Badminton and Spiritual Rewards
By Clint Archer
It was a sobering and humiliating punishment. While millions of onlookers watched in morbid fascination at the televised spectacle, the eight victims of the controversial verdict stood crestfallen and shell-shocked in disbelief. After the many years of effort and sacrifice, the countless hours of practice and training, the untold expense of sponsorship and support, four ladies’ doubles pairs were disqualified from the Olympic badminton finals for the crime of—wait for it—not trying hard enough.
Badminton is generally perceived as a placid sport, not known for its drama. But the brouhaha of the “shuttlecock scandal” in the London Olympics in 2012 made history with a bizarre turn of events. Two ladies’ doubles teams from China, one from South Korea, and one from Indonesia were unceremoniously disqualified for, in the words of the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, one Craig Reedie, “not using one’s best efforts to win a match.” The players had all cleared the elimination round and were apparently attempting to lose their games in the hopes of attaining a more lenient placing in the following round.
The comical self-sabotage was hard to miss. Here were the best female badminton players on the planet, not merely lagging a little in their enthusiasm, but deliberately throwing their matches with double-fault serves. They were playing with such lackluster effort that the shuttlecock, like a pathetic flightless fowl, repeatedly couldn’t muster the height to clear the net. The players made no token pretense at appearing disappointed when they lost a point. But their dastardly antics cost them all a shot at Olympic gold.
There is an unfortunate parallel in the spiritual realm. Grace by faith alone is a precious doctrine. But ever since its most popular publication (i.e. the Book of Romans), there have been professing believers who were tempted to rest on the laurels of free forgiveness instead of striving for heavenly reward. Paul addressed those who would sin under the banner of “once saved always saved” with these unambiguous words: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1–2).
The Olympic badminton verdict provides an apt parable for the poor service of many Christian lives. Our Lord was fond of these real-life snapshots of inept stewardship and its consequences. The New Testament parables are peppered with a cast of stewards who didn’t try hard enough (e.g. Luke 12:45; Matthew 25:26–27).
To be clear, let us remember that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Condemnation is the eternal death of Hell; it is the never-ending separation of unrepentant sinners from a holy God. When Jesus lived the perfect life and then offered that righteousness on the cross on behalf of those who would believe, the payment was made for every sin that would be committed by every person who trusts Jesus for salvation. So why is there a judgment for believers? The answer lies in understanding the different types of judgments.
There is the judgment of unbelievers, a time of God’s justice and wrath, based on their deeds of sin, resulting in condemnation. But then there is also a judgment of believers, a time of grace and mercy and reward, based on the deeds of Christ, which results in a reward. This judgment, or rewards ceremony, is referred to in Scripture as the Bēma seat of Christ. It is at this glorious event that believers will receive their rewards, commendation, and new functions in the kingdom. But what many Christians overlook is that this appraisal of our lives will result in varying degrees of reward, for varying degrees of faithfulness. This awesome truth may sound scary, but the more we understand of it, the more inspired we are to be faithful, and the more we will anticipate our Master’s eternal rewards.
The Master’s Degrees: Understanding Reward at Christ’s Bēma Seat
Christians understand that salvation from condemnation is an equally glorious, equally free gift of grace, for all believers, irrespective of when they repent. Our Lord taught this explicitly in the parable of the generous landowner in Matthew 20. The thief on the cross—saved for a few hours—will enjoy the same salvation from his sins and their consequences as the Apostle John who served Christ for decades. There are no degrees of forgiveness. But, does that mean our behavior, words, and motives have no bearing on our eternity whatsoever?
Consider these sample warnings, directed at believers:
“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12–15).
Note that the person who “suffers loss” due to his faulty foundation is not an unbeliever, but one who “will be saved.” Paul is talking about believers.
And,
“Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time [on other believers], before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
This passage refers to a time after the Lord comes when the motives of believers will result in the corresponding commendation from Jesus (reminiscent of the “good and faithful servant” commendation in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25).
“For we [Paul includes himself with all believers] must all appear before the judgment seat [bēma] of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [phaulon, a word meaning futile/worthless]” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Here believers are warned that they will receive what is due to them, according to their deeds in this life, whether they are good, profitable deeds or futile, worthless deeds.
“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). Peter is referring to the discipline of God in this life in the life of believers—the “household of God.”
The writer of Hebrews likewise explains, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7).
Believers are not exempt from accountability in this life or the next. Many Christians have a misconception of the day of their judgment.
- Either they fear that their sins will somehow haunt them by being flashed before them and others on some giant LED screen display; or
- Alternatively, they assume blithely that since believers are forgiven of all sins, there will be no accountability for them in the afterlife. Both views are wrong.
The Bible teaches clearly that believers will be rewarded according to the faithfulness of their stewardship of God’s gifts to them. Their words, deeds, and motives will be scrutinized and will result in eternal reward and the loss of reward. No sin will have any effect on their salvation or their perfect righteousness through Christ. But their rewards will be commensurate and in proportion to their faithfulness to the stewardship God gave them.
