PT-6 “The Future: The Crown, with Which He Will Be Rewarded” (2 Timothy 4:8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2025 9:10 AM

My Worship Time    Focus: PT-6 “The Future: The Crown, with Which He Will Be Rewarded” 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Timothy 4:8

Message of the verse: “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. (4:8)

            I continue looking at the very important verse that Paul wrote to Timothy, but because it is in the Word of God it is important to everyone who reads it especially those who have come to Jesus Christ through faith, believing that His death on the cross was for them, and by accepting Him as Savior and Lord they are now a part of His family, they are saved from their sins.

            Paul here is speaking, of course, of the day of Christ’s return in particular, the day of resurrection and rapture, when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).  Now in the glorious day, “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.  But when the perishable will have put on the imperishable, and the mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor. 15:51-54).”  Now these words were also written by Paul to the Corinthians near the end of 1 Corinthians.

            John MacArthur writes:  “The apostle admonished the church in Philippi, ‘Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor run in vain nor toil in vain’ (Phil. 2:14-16, emphasis added).

            “The glorious prospect of receiving God’s crown of righteousness not only belongs to Paul but also belongs to all who have loved His appearing.  Again the apostle uses a perfect tense (have loved), indicating the accomplishment of something in the past that has continuing effects.”

            Now John says in 1 John 4:7 “Love is from God, and everyone who lives is born of God and knows God.  So conversely, he goes on to explain, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love’ (v. 8).  Love of God is so absolutely essential that “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed,” Paul writes in 1 Cor. 16:22).

            So in other words, a person who does not love God has no claim on Him, either for salvation or for rewards that will be given out in heaven during the time when the last seven years are going on, on earth which will mark the last seven years of the kind of life we are no used to, for at the end of that seven years the Lord will return with His raptured saints and shortly after that will set up His earthly kingdom which will last for 1000 years.  So every true believer who loves God and the things of God, because love is the supreme and necessary mark of salvation.  Now when people become Christians, the come to love God.  The regenerated believer is given a new heart, a new will, and a new spiritual attitude, all of which will be expressed in love, and the reason is “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). There are no exceptions.

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing the following two paragraphs:  “Likewise, all believers will love His [Christ’s] appearing, because they look forward to coming into His divine presence, where they will live and serve throughout eternity.  Because our true ‘citizenship is in haven,…we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3:20).

            Paul was not speaking from pride.  As much as any saint who has ever lived, he knew that every good thing he had and did came by the grace of God.  ‘For this purpose also I labor,’ he explained to the church at Colossae, ‘striving according to His power, which mightily works within me’ (Col. 1:29).  He was not taking credit for himself but was acknowledging that by the grace and power of God, working through the human faithfulness that the Lord requires, his life was coming to a victorious end.  On the basis of the Lord’s own promise, he expected on day soon to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matt. 25:21).”

Spiritual Meaning for My life Today:  I am thinking of what will happen soon after the rapture of the church and I know that when that event happens that first of all the dead will be the first to be raised, and then those who are alive will be raised all meeting the Lord in the air, and then He will take us to heaven and all will participate in the Judgment Seat of Christ where we will receive rewards for what we were doing while on planet earth.  After the rewards are given out we as believers will put them at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that without Him none of us would be there and none of us would have been able to do the work of the Lord while on earth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to do today what the Lord called me to do for the cause of Christ, as the Holy Spirit direct me in doing what He called me to do.

8/5/2025 9:44 AM