Love’s Motive and Reward
An essential element in Christian love is unselfishness. 'when we give no thought to personal reward, when we do good things for people simply because we want to help them and honor our Lord, that's when we demonstrate Christlike love.
Christian philanthropist Fred Smith tells how his daughter Brenda her husband befriended Rick befriended an ex-convict and the woman with whom he was living with. Rick gave the man a job. His wife Brenda spent time with the woman, bought things for her, and witnessed to her about Christ.
Together they convinced the couple that the right thing to do would be to get married. They asked a minister to perform the ceremony and offered to open their home for the occasion. But a few days later, Rick found a note from the man saying that they were leaving town to get away from a hired assassin. Later, Mr. Smith asked his daughter how she felt about spending to much time, energy, and money on these people, only to have the relationship end so suddenly. Tears welled up in her eyes, "Now matter where they are or how long they live," she said, "they'll always know that somebody cared." Brenda and Rick had loved unselfishly, and for them that was reward enough.
Although it's easy to fall into the trap of giving just so we can receive something in return, that kind of loving does not honor God. Yet there is an encouraging paradox in showing Christian love. When we do good deeds with a selfish motive, we actually lay up heavenly rewards.
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