Jesus commanded, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:20), and He promised to return with “My reward…to give to every one according to his work” (Rev 22:12). You can find the topic of eternal rewards written across Scripture, with promises of riches, wealth, mansions, and authority in the life to come.

Shouldn’t you desire those rewards?

Some people hesitate at the idea of being motivated by gaining heavenly treasure. To them, that seems too, well, selfish. And Christians shouldn’t be selfish, right?

But who came up with the idea that it’s immoral to seek God’s rewards? Surely, not God Himself! Jesus presented the possibility of gaining heavenly treasure as eminently desirable. You should want those rewards for your own good. Shouldn’t that motivate you? C. S. Lewis thought so:

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly do hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing. I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased (Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”).

The problem for Christian discipleship is not that you act out of motivations, but that you’re motivated by lesser things, e.g., by the “mud pies” of life, instead of by greater things such as eternal rewards. And if that’s the case, your problem isn’t selfishness but being too easily pleased.

If you’re more motivated by the worldly things at hand than by the eternal things held out in His hand, instead of being too strong, your desires are too weak.