Mercenary Rewards

One of the concepts that C.S. Lewis used regularly as a literary device was that of Mercenary Rewards.

The mercenary, for Lewis, was the perfect symbol of someone who doesn’t act for true love or desire for the thing itself, but for the reward he receives – much like mercenaries don’t care about the cause of a war, only the spoils.

One of the problems with how we tend to approach God is that we often embody the mercenary. Instead of realizing that God himself is our salvation, we ask for stuff we believe will save us. Instead of realizing that He is what we desire, we seek spoils.

“A joy there is that is not granted to the godless,” prays St. Augustine in his Confessions, “but to those only who worship you without looking for reward, because you yourself are their joy.” He adds, “This is the happy life, and this alone: to rejoice in you, about you and because of you. This is the life of happiness, and it is not to be found anywhere else.”

When we seek mercenary rewards from God, it betrays our nationality, our hypocrisy and our theology.

When we love God truly, we will, as scripture exhorts, delight ourselves in the Lord and rejoice in the Lord – not as mercenaries, but with undivided hearts.

Which do you desire more, God or what God can give? 

1 thought on “Mercenary Rewards”

  1. This is can be a struggle for Christians who are achievement-minded, myself included. I’ve found that the ideal scenario is that you’re motivated to achieve because of everything God has blessed you with, i.e. gratitude. The problem that we run into, particularly those of us in wealthy countries, is that we get distracted and our motivation to achieve becomes targeted to material things, others’ opinions of us, etc. When that happens, those who know the Lord start to expect Him to reward us with what we want instead of what He wants. Personally I think that looking to God to provide the things that He wants for us goes hand in hand with “delighting ourselves in the Lord.”

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