The judgment of believers—called the Bēma Seat judgment in 2 Corinthians 5:10—is an appraisal done in love, for the purpose of apportioning rewards. The judgment of unbelievers (called the Great White Throne judgment in Revelation 20:11) is a reckoning of wrath, for the purpose of punishing rebellion. In one, the outcome is always rewarding, in the other it is always condemnation.
Splitting Heirs: Are All Believers Equal in Heaven?
A common question is often posed: Are all believers equal in Heaven? Regrettably, I am constrained to offer the most annoying of answers: Yes and no.
Yes, in essence, and in standing before God all believers are perfectly equal in Heaven. We will be equally clothed in Christ’s righteousness. We will all be perfectly content and there will be no rivalry or comparisons. And yet, the functions and roles of believers are not identical.
Although believers are all equally saved, there is still a disparity in their roles in the afterlife. One clear example of this hierarchy of heirs is that of the apostles. In Luke 22 Jesus offers a promise of unique reward to the twelve apostles (presumably Matthias would take Judas’s position),
“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28–30).
The reward is pictured as having a function of governing (a throne), a sphere of responsibility (a kingdom), that is specific to the apostles, and not conferred on all believers. This proves at least that twelve believers will be privy to a more privileged function or role in the eternal kingdom. But are these twelve the only ones who will have a privileged position in eternity?
Suffering Saints: Can a Believer Really Lose Eternal Reward?
You may agree with the notion that some believers—at least the twelve apostles—have more prominent roles or functions in the kingdom of God, but perhaps you are not yet ready to concede that it necessarily implies that other believers lose the reward. It’s not the logic alone, however, which indicates that believers can forfeit the eternal reward. Biblical evidence demands it.
John wrote, “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward” (2 John 8). In 1 Corinthians 3:10 we are told spiritual leaders who build their ministries out of sub-standard material, will “suffer loss.” The exact meaning is not given, but I’m sure you will agree that whatever it means to “suffer loss,” it certainly cannot mean, “not suffer loss.”
Now let us be clear that there is no purgatorial punishment or chastisement in the afterlife for believers. We are immune from all condemnation because of the full price Jesus paid for our sins. The forfeiture of reward is not punishment, it is simply being apportioned the function in Heaven that correlates with one’s faithful stewardship of God’s gifts.
At his point, any good Protestant should be shifting uneasily in his or her seat. We are saved by faith not works. Salvation is a free gift of God. How can our deeds affect our afterlife is Jesus paid it all? These questions remind us to draw a clear distinction between what we do to be saved (nothing), and what we do once we are saved. Paul, in Ephesians 2:10, reminds us that we were saved not by good works, but “for good works.”
Prophets of Profit: What are the Eternal Rewards?
Crowns are traditionally synonymous with eternal rewards, but the crowns in Scripture stand for something more than glittering headgear. Crowns represent authority and position. The true reward in eternity is the position and responsibility granted to the believer. We will all serve Christ in different capacities. The family business in the kingdom of God is governing. As a co-heir of Christ, and child of God, the believer’s eternity involves ruling and reigning with Christ. This breathtaking privilege is alluded to in many passages, and even explicitly promised in a few.
Consider Paul’s off-the-cuff comment in which he chides the Corinthians for their inability to settle civil disputes from within the church. His rationale for prohibiting outside arbitration is this enigmatic statement: “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:3). Wait, what?
The word “judge” refers to ruling, governing, as in the designation given to the ad hoc rulers of Israel in the book of Judges. We believers will rule angels in the kingdom in some capacity.
Another clue that our eternal reward involves reigning is found in the parable of the minas, in Luke 19. The reward to the good steward who managed his master’s investment faithfully was increased authority:
“Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17).
Explicit references to the ruling function of believers feature prominently in the book of Revelation:
“Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4, emphasis added).
And,
“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6, emphasis added).
And,
“And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelations 22:5, emphasis added).
The rewards promised by God are frequently referred to in terms of authority. Mostly, the symbols of the rewards are pictured as crowns (2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10; 3:11) and thrones (Matthew 19:28; Rev 3:21; 4:4).
Whether we receive literal, physical crowns or not is irrelevant, the point is that functions and positions of authority accompany the reward. The physical tiara awarded to a beauty queen is not the reason she entered the competition; it is merely the symbol of her victory and the prize that comes with the position.
The Score Sheet: What are the Criteria for Eternal Reward?
In our seminary homiletics lab, preaching students would deliver a message to a hungry pack of peers. The salivating audience then had the delectable task of critiquing their victim. But the professor directed (limited) our feedback with a checklist of criteria to be aware of. We filled in a simple score out of ten for each criterion, which served to explain the grade we awarded. This prevented unhelpful, unspecific criticism, e.g. informing the preacher that his first and only sermon attempt “wasn’t your best.”
