Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:24
Modern language translations of the Bible use today’s text as a reminder to Christians of the One Who they are serving, or as an admonition to serve Him. For example, the ESV renders this verse thusly: ‘knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ’. Like most of the other modern language versions, the ESV follows the corrupted texts that were promoted by the Westcott and Hort conspiracy. Mind you, there is not much difference between the original Greek as written by Paul and the corrupted Greek as produced by Westcott and Hort; in fact, the only difference is that the original Greek contains the word ‘γαρ’ or ‘for’, and the corrupted text doesn’t. But it makes a huge difference in the intent of the entire verse. Yes, it is true that we need to be reminded of Who we are serving, and it is true that we need to be admonished to serve Him. But that is not what Paul was emphasizing when he wrote this verse by the Spirit’s leading. He was telling the Colossians that they could be certain of their eternal inheritance reward because of the One Who they were serving. That is a wonderful encouragement to us today, as well.
We have all heard stories of families in which the children faithfully cared for their aged parents in the expectation of a generous portion from the inheritance, only to find that their parents had either spent all the money or had bequeathed it all to somebody else. No, it’s not fair, but it happens. But it can’t happen to our eternal inheritance reward, because we are serving the Lord Christ. There will be nothing unfair or miniscule about the reward that we will receive for our service for Him.
A good many of the Christians in the Assembly at Colosse were slaves; that was the reality of the society of that day. These dear saints would attend meetings of the Assembly when and if their masters allowed them to. They were subject to those masters in everything. As slaves, they received little or no pay for their service, and regardless of how well and faithfully they served, they had absolutely no expectation of a reward from their masters while the masters were living, and absolutely no expectation of any inheritance from their masters when their masters died. So Paul’s words in our text would come as wonderful news to these slaves. Their Lord and Saviour was far better than their earthly masters; He would not forget or overlook their service but would give to them a sure and certain reward. Consider the words of Hebrews 6:10: ‘For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward His Name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister’.
How precious to know that our faithfulness to our Lord will be surely and richly rewarded by the Lord Christ Who is faithful! – Jim MacIntosh