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Honor's Reward
By John Bevere Faithwords Copyright © 2007 John Bevere Ministries, Inc.
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-446-57883-7
Chapter One Rewards Await You
Honor. Though it is almost an extinct virtue in the twenty-first century, the concept still holds the power to move us. In movies a display of honor can inspire tears as courage and sacrifice are witnessed. Review the greatest blockbusters of all time and you'll find honor interwoven into their plots. We applaud its virtue vicariously, but where is honor in our everyday lives? The notion that it could be lived in the ordinary has become foreign to our generation.
I want to see honor restored to the sons and daughters of God. It is the essential key to receiving from God, and for this very reason the enemy of our souls has all but eliminated the true power of honor. Honor carries with it great rewards; rewards God desires you to have. Honor has the power to greatly enhance your life.
You are about to embark on a journey that will take you closer to the heart of God, the author of all that is honorable. I pray these revelatory truths will affect your life in a profound and practical way. Many have not learned these lessons until much later in life. For this reason John the apostle urgently writes,
"Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward." -2 John 8
John was an old man looking back over nearly a century of living when he penned those words (Clarke's Commentary, Abingdon Press (1977)-Accordance 6.6). He lent his hard-won insight for our benefit today. John had the acquired vantage realized by men and women who have lived long and well. It is a destination arrived at by faithfully walking in a life calling, a post of assurance and strength, something I call a Grandfather or Grandmother Anointing; and when they speak, the wise listen.
Over the past twenty-five years I've enjoyed a handful of encounters with such men and women. These are ambassadors who've worn life well and entered the stage where they look back with knowing. Such seasoned veterans develop some common attributes, three of which we will discuss here. First, they instinctively locate the heart of a matter. They don't beat around the bush, or waste time with the unimportant. Second, they say much in very few words. Third, the words they choose and utter are weighty. Their somewhat sparse communication carries a greater weight than the same words spoken by another who has not walked as well, or as long, the paths of life. After such an interlude I have found myself meditating for months on just one or two sentences uttered by these seasoned veterans.
In light of this reasoning we can assume John the apostle was saying a great deal. In fact, I've meditated on these inspired words for years, and the revelation within them continues to expand. Let's examine his admonishment a phrase at a time.
Don't Lose Your Inheritance
He begins, "Look to yourselves." John encourages each of us to take heed, examine, and watch out for ourselves. An urgency is lent to his words, for what he's about to communicate is not to be taken lightly, but thoroughly pondered.
Careful attention must be paid so we do not lose those things for which we have labored. This is a bit sobering ... we can lose what was won through labor. Imagine a farmer toiling to clear his field. He works through the heat of the day to rid the soil of boulders and stumps that would hinder the soil from producing a harvest. Once cleared, he plows and tills the ground in preparation for the planting of his seed. Once the field is planted, he labors to maintain the ideal conditions for his plantings to flourish by fertilizing, weeding, and watering his seed. The plants emerge and his labor continues as he protects the field from pestilence and damage. Then a few weeks prior to harvest he is weary and gives up. All is for naught as he loses his entire crop because of his latter neglect. Or perhaps a storm threatened, he saw the warnings but neglected to respond, and the mistake cost him the ingathering. What a waste of time, money, labor, and resources only to falter at the moment of realization.
What about a businessman who labors to build his company for years, only to lose it in the end because of a few bad decisions? Again ... tragic. In both cases the benefits of extensive labor are lost in a moment through wrong choices.
This is why Scripture repeatedly encourages us to finish well: "He who endures to the end" (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13), again, "We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end" (Heb. 3:14), and again, "He who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end" (Rev. 2:26, emphasis mine in all), and the list continues. Christianity is not a sprint but an endurance run. Therefore it is not how we start the race that counts, but how we complete it. How we finish is determined by the choices we make, and those are often formed by patterns we develop along the way.
Life-Defining Moments
There was an incident with one of our sons. He wanted to do something I wasn't in favor of. He knew where I stood yet I felt he was old enough to make the call, so the final decision was his. Time passed and I found out he chose to go against my counsel. Later we sat down to discuss his choice. I explained, "The choice was up to you, but I want to take this opportunity to teach you from this.
