It’s my impression that not many are. But why?
Do thoughts of the Judgment Seat bring you feelings of encouragement or trepidation? It could be that we are slacking in spiritual things, spending our days playing Monopoly with our God-given resources, forgetting, as has been said, that it’s all going back in the box. If so, we can hardly expect to find encouragement in the great day of His reward.
But it seems there may be another factor contributing to this uneasiness. There is a danger that we read our own not-so-Godlike attitudes into the text when what is there is actually very different. Because we often see fear used as an incentive, we assume our Father also does this. Because we are sometimes stingy in doling out rewards, we somehow feel that “the possessor of heaven and earth” will be, as well. So let’s look at what He actually says.
The minutest acts done for Him will be rewarded: “Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward” (Mt. 10:42). Notice the series of diminutives: the recipient is a little one; the gift is a common cup of cold water (the word water is not in the text; it is a cup of any cold drink); the honor of the gift is given to a disciple, not even in His name. The word “only” is inserted, minimizing even this gift. Our Lord’s point is this: He will not overlook the smallest kindness, smile of encouragement, word of help, outstretched hand, sentence intercession, for His own. Fitting, of course, for the One who bottles our tears and numbers our hairs.
There will be some real surprises on that day: Matthew 10 also describes the following breathtaking possibility: some unknown homemaker in a small town in the Prairies has received a phonecall from a well-respected evangelist in the East; a young preacher friend is heading cross-country and he wonders if this sister would give him a place to stay overnight and perhaps breakfast in the morning. She happily agrees, saying something like, “Any friend of yours is a friend of ours.” Perhaps she offers to do his laundry, or her husband fills up the young man’s car with gas. Now at the judgment, this sister is proffered the reward of an evangelist. Some mistake? Oh, no, the Lord doesn’t make mistakes! “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward” (v. 41).
But what about the fire? We shall not suddenly be placed under Law on that day. It will be all grace, and the fire will be there for our good. We’ll wish we had done it for Him, not for self, but we will be so grateful that the fire will forever remove it from sight (1 Cor. 3:13).
No believer will be left out: Does it frighten you to read: “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5)? It might have frightened me too—if I hadn’t seen the rest of the verse: “and then shall every man have praise of God.” Do you think the Lord will scour our lives looking for failures to expose them to our fellow believers? The accounts of Old Testament saints in the NT is surely evidence that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). See those used as examples of the faithful in Hebrews 11—Samson, Jephthah, and the rest. Peter uses Lot and Sarah as good examples, too. I am greatly encouraged and can hardly wait to see what masterpieces the Lord has made of our fumbling, bumbling ways!