1 Corinthians 4:3-5 “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. (4) For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. (5) Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul reveals to us plainly that God will reveal the thoughts of our hearts on that day. In other words nothing will be hidden or overlooked on that day. Everything will be brought into the light and everything will be brought to account. The scripture teaches us that love thinks no evil (1 Corinthians 13:5). You will recall that the apostle James counselled us to live our lives as those who will be judged according to the perfect law of liberty. In other words even our thoughts will be judged in the light of the Lord’s commandment to walk in love.
Matthew 12:36-37 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak; they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. (37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus said that we will have to give an account for every idle word spoken on that day. So what are our idle words? These are the words we speak in our everyday conversations that we have with believers and non-believers alike. Think about that for a moment. Do the words that you speak in your daily conversations meet God’s requirement that no corrupt word is to proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29)? And so we see that even our idle words spoken will either receive praise from our Lord Jesus on that day, or cause us to be ashamed before Him on that day.
Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
It is important to note that no good work that we have done will be forgotten or overlooked on that day. From the time that we are born-again every good work we do is recorded in heaven and cannot be blotted out. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us that God is not unjust, and because He is not unjust He will not forget the good works that we have done while on the earth, which means that every good work done will be rewarded on that day. And so by looking at these scriptures we can begin to realise just how thorough our judgement will be, and we can understand just why the Lord’s apostles encouraged us to walk in the fullness of grace provided to us, for time and again the writers of the New Testament admonished us to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called (Ephesians 4:1). Clearly our day of judgement is not to be taken lightly and we should approach it with the same purpose that Paul displayed.
Michael E.B. Maher
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