Are we labor to be accepted by God for salvation or for reward?
Believers labor to be accepted of Him, not for salvation but for reward. Salvation was settled the moment one believed; the judgment seat of Christ, the bema seat, determines reward, not eternal destiny. It concerns how much reward a believer receives for things done in the body.
Les teaches that in this building process we labor, whether present or absent, that we may be accepted of Him, not for salvation, but for reward. He explains that all believers must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. This is not salvation being put in the balances, but reward. The term judgment seat can scare people, and Les calls it an unfortunate translation; the correct Greek term is the bema seat, a raised podium and seat of judges. In the Olympic Games, the bema seat was at the finish line, where the judge determined who was first, second, and third. Nothing in the bema seat judgment involves our eternal destiny—that is settled. But the bema seat determines how much reward. As a believer, salvation was settled the moment we believed, but we are not to sit in an easy chair and let life go by. We are to get busy and work, first to bring glory to God's name, and also for our own personal benefit of reward.
Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.