For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Ver. 46. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have you?] The Greek and Latin word (say the Rhemists) signifieth very wages or hire due for work; and so presupposeth a meritorious deed. But what will they say to St Luke, who calleth that χαρις, or grace, which St Matthew here called μισθος, a reward? It is a reward, but of mere grace, see Rom 4:4 that God will give to them that love their enemies. a "If thine enemy be hungry, feed him, &c. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee," saith Solomon, Proverbs 25:21,22. A double encouragement, and all little enough. 1. Thou shalt heap coals on his head; those coals are (as Austin interprets it) urentes poenitentiae gemitus, the scorching sighs of true repentance: q.d. thou shalt melt these Beza in Matt. vi. hardest metals (as many of the martyrs did their persecutors), thou shalt meeken their rancour, overcome their malice, cause them to turn short again upon themselves and upon sight of their sin, shame themselves, and justify thee, as Saul did David. 2. "The Lord shall reward thee" (and all his retributions are more than bountiful), yet not of merit (for what proportion between the work and wages? but first of mercy; -reward and mercy are joined together in the second commandment and Psalms 62:12; secondly, of promise, for our encouragement), since our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Briefly, it is called a reward, not properly, but by similitude, because it is given after the work done. Next, it is a reward, not legal, but evangelical; promised in mercy, and in like mercy performed. Whence it is also called the "reward of inheritance," Colossians 3:24. Now an inheritance is not merited, but freely descendeth on sons, because they are sons. Let no man say, with profane Esau, What is this birthright to me? or with the prodigal in the gospel, Give me here the portion that belongeth unto me (such are those that love their friends only, here they have love for love, and that is all they are to look for); but look up to the recompense of reward, with Moses: and answer as Naboth, God forbid that I should so far gratify the devil and mine own evil heart, as to part with my patrimony, my hope of reward, for a little revenge, or whatsoever coin bearing Satan's superscription.
a Praemium, sed gratuitum.