Among the Kamba people of East Africa there persists an
ancient legend. The story goes that the people of that region long
ago were very embittered by death's merciless destruction. They
sent messengers to all countries of the world to seek a place where
death did not reign so they could all move there. The messengers
traveled over the face of the earth for years wondering from country
to country. Finally they returned with the tragic report. "We must
stay here and die as our fathers died, for a kingdom where death is
not master does not exist in all the world."
All people have longed to find a kingdom where death is
excluded, and this has led to the belief in the immortality of the soul.
Men have an inherent conviction that somewhere there is a kingdom
where death is no more, and since it has not been found on earth,
they believe it is in a land beyond the grave. The fact that this
longing for such a kingdom is universal demonstrates that man
recognizes death to be an intruder into the universe. It does not
belong, and life will never be fully as God intended it to be until
death itself is dead.
The Bible clearly reveals that such a kingdom is the goal in God's
plan when the last enemy is destroyed, which is death. Before
immortality was brought to light in Jesus Christ there were many
who, by means of reason, came to the same conclusion that would be
given by revelation. Socrates over 300 years before Christ said, "If
this be a dream, let me dream on, and awake to disappointment
rather than suffer from the haunting fear that death ends all! But
this is no dream, since there is no appetite without provision made
for supplying it, how then, will you explain this thirst of mine, unless
there be water somewhere to quench it." He was right, and water
does exist in Jesus Christ, and if we drink of this water of life we
shall never thirst again.
Cicero a hundred years before Christ said, "I am well convinced
then, that my dear departed friends are so far from having ceased to
live that the state they now enjoy can alone with propriety be called
life." We cannot say if this was true for his friends, but he was right
in his conviction that such an abundant life is possible beyond the
grave. Until modern times men have made heaven a major concern,
and they have sought to understand, by means of reason and
revelation, all they can about this kingdom where death does not
reign. This is not longer a pursuit of the majority of men.
Lewis Whittemore in his study of immortality says, "Modern
man is, for the most part, concerned with neither the hope nor the
fear of immortality." People often say little is heard about the
flames of hell from the modern pulpit, but they seldom complain
that the joys and rewards of heaven are not expounded. It is not
only hell, but heaven also that is neglected in our day, and this is due
to the powerful influence of secularism and materialism that keeps
us nearsighted with our focus limited to the here and now. We are
unaware that our greatest enemies are those who rob us of the vision
of heaven.
The hell deniers are not bosom friends, but they are not the foes
to be feared. Those who attack hell and seek to eliminate it often do
so just because they believe in heaven. The universalist wants
everyone in heaven, and the annihilationist wants heaven to be the
only kingdom of eternal existence. We disagree with these hell
opposers, but we can recognize they are friends of heaven. It is the
foes of heaven that are the real danger. The attack on heaven came
in full force during the French Revolution when atheism went wild,
and was determined to destroy God, and topple the monarchy of
heaven.
Communism picked up the challenge and labored also for the
overthrow of heaven. Heaven has got to go if men are to give their
all to the state on earth. Marx wrote, "The people cannot be really
happy until it has been deprived of illusory happiness by the
abolition of religion.....Thus it is the mission of history, after the
other-worldly truth has disappeared, to establish the truth of this
world." Lenin wrote, "Religion teaches those who toil in poverty all
their lives to be resigned and patient in this world, and consoles
them with the hope of reward in heaven. As for those who live upon
the labors of others, religion teaches them to be charitable in earthly
life, thus providing a cheap justification for their whole exploiting
existence and selling them at a reasonable price tickets to heavenly
bliss." The tragic truth is that the teaching of heaven has been
perverted in the past to justify evil in the present.
If we examine Peter's appeal to Christians to consider their
eternal reward, we see that the purpose of it is that our life here on
earth might be more effective and fruitful. Peter does not say that
we are not to worry if we are living a weak and fruitless life now,
because it will all be made up to us in heaven. He does not say that
we can be idle and indifferent to the needs of others on earth,
because it doesn't count. On the contrary, he says just the opposite.
He says we are to fight every evil with courage, and grow in all the
virtues that will enable us to build on the solid rock, and bring forth
a garden of much fruit. Our love is to be universal, and we are to
give the world everything we've got, just as Jesus did, for as we sow
so shall we reap.
