Crowns

A few weeks ago, God showed me that I was missing an important Scriptural motivational tool - one that could help me through some challenging temptations and tough days. The tool -- His promises of crowns.

If you're like me, you cringe at the thought of being motivated by reward. But as John Piper points out well in Desiring God, if we truly believe that God is the highest good in the world, then we realize He has our best interests at heart. Thus, His rewards are really pointers to Him ... ways to get us to recognize and honor His glory. Ways to let us see that what He offers is worth waiting for, worth dying for. Ways to steer us away from instant gratification and believing that that what He offers is better that the temptation of sin. Ultimately then, aiming for His crowns glorifies Him in our lives.

The fact is, God has called us to some tough things. If we really sell out for Jesus, then we will face temptations and trials and challenges. We will face the opportunity for instant gratification at every turn, choices that would take us away from God's focus for our lives. Choices like that reflected in a graduation speech by John Stam in 1931, 3 years before he was martyred in China:

Shall we beat a retreat, and turn back from our high calling in Christ Jesus; or dare we advance at God's command, in the face of the impossible?...Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and [there is] no hardship or self-denial involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ.

So what does God's Word tell us about the crowns that await us if we press on instead of beating a retreat? My study of "crowns" in Scripture revealed the following crowns that await His followers:

• Crown of glory and majesty as God's creation. Psalm 8:5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
• Crown of beauty that comes from pursuing the wealth of God's Wisdom. Prov. 4:9 She [wisdom] will place on your head a graceful garland;she will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Prov. 14:24 (1 Cor. 1:30 tells us Christ is the wisdom of God.)
• Crown of joy in ministry. Phil. 4:1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. 1 Thess. 2:19-20 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
• Crown of righteousness for being faithful, perservering, and loving His return. 2 Tim. 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
• Crown of life for those who endure testing or temptation out of love for Christ. James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
• Crown of glory to those who shepherd others. 1 Peter 5:1-4 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
• Crown of incorruption for a good testimony and self-control. 1 Cor. 9:25-27 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable [lit. corruptible] wreath, but we an imperishable [lit. incorruptible]. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
• Crown of life for martyrs. Rev. 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Lest we get prideful counting the crowns we accumulate, God's Word also gives us a picture of what we will want to do with these crowns in heaven:

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,who was and is and is to come!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,to receive glory and honor and power,for you created all things,and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev. 4:4-11)

Crowns - motivations for today, instruments for worship in the kingdom. Pursue them freely. They are for His glory.