Love And Reward

Si enim diligitis eos qui vos diligunt, quam mercedem habebitis? Nonne et publicani hoc faciunt? Ubi ostendit, quamvis nostris temporibus vix aliquis perfecte diligentes se diligat, quod non multa justitia sit, si eos, juxta legis decreta, tantum diligimus qui nos diligunt. Ideo dicit: Quam mercedem habebitis? Ac si respondeat, nullam. Non quod aliquam exinde non habeant mercedem, profecto quia dilectio qua diligitur ab alio quem diligit, jam merces dilectionis est. Sed quia pro talibus merces illa quae in coelis copiosa promittitur, non datur, idcirco quasi nulla dicitur. Quia, etsi merces esse potest, apud Deum tamen nulla est, propterea recte nec merces vocatur; merces autem filiorum, sola adoptio creditur. Unde, si quis eam desiderat adipisci, exempla adoptionis teneat. Alioquin quid plus publicanis affert vestra dilectio? Nonne et ipsi diligentes se diligunt? Publicani autem erant exactores Romanorum, quos Judaei sic appellabant, quia de repubilca curam gerebant. Sectabantur autem lucra, exigebant vectigalia; negotiationes quoque, fraudes ac furta, et scelerata perjuria exercebant; quorum dilectioni ad invicem legalis dilectio comparata, nihil videtur habere meriti, quod non ex officio debitae charitatis venit, sed ex recompensatione lucri. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Lib II, Cap V Source: Migne PL 120.265b-d

If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Is it not that even the tax collectors do this? 1 Where He shows, although in our times there is scarely anyone who truly loves the lovers of himself, that there is little righteousness if we love, according to the decree of the Law, only those who love us. Therefore He says: 'What reward will you have?' As if He would answer: 'None.' Not that from it they will not have some reward, because without doubt the love with which someone is loved by another whom he loves is now the reward of love. But since it is because of such a thing that the copious reward which is promised in heaven is not given, so it is spoken of as being 'nothing'. Because even if there is a reward, yet to God it is nothing, and therefore it is rightly not called a reward, for the reward of sons is deemed only to be adoption. Whence, if someone desires to obtain that, he holds to the examples of adoption. Besides, what does your love have more than the tax collectors have? Do they not love those who love them? The tax collectors of the Romans were called 'publicani' by the Jews because they had care for public matters. They pursued money, exacting taxes, and even exerted themselves in deceitful and fraudulent practices and criminal perjury, and the love according to the Law being compared to theirs seems to have no merit, because it comes not from the wanted duty of charity, but according to the reward of wealth. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 2 Chap 5 1 Mt 5.46