Objection: If You Suffer More in This Life, You Get a Greater Reward in Heaven
This statement is true, but not the way that the objector thinks.
When Suffering DOES Bring a Greater Reward
The only sense in which you get a greater reward for suffering more in this life is when you suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness:
Matthew 5:11-12:
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
If you stand up for the gospel instead of chickening out when public pressure stands against you, you’ll get a reward in heaven. Cowards who back off, thinking, “I can’t afford to offend Muslims or LGBTQ people or people who advocate for a woman’s ‘right’ to kill her unborn baby; it could hurt my career or my public image,” will not get the same reward as those who stand with the Word when it’s unpopular and causes some people to hate you and say bad things about you falsely (e.g., you hate homosexuals, you hate women, you’re a bigot, and so on) – or even truthfully (you’re intolerant [of sin], you’re exclusive [because you think only Christians are saved]). I’ve made plenty of “gay” people furious with VERY public statements I made in front of thousands of people in one case and on TV soon afterward, but my stand is still unapologetically “LGBT” –Let God Be True! Could this even result in this book being banned in some places? Absolutely! And that’s not all bad – if you want to make SURE that people will check something out, make it forbidden! I’ve seen that on the street when a camp counselor who took a bunch of teens to a public place FORBADE them to take my tracts and tried to “forbid” me to give them to “his” teens (I just ignored him, to his irritation). They snapped them up when the counselor wasn’t looking!
I’ve known cowardly preachers who would not stand up against the “gay rights” / “trans rights” crowd for fear of what would happen to them or their churches or ministries. A couple ministers even said that they wouldn’t stand up because they saw what happened to me and my public image as a result. The owner of two local newspapers urged people to flee from my church in an editorial. He printed two weeks in a row of scathing and untrue statements about me and refused to print my responses. The preachers who would not stand up against him and his “power of the press” will not get the same rewards that I will. The fear of man (let’s call it for what it is) brings a snare. (Proverbs 29:25: “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.”) By the way, no one left my church because of him and I got free publicity besides. As for the other preachers, saying that you don’t want to be controversial or make waves or rock the boat are lame excuses – some boats need to be sunk!
But aside from suffering PERSECUTION in this life, there is absolutely NOWHERE in Scripture where there is even a hint that you will get bigger heavenly rewards because you suffered more in this life. To be sure of that before I wrote it here, I checked every Bible verse that had anything to do with rewards, and you can feel free to do the same. NOT ONCE was the reward linked to how much sickness or poverty or misfortune you endured in this life! The objector does not have any Scripture to back his claim. This objection is false comfort to the sick. Saints have to suffer persecution, but they don’t have to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis or chronic sleep disorders.
The only “try” that comes to mind is the account of the rich man and Lazarus and Abraham’s statement, “But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke 16:25). But you have to remember that the rich man was not in hell because he had riches – he was in hell because he was wicked. Having money in and of itself is not evil – if it were, Paul’s instructions to the rich in 1 Timothy 6:17 would have to be altered to say, “Exhort the rich to repent – if they don’t repent for being rich, they’ll go to hell for having too many good things here on earth! Their excessive earthly comfort will have to be countered with eternal discomfort – they didn’t have their fair share of suffering when they were here!” The rich man suffered not because of his riches but because of his attitude, which was evident given that he never did anything to relieve Lazarus’s misery. The rich man didn’t suffer just because he hadn’t suffered his “fair share” in this life! So neither can we conclude that Lazarus had done more suffering and was thus entitled to more eternal bliss. Lazarus did not receive good things to make up for his poverty on earth; he received them for being right before God. How ridiculous to conclude that your earthly bank account would consign you to heaven or hell forever! That is never taught in either Testament. No one will live on the new earth forever because he lacked money here, and no one is consigned to the lake of fire because he never lacked money here. The biblical plan of salvation makes that clear. It is trusting in the living God that saves a rich person, not parting with all his riches. (See 1 Timothy 6:17 again.)
Nothing in the Law, which was still the covenant in effect at the time, made a virtue of poverty or sores, both of which Lazarus had, and both of which were considered curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Nothing would indicate that a person is rewarded for having a miserable life. In fact, all of Jesus’ followers would be doomed to few rewards if that were the case, as He came to give life and life more abundantly (John 10:10)! Surely walking in more abundance and fewer curses does not ruin our heavenly reward.
If you can really qualify for heaven by being poor as opposed to being born again, we should all give up everything so that we can beg on street corners to be more like the biblical beggar and be assured of great honor in heaven for all eternity.
The beggar was not rewarded anyway – he was comforted. So again, there is no reward for suffering sickness (sores) and poverty (being a beggar) in this earth.
Does Suffering from SICKNESS Bring a Greater Reward in This Life?
This is what the objector had in mind. This is similar to the rancid God’s special favor objection. If this is true, you can crank up your reward level in heaven by being sicker here. Sickness is now turned into a special trial for special people that will give them higher heavenly status. So now rather than just being physically miserable, you can get into spiritual pride at the same time, convinced that you are better than the rest of us who aren’t as sick as you are. If you really believe this, you should earnestly desire that God “bless” you with the most painful afflictions imaginable, like maybe pancreatic cancer and kidney stones at the same time, so that your patient endurance will make you a really big celebrity in the hereafter.
NOTHING in the Bible substantiates the idea of greater rewards for those who suffer more here for reasons OTHER THAN persecution.
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), so God is surely more pleased with someone who rises up in faith, believing God’s promises, than someone who just sits there in passive resignation, never attempting to exercise one bit of faith.
Finally, if suffering sickness entitles us to better rewards, Jesus definitely did some of the crowds a major disservice by healing them ALL! He emphasized laying up treasures in heaven that can never pass away. If sickness lays up treasure for you, He contradicted His own teaching! That shows that this objection is nothing but false comfort for sufferers, not Bible teaching.
Don’t you think that God wants all of us to get a maximum reward in heaven? Jesus certainly exhorted us toward actions that reap eternal rewards that can never rust, be moth-eaten or be stolen. So if the objector is right, then instead of HEALING people and thus STOPPING suffering, Jesus should have REFUSED TO HEAL PEOPLE and DISHED OUT suffering to maximize people’s rewards, and we would read passages like this:
Mark 18:2-4:
A leper worshiped Jesus, saying, "If you are willing, You can heal me."
And Jesus saith unto him, “Why in the world would you want Me to do that? Your reward in heaven will be greater if you suffer more because you’re not healed. Keep your leprosy and die from it in ever-increasing pain, and your great reward in heaven shall increase daily.”
Then Jesus socked the leper in the face to further increase his suffering, and thus his heavenly reward.