Wingu la Mashahidi

HOW GOD WILL REWARD AND THE CRITERIA HE WILL USE (Part 1)

Praise the Lord Jesus! In this article, we will explore the criteria that God will use to distribute His rewards when we reach the other side. This will help increase our zeal in serving God—just as Apostle Paul recognized, and said:

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 3:14 (ESV)

We will go through a few passages that give us a clear picture of how God will distribute these rewards. The first criterion is found in Matthew 20:1–16:

There will be people who worked very little but will be paid the same as those who worked much.
You may ask, “Why would God do that?” Let’s go through this story, and we will find all the answers.

Matthew 20:1–16 (ESV)

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’
5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’
9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Who are these people that will be paid equally though they worked less?

When we observe this parable closely, we see that those who came last were not busy anywhere else beforehand. The owner of the vineyard found them standing idle and asked them, “Why are you standing here all day doing nothing?”
They replied: “Because no one has hired us.”
This means that had someone hired them earlier, they too would have worked just as much as the others. But no one hired them until evening.

This reveals something profound:
There are people who, up to now, have not yet encountered the grace of salvation.
Maybe age has passed them by—for instance, imagine a pagan who worships a cow. But at the age of 80, he hears the gospel for the first time and gets truly saved, and from that point on, he serves God with all his heart. Perhaps he serves faithfully for just one year, and then dies.

Or another one is reached by grace in their youth, say at 20 years old. They serve for 2 years, and then die at 22.

For such people, if they served God faithfully in that short time, don’t be surprised to see them receive the same reward in heaven as the apostles. Why?
Because the moment they received grace and their time to serve came, they had very limited time left. If they had been reached earlier, it is clear they would have served God faithfully.

But as for you—if you hear this grace today and play around with it…

Today you are with Christ, tomorrow you are with Satan—your life is not consistent. If you die in that state, don’t expect Christ to give you any reward.

If you were born in a Christian family, you know well the foundations of the faith, that without salvation you cannot go anywhere—do not expect to be equal with the pagan or unbeliever who just recently got saved and then died shortly after.