{"id":1629,"date":"2018-05-08T06:51:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T22:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=1629"},"modified":"2018-05-08T07:34:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T23:34:01","slug":"1629","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2018\/05\/08\/1629\/","title":{"rendered":"Reward for Faithfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revelation 2:26b-29\u00a0I will give authority over the nations\u2014<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>that one \u2018will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery\u2019\u2014just as I have received authority from my Father.<\/span><\/span> I will also give that one the morning star.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus describes the reward for those who remain faithful to him in the city of Thyatira. This is a difficult verse to understand. We should start first with the big idea of reward for faithfulness. Two questions come to my mind: what type of authority and when? The authority is extensive, over all the nations. This is a huge contrast to the individuality of this passage. Each person who is faithful, listens, and obeys the Spirit will have this reward. It does not matter what position in life this person had. This is authority to rule and pass judgment. In this life, we are but pawns in the hands of governments. Sometimes freedom is in name only. In many places of the world, believers are outright persecuted, kept from meeting together, Bibles destroyed, there is no freedom of religion. Even in places that have a so-called “First Amendment,” freedom to worship is controlled, such as in schools, public places, and so on. This passage shows that this will be reversed someday. Those who were denied freedom will someday have complete sovereignty over the nations that once controlled and even persecuted them.<\/div>\n
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The Second question is about when this will take place. These verses are future tense. These persons cannot have authority in this life since many of them are victims, persecuted, weighed down by laws, controlled by unkind leaders, living in hostile cultures. This is a promise for the future, when Christ reigns. It is impossible to know how this will work. This is a case where it is best not to get into the details but to understand the concept. This passage serves as a motivation to remain faithful in this life. There is a reward for those who do not give in to cultural forces or temptation. Remain faithful.<\/div>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revelation 2:26b-29\u00a0I will give authority over the nations\u2014\u00a0that one \u2018will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery\u2019\u2014just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star.\u00a0Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Jesus describes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1640,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}