12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:12-14)
Jesus told the host who invited him: When you host a meal, do not invite your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors, because they may invite you back and you will be repaid. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; they cannot repay you, but the Lord will repay you at the resurrection of the righteous. The main idea here is not to receive the repayment from others, then the Lord will repay you in the future!
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:2-4)
This passage is about the motivation for doing good is not to to be honored by others, it does not mean that you cannot do good deeds in front of others. It means that the motivation is not to be honored by others. If the motivation is to be honored by others, a reward has already been received; if the motivation is not to be honored by others, the Heavenly Father will reward you.
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (Matthew 10:42)
Here, Jesus speaks of giving a cup of cold water to the least of his disciples, and even that would be rewarded by the Father.
During the pandemic, we gave a gift to a brother in our church. Later, I had a dream, in the dream our late pastor gave me a gift. At first, I knew what the gift was, but later I didn’t know. The meaning of the dream is that what we do for our brothers and sisters in the church are remembered by the Lord and will be rewarded by the Lord. Thank the Lord!
May God bless you and your family!
