528
REWARD
RIGHT
dvTeXoLdupei). And the author of Hebrews suggests that the best preservative against hasty reprisals and a violent temper is a contemplation of the patient silence of Jesus. 'For consider iiim that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds' (He 12=*). See also Rkproach.
J. C. Lambert. REWARD.— 1. The NT word for this is fitaeos, which appears in its more literal sense as ' hire ' (Mt 20^, Lk 10' ) or ' wages ' ( Jn 4^*^). Besides fMados, St. Paul twice uses dfTL/Mcrdla (Ro 1"-^, 2 Co 6'^) ; while Ep. to Heb. uses fMiadaTrodoaia (2" 10^^ 1 P"). RV prefers, in passages where the Greek has a verb, — d-rrodidufMi, cf . /xiffdairodoaia, — the colourless rendering 'recompense' (Mt 6^-^^). It might be questioned whether, in the 17th cent., the Eng. word ' reward' had so definitely as now the .sense of a favourable or de-sirable retribution. Or is there a touch of conscious paradox in the tr. ' reward evil for good' (Ps 35^2), But see Ps 7^ He 2^. On the other hand. Hooker (Eccles. Polity, Books i.-iv., 1592 or 1594) already employs the expression ' re- Avards and punishments,' which stamps a favour- able sense ujjon the ' rewards ' ; cf. also —
' A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards Hast ta'en with equal thsin^s.'— Hamlet, iii. ii. 71.
At Lk 23^1 'due reward of our deeds,' AV and RV, stands for a periphrasis in the Greek.
2. Christ's teaching is popular, and He has no hesitation in using the conception of ' reward in heaven ' as a stimulus to zeal {e.g. Mt 5'^ 6^"). Reward on earth is also found among His prom- ises, if apparently with a touch of irony (cf. Mk 10^"). Yet we cannot conceal from ourselves that reward, like the cognate conception of merit, be- longs to a secondary order of moral categories. ' Merit lives from man to man, and not from man, O Lord, to thee.' In public life the bad citizen is punished, while the good citizen's reward is — life as a citizen ! Literal ' rewards ' are for the nursery or primary school. There is perhaps more of morality in 'punishment.' Moral protoplasm — potential goodness — may exist in the much decried fear of hell oftener than in the hope of heaven. Punishment emphasizes guilt, calls for repentance, and may prove the door to a new life ; reward im- plies righteousness, and the thought of it may tend to sc//-righteousness. (In order to shut this out, or for some other reason, the 'righteous' (Mt 2537-39J a^j.g unconscious of their claim to reward). ' Other - worldliness ' is a much rarer vice than worldliness, the allurement of such distant prizes being faint and cold. Yet a fanatical greed for the future life is not impossible.
3. In Christ's teaching there is comparatively little which carries us beyond the thought of re- ward. Most noticeable is Lk 17'" ' We are unpro- fitable servants,' or, according to Wellhausen's fine conjecture, 'We are servants ! we have done that which it was our duty to do.' Also there is an approach to the Pauline standpoint in the flavour of irony with which our Lord describes ' the right- eous ' in contrast to sinners. He ' came not to call ' tliem (Mt 91=* ||). ' There shall be joy in heaven oyer one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons which need no repentance ' (Lk 15^- ('»• »2)). Lk 1'" has the clearest trace of irony. ' Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ; [you can see that it is so] for she ' showed such signs of love. ' But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.' Again, the call to self-sacrifice (Mt IG^^ ||) shuts out any vulgar conception of reward, though, in point of form, the acceptance of earthly suffering does not cancel heavenly reward.
4. We must recognize, then, that hope of reward is a legitimate motive. It bears the highest im-
primatur ; and it keeps a place in the general Christian scheme, even as unfolded by that Apostle who might seem most opposed to it on principle. We need not think to do without it, even while we pass on to higher motives and fuller conceptions of duty. Christian labour and sacrifice are never in vain. The struggle 'availeth' (A. H. Clough's Poems, ' Say not the struggle '). See also art. Retribution.
LiTERATi'RE. — Studies of the teaching of Christ — Ecce Homo (close of oh. xi.), Wendt, Horton ; Huntington, Chr. Believing and Living, 209 ; Expositor, ii. i. [18S1] 401 ; Briggs, Ethical Teaching of Jesus (1904), 206, 240 ; Manning, Senn. (1844) 159 ; Cox, Expositions, i. (1885) 68 ; R. Vaughan, Stones from the Quarry (1890), 136 ; Liddon, Serm. on Some Words of Christ
(1892), 19. Robert Mackintosh.
RHESA. — A link in our Lord's genealogy (Lk 32^).
RICHES.— See WEALTH.
RIGHT.— In the AV the word 'right' is the equivalent of two distinct Greek words, Skatos, 'righteous' (Mt 20^- ^ Lk 12"), and 6pe!h%, 'cor- rectly ' (Lk 7^3 1028 2021). The Eng. word is etymo- logically associated with Lat. rectus (from regere, ' to rule ' ; cf . ' direct ' and cognates). It implies that which is straight, according to ride. In the Gospels the idea of 'right,' as distinct from the word, runs through the whole of our Lord's revela- tion of God. His teaching is at once a demand for that which is right and the source of all instruction about it.