I think what Jesus taught us is

[cilla4progress]

it doesn't pay to be a good person.

[Skittles]

1. I'm a good person simply because it is the right thing to do

not because I expect some kind of reward in the end

[Bmoboy]

2. Who pays me to be good?

I have an invoice right here.

[Ocelot II]

3. It's not supposed to pay. We are meant to be good without being paid.

If you insist on being paid for being good, you're not truly good.

[cilla4progress]

4. Ok, I'll say it a different way.

There is no such thing as karma.

[Ocelot II]

5. That could be. It seems that bad people get away with a lot of shit.

I think that's why the medieval concept of Hell came into being - so there could be some sense of justice. Bad people were getting away with a lot of shit, so it was comforting to imagine that they'll pay for their sins in the afterlife, and the punishment would correspond to the gravity of the sins. In Dante's version, the nine circles of Hell, in descending order, are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Treachery gets you a frozen lake.

Unfortunately, I think bad people just get away with shit too often, with no post-mortem repercussions.

[cilla4progress]

6. Thanks for the affirmation, Ocelot II

We (and our beloveds, be they whom- or whatever) are our own reward.