The Bēma judgment is a detailed assessment of specific criteria we are warned about in the New Testament. Deeds, words, and motives are all appraised in the Bēma seat, which affects our rewards.
Deeds
Christians rightly become a bit nervous when we hear teaching that relates deeds to rewards. The heroic saints of the Reformation toiled to clarify that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, apart from the works of the sinner.
So it is with caution that we must approach this topic. It is crucial to understand that the works believers do after salvation is in response to the grace we have received, motivated by love to God, and empowered entirely by the Holy Spirit who works out God’s will in our lives (Philippians 2:13).
But a right understanding of these post-salvation deeds helps us to recognize the effect they have on our eternal rewards.
Consider these passages, which mention reward in relation to our deeds:
“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Romans 2:6–7, emphasis added). Here one’s salvation is evidenced in commensurate deeds.
And this passage that we looked at before,
“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12–15, emphasis added).
And,
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:10, emphasis added).
And,
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done” (Revelation 22:12 emphasis added).
There is no denying that the Scriptures indicate a correlation between works and rewards. But how are these verses compatible with our understanding of grace by faith alone, apart from our deeds? The apostle Paul, champion of grace by faith alone, masterfully explains the balance for us:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10, emphasis added).
What a gracious master we serve: He saves us, equips us, supplies us with work, empowers us to accomplish it, and then still rewards us for that which we did in His strength!
Words
There is a special focus on a particular sub-category of our deeds, namely words. This is to be expected, since words are a barometer of the conditions brewing in our hearts (Luke 6:45).
Jesus lashed at the hypocritical Pharisees with righteous indignation, “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). Though the recipients of this scolding were unbelievers, the insight that words receive special attention on judgment day should be sobering.
And even believers—specifically teachers—are warned with these somber words,
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (James 3:1).
Imagine for a moment that a fastidious team of researchers was archiving every e-mail, text message, Tweet, or Facebook status update you have ever typed. Would that make you nervous? What if you discovered that a comprehensive compilation of your output—including transcripts of every conversation you’ve had and every sound you’ve mumbled under your breath—was to be printed and published in book form for the entire world to read? That would be quite a revealing and voluminous artifact, wouldn’t it?
The Bible teaches that the Judge, who is to determine your reward, is keeping track of everything you say.
Motives
God not only hears everything you say and sees everything your do, He also knows everything you think, everything you feel, and everything you mean to say! As Jesus said, “Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:3).
Paul, too, acknowledged the scrutiny of motives in the judgment:
“For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Corinthians 4:2–5, emphasis added).
Two people may do the same deed but with very different motives. Anything—even that which seems praiseworthy—done with impure motives, will be disregarded. Only that done to the glory of God will survive the judgment.
Faithfulness
God does not reward according to what you do, but rather according to what you do with what you have. No one is responsible to do more than what has been entrusted to them. As Jesus clearly warned, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48b).
As Helen Keller, the champion of the physically handicapped once said, “I long to accomplish some great and noble task, but I am to do small tasks as if they were great and noble.” Some of us are more limited than others in the scope of our ministry. But thankfully God rewards only our faithfulness to do the best with what we have.
Conclusion: Immunity is not Impunity
She never knew what hit her. The sixteen-year-old girl had recently moved with her mother to Washington D.C. where she attended school and easily made friends who would shortly attend her funeral. She was out late. Just before midnight on the fateful night of Friday, January 3, 1997, as the car she was in casually approached DuPont Circle, the sound of shrieking tires, breaking glass, and buckling steel signaled a fleeting and chilling warning that probably barely registered in her awareness before…
The smoldering, five-car wreck claimed the girl’s life and left four others seriously injured. The culprit was a drunk driver who had been bulleting through the city streets as if they were part of his own private Formula One playground. He plowed at full throttle into several cars stopped at a traffic light. He emerged unscathed and surrendered to the police with cavalier compliance, like a stroppy child who knows there will be no consequence for his naughtiness.
Sure enough, despite his obvious intoxication level and the corpse at the scene, the man was speedily released from custody. The police had no grip on this slippery character because of the license plate on his car. As it turned out, the driver was a foreigner, the deputy ambassador of his country. According to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the envoys of the 187 signatory countries enjoyed immunity from prosecution in the countries in which they were serving.
But, in a twist of satisfying justice yet, the criminal’s immunity was waived by his superiors. A year later he was sentenced to serve seven to twenty-one years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
The victim’s mother eloquently summed up the outcome, with a pithy flourish, “My daughter will not come back, but it has been worth the fight because immunity is not impunity.”
Well said indeed. Immunity from the law does not mean impunity from all consequence, even in theological terms. It is an error to assume that forgiveness of sins means there is no accountability or consequence for believers in this life or the next.
The lesson we take from the Bēma seat is that immunity from condemnation is not impunity from consequence. May God enable us all to be faithful with His gifts, to use them for His glory, and then to enjoy His gracious rewards to the degree we were obedient.
