Already, and Not Yet
1 Corinthians 4:5 - “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
Verse 5 gives us a command and a promise. And what a hopeful promise it is! The command comes first: “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes.” Stop holding court. Stop reading final verdicts over yourself and everyone around you, because the trial isn’t over and we don’t have the evidence. The verdicts we hand out now, on ourselves, on our spouse, on the brother or sister across the room, are all premature. They are guesses rendered in the dark, before the lights have come on.
Then the promise: “who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” A day is coming when the Lord turns the lights on in every dark corner, when the real story of every life, the hidden motives, the secret faithfulness no one ever saw, the thing under the thing, is finally brought into the open and seen for what it truly was. For anyone who has been misjudged, overlooked, or quietly faithful in obscurity, this is wonderful news. Nothing real will be missed. The God who reads the purposes of the heart sees past the highlight reel to the whole book. Every unseen page.
And then the sentence turns, gloriously: “Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” Sit on that word, commendation. It means praise, approval, a “well done.” We might have braced for the verse to end in exposure and dread, the lights coming on only to reveal our failures. Instead Paul ends it with praise. There is applause coming after all, for the faithful. The real kind of applause; the kind our souls were actually built for. It comes from the throne itself, the only Audience whose approval could ever satisfy. It is the moment the Master in Jesus’ story looks at the servant and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is the verdict every hidden, faithful life is quietly moving toward.
But we have to be careful here, because this is exactly where anxious hearts get it wrong. Paul isn’t saying we must wait until that day to find out whether we are saved, whether we belong to God at all. Make no mistake: that verdict isn’t pending! For everyone in Christ it has already been handed down: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). When Jesus cried “It is finished,” the trial over our souls ended. So the commendation still ahead in verse 5 isn’t the verdict on whether we are His; it’s His “well done” over how we lived as His. The acquittal is finished. The commendation is coming. And the first is precisely what frees us to stop performing for the second.
This is what makes a Joyful Worshipper, and it’s worth letting it sink all the way down. We stand in God’s courtroom as beloved children, already accepted, already secure, waiting only to hear our Father’s delight over a life lived in His name. We live out of a love we already have, leaning toward a “well done” that grace has already guaranteed. So we can serve in the dark, give without being thanked, and stay faithful where no one is watching, and do it all with joy, because the verdict that unsettles the whole world holds nothing for us to fear. Our Father is the One in the seat that matters, and He is already, in Christ, smiling.
Today: Take two sentences and hold them side by side until they settle into your bones: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1), and “each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Cor 4:5). Read them slowly, several times over. Let the first quiet every fear that you might still be condemned, and let the second lift your eyes toward the “well done” that is coming. The acquittal is finished. The commendation is coming. Rest in the first; lean toward the second.
Prayer: “Father, I praise You as the Judge who sees every hidden thing with perfect truth and perfect love. Thank You that in Christ the verdict over my soul is already in, with no condemnation left for me to fear, so that what still lies ahead is the sheer joy of Your ‘well done.’ Free me to live today as Your beloved child, leaning with gladness toward the only praise worth waiting for. In Jesus’ name and for His glory, Amen.”
-PK