In The Apostate Fathers,* you mention that “Papias was right that there will be degrees of rewards for the saved. Jesus made that clear many times.”
When we search the concordance for “reward” we do not see where these many times occur. Can you show us where Jesus states this?
Brad and Allison
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Hi there!
I was referring, first, to such things as Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:14–30 and Luke 19:12–19, where servants of God were given different rewards according to what they had done with their gifts from the Master. That alone is enough to show that various rewards will be given. But I was also referring to verses where Jesus himself said, or said through a prophet or an apostle, that rewards would be given to the saints according to their deeds in this life (e.g., Mt. 16:27; Ps. 62:12; Rom. 2:6; 2Cor. 5:10). And we know that deeds vary in importance, as well as in wisdom and power.
And we have this from Hebrews: “But others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, so that they might receive a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35). A better resurrection can only mean a better reward in the resurrection. So, those who choose the harder path in this life will have a better reward than do saints who carry a lighter load and suffer less persecution.
An interesting prophecy concerning this comes from Daniel, where an angel tells Daniel that at the end, “those who have understanding will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3), and we know that stars differ in brightness, which Paul relates to differing degrees of glory: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. The resurrection from the dead is the same way” (1Cor. 15:41–42a).
If I thought more on your question, I could probably come up with more scriptures, but I hope this will suffice. Thank you for the question; it put my mind to work!
Pastor John
* https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_audiotext.html?tname=apostatefathers