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In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. The World English Bible translates the passage as: so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
As with most terms of the covenant between God and Israel, there are consequences for disobedience as well as rewards for obedience: Just as the reward for honouring father and mother is very great, the punishment for transgressing it is very great. And the one who afflicts his parents causes the shechinah [presence of God] to separate from him ...
The imputation of Christ's active obedience is a doctrine within Lutheran and Reformed theology. It is based on the idea that God's righteousness demands perfect obedience to his law. By his active obedience, Christ has "made available a perfect righteousness by keeping the law that is imputed or reckoned to those who put their trust in him."
Christian obedience is a free choice to surrender one's will to God, [6] and an act of homage. [3]Amongst the moral virtues obedience enjoys a primacy of honour. The reason is that the greater or lesser excellence of a moral virtue is determined by the greater or lesser value of the object which it qualifies one to put aside in order to give oneself to God.
In Catholic theology, merit is a property of a good work which entitles the doer to receive a reward: it is a salutary act (i.e., "Human action that is performed under the influence of grace and that positively leads a person to a heavenly destiny") [4] to which God, in whose service the work is done, in consequence of his infallible promise may give a reward (prœmium, merces).
In Anglicanism, the Articles of the Church of England, revised and altered by the Assembly of Divines, at Westminster, in the year 1643 state that "no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral. By the moral law, we understand all the Ten Commandments taken in their full extent."
You will miss out on God's much more important reward. Barclay notes that this verse is another mention of the reward motive in Matthew. [ 10 ] While many theologians disagree, William Barclay reasons that this verse is overtly stating that while goodness for secular rewards is wrong, goodness in pursuit of heavenly rewards is perfectly acceptable.
Congruent merit is the equivalent of condign merit but applied to an unregenerated person by the goodness of God. In the first case, God has obligated himself, by his promises to reward His Son's merits in his children. In the second case, God bestows his merit to those who seek him in faith not from obligation but from mercy and love.