“Here’s what we need to admit: God is not a communist. I think because we value fairness and because of the things we think about heaven and eternity, we allow ourselves to assume that everything is totally equal in God’s Kingdom. But the Bible absolutely teaches the opposite.
Let’s start with an easy one: There are different crowns in eternity. At least five of them. One of them is the martyr’s crown – called the Crown of Life in Revelation 2. Those that die for Jesus get a special crown. We’re fine with that, that seems nice – plus we don’t really want it, do we?
But listen – in God’s Kingdom there are going to be different levels of reward given depending on what we do in this life. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 3. Some Christians will have their Christian life evaluated and be rewarded while others will watch their efforts burn up and they will experience loss. They will be saved, but as through fire.
Once, while people were thinking about the Kingdom of God, Jesus told a parable where some servants are rewarded with ten towns of authority because of their faithfulness, others five towns.
There are tiers of reward and placement in God’s Kingdom. In fact, Peter uses a term here that suggests the ordering of a triumphal procession – an emperor’s parade.
So now remember what Peter said in verse 10: He doesn’t want us to stumble, to suffer a misfortune, which would erode the richness of our reward in the future.”
