103. Praise of God
1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God.
The promise is that in the Judgment everyone will have praise of God. But those who have no faith in Christ will have nothing in them to show and so will have no praise of God. Those who live in faith in Christ will show what was in them, Christ, and their life and works will have praise of God. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. This welcome into the kingdom is the praise of God. We look forward to the Judgment Day when we face either praise or condemnation.
On That Day the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness; and He will make clear the counsels of the hearts. These hidden things and heart counsels are the motivations and inner desires that are not seen. The Judgment will expose and reveal for all to see the things we cannot presently see. It is Because we don’t see that Jesus says, “Judge not.” But God sees and He will judge. Also God sees the Christ in us who does good works and earns for us the praise of God. Therefore, being in Christ gives us confidence to stand in the judgment with anticipation and excitement. The Grace of this Promise is that we shall receive from God the praise that Jesus earned. The praise that we have is really praise for Jesus Christ. We do truly “glorify God in our body.” We don’t have to see it now (until we see it on That Day). For now we believe the promise, and that is enough.
This means for our daily lives we do not have to seek the praise of men or of the world, since we already have it coming from God. It also means we don’t need to praise our accomplishments and ourselves; we don’t need to boast of anything in us; we don’t need to call attention to ourselves. Receiving praise from God will lift our spirits more than any praise from the world. We have that as a promise.