The hope of eternal reward is that which is to motivate us to
make the most of this life, and not a drug to make it bearable.
Understood properly, those with eternities values in view will do
more to enrich this earth than the heaven despisers ever will. The
Christian, because of his vision and hope of eternity, introduces the
higher values into society, which are the eternal values of love and
fellowship with God. He does not despise the values of materialism,
but enjoys them to the full. He recognized, however, that a man's
life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, and that
man cannot live by bread alone. So he does not allow the values of
materialism to dominate his life, but uses them as a means to gain
the higher values which Peter has listed here.
It is the reward of heaven, however, that motivates us to add
these values to life, and to apply them so that we bare fruit, and
become profitable servants of Christ. George Herbert said, "Service
without reward is punishment." God has so made us that we
demand a reward for service, and He would not deprive us of it. He
appeals to that innate desire. Jesus said we would have to suffer and
be persecuted to follow Him, but we are to rejoice and be exceeding
glad for great is our reward in heaven. The communists knew that
there had to be a reward to motivate service for the state, and so
they held out their utopia. They just reduced the reward idea from
heaven to earth, but they knew they could not eliminate it, for as the
poet said, "Who would run, that's moderately wise, a certain danger
for a doubtful prize."
The emphasis of Peter on the abundant or rich entrance into the
eternal kingdom indicates degrees of reward for Christians, which
will very according to the degree of their obedience in adding these
virtues to their lives. In other words, not only the fruitfulness of
time, the rewards of eternity, depend upon what we do with these
virtues. The Speaker's Bible put it, "Every believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ will get an entrance into the eternal kingdom, but every
believer will not get an abundant entrance. Many a ship gets into
port which does not enter under full sail, canvas filled with favoring
breezes, top-most flag unfurled, and music playing. Many a vessel
enters harbors dismasted and almost sinking."
Scripture makes it clear that some will be saved as by fire, but all
their works will be burned up because they are made of wood, hay,
and stubble. Numerous verses tell us we shall all be judged and
rewarded according to our works. We are not saved, but rewarded
according to what we have done in the body. The Bible does not
anywhere encourage us to believe that what we do here does not
matter. On the contrary, everything we do, and the quality of it,
determines our eternal reward. Do a slipshod job in anything, and
you just pile up rubbish for the fires of judgment. Do it well, and
you add another jewel to the crown of eternal life.
Riches can be acquired by gift, by inheritance, and by the fruit of
labor. Salvation is ours as a gift of God, which we receive by faith.
The eternal kingdom, and many of its blessings, are ours because we
are joint heirs with Christ, but the riches of which Peter speaks are
the rewards of our labor in serving Christ and becoming Christlike.
This abundant entrance is conditioned upon our adding these
virtues to our lives. If we add for God, He will multiply to us. If we
serve Him, He will serve us better. God will never be out done in
grace. He is not like the king Nicephorus wrote about who was
going on a barge when his crown fell in the water. A barge man
leaped in after it. Taking it up he put it on his head and swam to the
barge. The king gave him a talent for saving it, but then cut his
head off for wearing it.
Jesus offers the fruitful servant a place on His throne and a
crown. Jesus said in Rev. 2:10, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I
will give you a crown of life." Paul said in II Tim. 4:7-8, "I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness..." In
James 1:12 we read, "Blessed is the man who endureth temptation
for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
has promised to them that love him." In every case we see that the
best of heaven is conditioned upon our doing our best on earth.
Salvation is a gift, but the abundant entrance into the eternal
kingdom is a reward for a job well done.
Dennis McCartly wrote,
He who does God's work will get God's pay,
However long may seem the day, However weary be the way.
Though powers and princes thunder, nay.
No human hand God's hand can stay;
Who does His work will get his pay.
He does not pay as others pay,
In gold or land or raiment gay,
In goods that perish and decay.
But God's high wisdom knows a way,
And that is sure, let come what may.
Who does God's work will get God's pay.
This being so, I trust that we will all be wise enough to keep
rereading this passage, and seek to be adding these virtues to our
lives. What we do with these virtues from now until we die will
determine the degree of our eternal reward.
