Class distinctions in heaven?
The other night in Bible study, we studied 1 Corinthians 3. A question (or twenty) arose about verses 14-15:
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
I'm sure we are not the first Bible study group in history to have a few questions about this verse (and others, like Matt 6:1, 2 John 1:8, Rev 11:18). What is the reward? How can someone be saved “only as through fire”? When we turn up in heaven, are there going to be different ‘classes’ of Christian? Will there be business class and economy class in heaven? When we get there, what's the [actual] difference between the one whose work survives and the one whose work is burned up? Or, as one guy in our group so succinctly put it: “Am I going to make it to heaven but find that I have no legroom?”
(Yes, we did publish an article by Tim Thorburn in Briefing #297, ‘Rewards in the age to come’. In case you are reading this and thinking that I should know the answers to the questions above because the answers are in that article, and I work in the organisation which published that article, well ... I haven't read the article ... yet. I wasn't specifically working on The Briefing then, so I was just the same as everyone else who has about 3 unread Briefings on their bedside table. If you ever want to make sure you read every single issue of a particular periodical from cover to cover, get a job with the publisher of the periodical. It really helps.)