“The good servant receives the bread of his labour with confidence; the lazy and slothful cannot look his employer in the face. It is requisite, therefore, that we be prompt in the practice of well-doing; for of Him are all things. And thus He forewarns us: “Behold, the Lord [cometh], and His reward is before His face, to render to every man according to his work” [Rev. 22:12].
He exhorts us, therefore, with our whole heart to attend to this, that we be not lazy or slothful in any good work…For [the Scripture] saith, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which He hath prepared for them that wait for Him.”
Clement, Bishop of Rome (c. 100) in 1 Clement 34. Clement ministered until he was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. Despite persecution under the Roman Emperor Trajan, the early church continued to grow.
Why should Christians not grow weary in well-doing? Clement basically offers two answers to his persecuted peers. First, be zealous to do good works because you will have to give an account. Second, the reward for your obedience will be unfathomable.
To read about a church that recently shut its doors one Sunday and deployed everyone in service, click here to learn more. Special thanks to my brother in law, Jim Pickrell, for this illustration. Imagine if his church and ours did this all 52 weeks of the year. We might take over the world like the Christians did in Clement’s day.