Our last post on individual rewards leads to the question of how God will reward believers. Since he is going to reward us what will the rewards be? Scripture gives few details, but we have at least one clue from Jesus’ parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27) that Jesus told when some thought the appearance of the kingdom was imminent. A ruler gave some money (a mina) to some of his servants and instructed them to put the money to work while he was gone. When he returned he heard the report:
“The first one came and
said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
“‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been
trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
“The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
“His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ (Luke 19:16-19, NIV)
Thus, it appears that one of the individual rewards will be some type of greater responsibility than other believers over God’s creation. For eternity. Imagine the joy of God assigning us stewardship over part of his creation and allowing us to use our creativity and wisdom to be fruitful in new ways. The fact that cities are the subject of the reward in the parable may indicate that some believers will have more opportunities to develop harmonious communities that glorify God. This would be a fulfillment of God’s callings to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 to be fruitful and fill the earth.
Thus, the effort we make to follow Jesus now (which usually involves edifying others) is valuable to God and he is going to give tremendous rewards for our effort. We fight the good fight because this age is coming to an end. In other words, the issue is whether we are actually becoming like our Master and loving the world the way he did; if we do then we will have a greater share in his inheritance from the Father. And what compares to Jesus’ inheritance?
Also, notice that the first servant was faithful in a “very small matter” yet received the greatest reward which is encouraging to those of us who have little responsibility in this life. God is interested in how well we maximize what we have; the reward for this will be greatly disproportionate! (See also Luke 16:9-10.) “The last shall be first” (Matt. 20:16, NIV). “Our faithfulness over a “few things” in this present life develops the kind of character that can be entrusted with “many things.”[1]
Next in the series: the ultimate reward.
[1] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), 378.
