THE CLASSLESS DAY OF JUDGMENT
It was Job that first painted a picture to me of what happens in the life down beneath the earth – even if we won’t allow it to happen here in the life atop the earth. He described the grave as a place where "the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master” (Job 3:17-19). Then Isaiah came up with this same reality while describing the day of God’s judgment in Isaiah 24. Verses 1-2 said, “Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants. And it shall be: As with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.”
The world is bound to produce people and priests, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, creditors and debtors. It now depends on which side of the divide you fall. Whichever side however, the class ends here and that will happen either the day you die or when the world comes to an end. Whichever is the point of termination, the reality for us all is this: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10). The issue is not whether I was a master or servant, pastor or member, rich or poor. The rich man did not go to hell because he was rich. Lazarus did not go to paradise because he was poor. Each went to where he belonged because of what they have done - how they used their God-given resources and how they treated each other. Very sorry, even when the rich man wanted to play the boss in heaven – asking Lazarus to drop water in his mouth, he was blatantly told, we don’t do that here! God won’t favor you because you were the master and disfavor that man because he was the servant. Judgment shall be on merit.
I have few lessons I want to share with us here. First, please use your position well. It is all by grace that you are there. That servant could have been the boss, that borrower could have been the lender. Treat others well because a day of leveling will come, either here on earth or in the world beyond. Interestingly, the first could become the last and the last could become the first. Secondly, remember that at one level or the other in life (however rich or highly placed), you are either a servant, a buyer, a borrower or a debtor under or to someone. If not to any man, then you are to God. So why do you think it all ends with you? Thirdly, the servant must not think that there will be favoritism in heaven either. You serve your master and God faithfully, you get your reward; you refuse to, you face the music. If you are a debtor, integrity demands that you pay as you agreed. God’s justice still demands that. Finally, for us all, the best we can all do is to put on the garment of love and humility towards one another, knowing we shall all be accountable for our lives one day. I tell people, please if I am misbehaving, come around me and lovingly correct me. I prefer to go to heaven as an ordinary “Christian brother” than go to hell as a “big pastor.” God forbid!
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