How God Will Give His Rewards and the Criteria He Will Use (Part 3)

Shalom. This is part three of a series of articles explaining the criteria God will use to reward His people and how He will welcome them into His kingdom. If you missed the earlier parts, please message me, and I’ll send you summaries.

3) The Bible shows that some people will enter God’s kingdom without even realizing why.

It’s remarkable that there’s a group of people who will be granted the grace to enter the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, without fully understanding the reason until Christ Himself reveals it on that day.

We read about this group in the following passage:

Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV):
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

This group represents Christ’s servants here on earth who did not realize that by serving others, they were serving Christ Himself. This passage isn’t about the poor or orphans in general, but about the saints those devoted to serving God who endured hardship like lack of food, clothing, illness, and homelessness. Some saw and helped these servants, unaware that in doing so, they were serving Christ.

On that day, these faithful servants will stand before Christ, and He will graciously grant them entry into His kingdom. This is similar to the example of the dishonest manager in Luke 16:1-12.

The Apostle Paul also prayed for mercy on behalf of a brother named Onesiphorus, recognizing how faithfully he cared for and supported him during his ministry:

2 Timothy 1:16-18 (ESV):
“May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains,
but when he arrived in Rome he searched hard for me until he found me.
May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.”

Similarly, there are those who see people seeking God as a burden. They mock, insult, and even drive them away. When these seekers ask for water, they are labeled lazy. True servants of God can be a nuisance to such people and on the final day, Christ will reject them.

What does this teach us? When we say we love Christ, we must also love those who love Him. If you hate the saints, how can you truly love Christ? There are people Christ will welcome because they showed love and kindness to His followers. And there are those He will reject because they refused to welcome Him in the form of others.

Shalom.

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