"There was a young king named Rehoboam. Shortly after he began his reign a question arose from his subjects: 'Your father made our lives rough from the demands he placed upon us. Would you please lighten the load and we will happily serve you.'
"The young king instructed the people to return in a few days to hear his decision. His father's counselors told him, 'If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they'll end up doing anything for you' [1 Kings 12:7, The Message].
"It was good and wise counsel, but the young king rejected their advice and went to his peers. They said, 'These people who complain, "Your father was too hard on us; lighten up"-well, tell them this: "My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven't seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I'll beat you bloody with chains!"' [vv. 10-11, The Message].
"The young king, Rehoboam, heeded his friends' advice with some tragic results. The kingdom his father Solomon built was torn, and ten out of the twelve tribes of Israel were permanently fragmented as five-sixths of the kingdom was torn from his iron fist. One bad choice cost him dearly for the rest of his life."
I then told my son, "Let's go back. Perhaps for years Prince Rehoboam and his friends spurned the counsel of his father Solomon, or his elders. Maybe they snickered over goblets of wine and shook their heads in the secrecy of the royal chambers at what they presumed to be foolish and old-fashioned advice. Vain thoughts may have cluttered Rehoboam's head: I will keep my peace while I am yet a prince, but when I become king I will not listen to these silly old men. As a prince his decisions to ignore and lightly esteem his elders' wisdom cost him very little. He did not realize the die had been set and one day he would be foolish while thinking himself wise. When his lifedefining moment arose, he lacked the pattern necessary to execute sound judgment."
I continued: "We all have life-defining moments. They are like openbook tests, but we don't know we have been examined until it is over. Son, you decided not to heed my counsel and this time it cost you nothing. But the day will come when a life-defining moment arises. If you've already developed the pattern of heeding wise counsel, you will naturally follow suit and find yourself greatly rewarded."
Moving on from my son, let's review another example. The children of Israel had not developed a pattern of heeding God's word. He delivered them from bondage, but they repeatedly complained and disobeyed. There were times this behavior seemed to exact a minimum cost, and other times when it didn't appear to affect them at all. However, in the process a pattern was being established. Eventually their life-defining moment arose. Twelve spies were sent into Canaan to check out the land, which God set apart as theirs. The spies returned with a whiny, negative report, and the whole assembly followed and began to complain as before, but this time it cost them dearly. They would never enter the Promised Land and for the rest of their lives they would wander. In a moment's time they lost all they'd labored to possess. There was no reversal of their loss. Though they could see it they would never lay hold of it, just as Rehoboam lost the ten tribes for the rest of his life and generations afterward.
There is an important lesson for the young and old in this: we don't want to merely obey God; we need to catch His heart. It is then we will glimpse the wisdom behind His directives, and not just see them as laws. The young prince Rehoboam never caught his father's or his elders' hearts. The older generation of Israelites never quite saw what God was doing or the goodness of His heart toward them, and they lost everything.
Now let's look at the other side of the coin. There are examples throughout the Scriptures where individuals glimpsed God's heart and developed wise decision-making models. When those undetected life-defining moments occurred, they responded correctly and received great rewards.
The most simple way to not lose what we've labored for is to develop patterns of consistently honoring God's counsel. Each and every day we are presented with opportunities to make choices. The day will come when we will look back and know which were in fact life-defining, but if we've developed godly patterns we'll continue to follow suit, and later realize our reward.
Rewards
This brings us to John's next point; and for ease of reference we'll review the entire verse: "Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward." Note God is a Rewarder (see Heb. 11:6). This is a truth we must establish deep within our hearts. In fact, He loves to reward. How did He introduce Himself to Abraham? "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward'" (Gen. 15:1, emphasis mine).
