TEXT: MATT. 5:46-47
''For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? /And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?''
Act of goodness done in return for another act of goodness, attracts no reward or attention of God, for such act is merely a pay back. Love given for love received, is not heavenly but of the earth--it is beasty and brutish; the whole human race are taken with such kind of temper. God has called the saints out of the world, and would have them to work by a different and higher principle; giving love where hate is found; friendship where enmity is shown; blessing where curses are given; and praying for those who prey on us. The believers are not called to respect natural bent: able only to do what everybody is incline to do; their calling is rather in opposition to natural workings; they must be seen doing things that attract amazement: for how shall the saints be distinguished from the children of the world but by living differently. What is special in loving those who love us? what praise there is in giving to only those from whom we could expect returns? If in any abides bent toward only those who look out for his good, but recoils from all who have nothing to give him, I make bold to tell him that he is a stranger to the life of Christ. He excites God and amazes men, who loves those that hate him; and pray for those who curse him. It is a serpentine humour that bites and fangs anything that steps on it. Let no man expect pay from God, if he lives like the natural man, one without God's Spirit.