt, calls for repentance, and may prove the door to a new life; reward implies righteousness, and the thought of it may tend to self-righteousness. (In order to shut this out, or for some other reason, the ‘righteous’ (Matthew 25:37-39) are unconscious of their claim to reward). ‘Other—worldliness’ is a much rarer vice than worldliness, the allurement of such distant prizes being faint and cold. Yet a fanatical greed for the future life is not impossible.
3. In Christ’s teaching there is comparatively little which carries us beyond the thought of reward. Most noticeable is Luke 17:10 ‘We are unprofitable servants,’ or, according to Wellhausen’s fine conjecture, ‘We are servants! we have done that which it was our duty to do.’ Also there is an approach to the Panline standpoint in the flavour of irony with which our Lord describes ‘the righteous’ in contrast to sinners. He ‘came not to call’ them (Matthew 9:13 ||). ‘There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons which need no repentance’ (Luke 15:7; Luke 15:10; Luke 15:32). Luke 7:47 has the clearest trace of irony. ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; [you can see that it is so] for she’ showed such signs of love. ‘But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.’ Again, the call to self-sacrifice (Matthew 16:24 ||) shuts out any vulgar conception of reward, though, in point of form, the acceptance of earthly suffering does not cancel heavenly reward.
4. We must recognize, then, that hope of reward is a legitimate motive. It bears the highest imprimatur; and it keeps a place in the general Christian scheme, even as unfolded by that Apostle who might seem most opposed to it on principle. We need not think to do without it, even while we pass on to higher motives and fuller conceptions of duty. Christian labour and sacrifice are never in vain. The struggle ‘availeth’ (A. H. Clough’s Poems, ‘Say not the struggle’). See also art. Retribution.
Literature.—Studies of the teaching of Christ—Ecce Homo (close of ch. xi.), Wendt, Horton; Huntington, Chr. Believing and Living, 209; Expositor, ii. 1. [1881] 401; Briggs, Ethical Teaching of Jesus (1904), 206, 240; Manning, Serm. (1844) 159; Cox, Expositions, i. (1885) 68; R. Vaughan, Stones from the Quarry (1890), 136; Liddon, Serm. on Some Words of Christ (1892), 19.
Robert Mackintosh.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Reward (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/reward-2.html. 1906-1918.
