Why do believers labor to be accepted of the Lord — is it for salvation or for reward?
Believers labor to be accepted of the Lord not for salvation but for reward. Their salvation was settled the moment they believed, so the judgment seat of Christ does not determine eternal destiny. Instead, the bema seat determines how much reward they receive for what was done in the body, whether good or bad.
Les explains that in the building process believers labor, whether present or absent, to be accepted of Him, and this is not for salvation but for reward. He points to verse 10, where believers—not the unsaved—must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. That is not salvation being put in the balances, but reward. He notes the term 'judgment seat' can scare people and says it is an unfortunate translation; the correct Greek term is the bema seat, a raised podium and seat of judges, like the bema seat shown in the ruins of Corinth or set at the finish line in the Olympic Games to determine first, second, and third. Nothing in the bema seat judgment involves eternal destiny, which is settled; it determines how much reward. As a believer, salvation was settled the moment he believed, but he is not to sit in an easy chair; he is to get busy and work, first to bring glory to God's name and also for his own personal benefit of reward.