Rewards: Part 2

Why Degrees of Reward Makes Sense (Be sure to read Rewards: Part 1 below)
Degrees of rewards just makes sense. If nothing else, diversity makes this necessary. Let’s say you are part of a building project. Only this project is very unique, because the people carrying it out are totally free from selfishness and sin. The planning, designing, and building is all done by individuals whose concerns and passions are only for Jesus and for his people. So how does a group of perfect people build a building? Perhaps you’re thinking the process would be totally democratic. No need for leadership, authority, organization, etc. After all, aren’t those things only necessary for people who want their own way or tend to be lazy and unproductive. None of that exists with this group. Everybody gets along perfectly and wants what is best for each other.

However, maybe our inclination toward democracy is more due to our Western mindset than it is to necessity. Democracy would work better in a perfect world, but so would a dictatorship or a monarchy. When it comes to human beings, even perfect human beings, leadership and organization will always be necessary. And the reason is diversity. All are not equally gifted at construction or architecture or creativity. Some like to construct a building, others prefer building visions, and still others like to take the vision of the leaders, combine them with skills of the builders, and organize an efficient team.

But let’s take this a step further. Suppose you have half dozen people on the design team. Each has his own vision of the structure and proposes it. Who decides which design is to be implemented? Surely the team will talk and probably combine ideas, but who decides which ideas are used and not used? Who moves the conversation along? And once the design is ready, how do the workers get organized? The biblical vision of our eternal home is billions of people from dramatically diverse cultures and backgrounds building, cultivating, and creating for Jesus and each other. Even in a perfect world, you can’t have those dynamics and not have leadership, authority, and organization. The alternative is that everybody thinks the same way, has the same ideas, and have the same abilities. Does that sound like eternal bliss or eternal torture? One of the reasons the popular idea of heaven is so repulsive is that life in a monochrome world sounds suicidally mundane. But the biblical picture isn't less diversity in eternity but more. Not only will we be from different cultures, nations, and territories, but we will be from different periods of history. Ancient Romans with medieval Britons with 21st century Brazilians and so on. Diversity of people means diversity of station. And it seems to me that our station in the new creation is in some measure determined by our works in this present world.

There's more to come.