This is what the Lord says: Don't cry anymore, don't weep anymore, because you're going to be rewarded for what you've done, declares the Lord. Your children will return from the country of your enemies.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! So often I wanted to gather your children as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings—but you wouldn't let me.
No: love your enemies, do good to them, and lend without expecting to be repaid anything. Then you will receive a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people.
Don't let anyone cheat you out of your prize by insisting you have to beat yourself, or worship angels. They think they are better than anyone else because of visions they say they've had, and become ridiculously conceited in their sinful minds.
May the Lord grant him his blessing in the Day of Judgment. (Timothy, you're very much aware of how much Onesiphorus did for me when he was in Ephesus.)
Now there's a prize reserved for me—the crown for a life lived according to what is good and right. The Lord (who is the judge that always does what's right), will give that to me on that Day. And not just to me, but to everyone who longs for his coming.
He counted the rejection he experienced from following Christ to be of far greater value than the wealth of Egypt—because he was focused on the reward to come.
You can't expect God to be pleased with you if you don't trust him! Anyone who comes to God must believe that God exists, and that he rewards those who are searching for him.
God wouldn't be so unjust as to forget what you've done and the love you've shown for him by the care you've shown for fellow-believers—something you're still doing.
But Ruth replied, “Please don't keep on telling me to leave you and go back. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.
“I've heard about all you've done for your mother-in-law since your husband died,” Boaz replied. “And also how you left your father and mother, and the land of your birth, to come and live among people you didn't know.
He will give you a new lease on life and provide for you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better than seven sons to you, has given birth to him.”