He said, "I am your ... exceedingly great reward." Wow, what a way to present yourself. Psalm 19:9-11 echoes this: "The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether ... in keeping them there is great reward" (AMP, emphasis mine). We read in Psalm 57:2, "I will cry to God Most High, Who performs on my behalf and rewards me [Who brings to pass His purposes for me and surely completes them]!" (AMP, emphasis mine).
God is a Rewarder and loves to reward His children! As a father of four sons I've discovered a portion of this delight. I love to see their eyes light up with gratefulness, and watch fulfillment settle upon them as they bask in the afterglow of a choice made well and rewarded. However, I've also learned it is unwise to reward bad behavior. By rewarding those who don't deserve it or have not earned it, you destroy the power of incentive; and incentive is a good thing. My boys know I love them, but over the years they've grown to understand the difference between my love and pleasure. God loves each of us deeply, and His love is perfect. However, that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be times when He's altogether pleased with our actions or choices. God rewards those He is pleased with, which are those who heed His counsel.
Notice John says, "That we may receive a full reward." While I meditated, the word full jumped off the page. I thought, If there's a full reward, then there's a partial reward, and even a no-reward scenario. (Remember, we are not talking salvation here, but rewards.) Upon further meditation I concluded there are two applications to which John is referring. The first is the Judgment Seat of Christ. Paul states:
"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).
We know immediately Paul is not addressing all humanity, for when an unbeliever is absent from the body he is not present with the Lord; rather he is in hell. This may sound harsh, but it's the truth. Jesus didn't come into our world to condemn it, quite the contrary, to save it. The world was already condemned because of Adam, who sold us over to eternal death (see John 3:17-18). Only those who receive Jesus the Christ by committing their lives completely to Him will be present with the Lord when they leave behind their earthly bodies. Paul continues to address the believers:
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
-2 Corinthians 5:9-10
Every believer will stand before Christ's Judgment Seat. On that day each of us will receive according to what we did in our short time on earth. The Today's English Version states, "We will each receive what we deserve." Our sins will not be judged, for the blood of Jesus eradicated the eternal punishment ascribed to sin. Rather, we will be rewarded, or suffer loss, for what we did as believers. Our deeds, words, thoughts, and even motives will be inspected in the light of His Word. The temporary things on which we built our lives will be devoured, which will result in loss, and the eternal will be purified into everlasting rewards (see 1 Cor. 3:14-15).
The scope of loss suffered to rewards will vary from having everything we did consumed, yet we'll be saved, but as through fire; all the way to the heights of reigning alongside Jesus Christ forever and ever (see 1 Cor. 3:15; Rev. 3:21). This is certainly a vast range. The first would be our example of a "no-reward" situation; the latter would be an example of the "full-reward" scenario, with the partial reward falling anywhere in between.
These Judgment Seat decisions are called "eternal judgments" (see Heb. 6:1-2), which means there will never be any alterations, amendments, or changes made to those decrees. Therefore, it can be concluded that what we do with the cross of Christ determines where we'll spend eternity; however, the way we live thereafter as believers determines how we'll spend it.
It is wise therefore to look diligently into what Scripture says about eternal judgments and rewards. This knowledge is described as an elementary teaching of Christ. In elementary school, your foundation is laid with all your educational building blocks, such as reading, writing, math, etc. Can you imagine trying to build your high school or college education without knowing how to read, write, add, or subtract? It would be impossible. Yet far too many believers attempt to build their Christian lives without this elementary knowledge of the teaching of Christ. The urgency of this dilemma moved me to write Driven by Eternity, which addresses this issue in detail, and I recommend it as a companion to this message.
This Life
We've established that godly patterns carry the promise of reward at the Judgment Seat, but their blessing reaches us in this life as well. We read, "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1 Tim. 4:8, emphasis mine).
Our Father desires to reward us both then and now as we heed His counsel. We are told, "The righteous will be rewarded in the earth" (Prov. 11:31, NASB). Not just in heaven, but in this life. And again, "Righteous people will be rewarded with good things" (Prov. 13:21, TEV). James is emphatic when he states, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father" (James 1:16-17).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Honor's Reward by John Bevere Copyright © 2007 by John Bevere Ministries, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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