If you are a follower of Jesus, what is your motivation for doing so? To hear many people talk, salvation (i.e., being part of God’s family, rather than remaining apart from Him because of our wrong choices) is a big part of it, and that’s certainly one aspect of what Jesus offers. To others, there are altruistic reasons, appreciating that God is sovereign, and that He is worthy of our honor and our service. That is also true.
Is there more, though?
Some may not like to talk about “rewards” in the kingdom of God, but the Bible talks about receiving something (“what is due us”, in the NIV translation; “compensation” in the NASB) based on what we did while in these bodies.
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 NIV
So, what do we do with this message?
- We could try to make it really general, and say that this “compensation” [NASB] is just getting to spend eternity with God (although then I suppose that we would have to explain how any works that we do could ever earn us our salvation, when Jesus paid for all of that).
- We could look at this as the reward of bringing other people to Jesus, so that we can enjoy eternity with them in God’s presence. I think that will be joyful, indeed.
- We could say that it doesn’t matter because we’ll all cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus, like the elders mentioned in Revelation 4:9-11.
However, I’d like to look at verse 9 from 2 Corinthians 5 again, and ask a few questions. What would it look like if (or since, if you’re already there) our work for God was all about pleasing Him? What if everything we did was to make Him happy with us? Of course, He already loves us, and that includes when we make mistakes. However, if we truly love Him, and we trust that He knows better than us, and we believe that His guidance is the best possible path, and we acknowledge that we’d still be lost without His grace, shouldn’t we seek to give freely of our redeemed lives to Him?
In fact, this decision to do what is pleasing to God supersedes Paul’s preference to be at home with the Lord, although his opportunity to honor God apparently won’t stop, even when Paul receives a new body. (ref. Baker, p.216-217)
Let me ask you this: What if, having accepted salvation in Jesus, your only additional rewards on judgment day (beyond living forever with God) were limited to God saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (see Matthew 25:19-23)? Would that be enough? I think that it would be. If we love and trust God so much that we are fully committed to pleasing Him, perhaps the debate on whether or not we will get “extra stars in our crown” doesn’t matter that much.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 19, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, May 19, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 2 Corinthians, by William R. Baker. © 1999 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 