My daughter recently told her five-year-old son to bring her an item from another room. When he didn’t, she asked him why. He informed her that she hadn’t told him to do so. When she informed him that she indeed had, he remarked, “You only told me four times!”

It is hard to comprehend the brain of a five-year-old, but it’s obvious that he didn’t take my daughter’s demand very seriously. It reminded me of a scene in the movie, My Cousin Vinny, in which a young man, falsely accused of murder in Alabama, asks his cousin Vinny from New York to come and defend him. The judge is highly offended by the clothes Vinny wears to court and orders him to wear a suit made of cloth the next time he appears before him. But the next day, Vinny again wears his typical New York outfit, complete with leather. The judge reminds Vinny that he was ordered to wear a suit. Vinny incredulously responds, “You were serious about that?”

The reactions of my grandson and Vinny are humorous. Both heard a recognized authority figure tell them to do something, but both felt it wasn’t important. In my grandson’s case, it was because he had been told only four times. If my daughter had really wanted that item, he argued, she would have said it more times than that. In Vinny’s case, his many years of living in New York told him that he was dressed appropriately and fashionably enough. There was no need to change his way of thinking on the matter. It was silly to ask him to wear a suit. Nobody did that where he was from. Both my grandson and Vinny felt they were justified in ignoring what they were told to do.

It seems to me that this way of thinking directly parallels the way many Christians look at rewards in the world to come. All believers have eternal life that can never be lost. But once we have believed, we can earn rewards that will determine our role in Christ’s kingdom. The Lord spoke about rewards and even commanded believers to “lay up treasures in heaven” (Matt 6:20). But many Christians don’t think it’s necessary to do so. After all, some will say, the Lord only mentions it a few times. I suppose some would even say, “He only tells us to do it four times!”

Others are like Vinny. They grew up in a church where rewards were never mentioned. They never heard of such things and think it’s silly to even consider that there will be differences in honor, responsibility, and glory in Christ’s kingdom.

When confronted with the teaching about rewards, then, many Christians feel justified in ignoring what the Lord has said. They recognize the authority of the King, but this is an area in which they do not have to do what He says.

A closer look at the NT will reveal that Jesus and the authors of the NT wrote about rewards much more often than four times. But, for the sake of argument, let’s agree that it was only a few times—four is a good number for our purposes. Even if Jesus only told His children four times to work for rewards, would that be a sufficient number for us to take it seriously? The answer is obvious.

My daughter told her son to do something four times. When he didn’t do it, she asked, “Then why didn’t you do what I told you to do?” He was punished for his disobedience by spending some time in “time out” and losing some of his limited iPad time for the day.

I imagine that is the way it will be at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where the Lord will give out rewards to believers for their faithfulness and good works. None of us will be like my grandson, who argued with my daughter that what she said was not important. All of us will see that the Lord meant what He said, regardless of how many times He said it. Those who were not obedient will suffer the loss of the rewards He told them to seek.

In the movie, Vinny learned that the judge meant what he said. The judge fined him for his clothes. Vinny’s background and tradition didn’t matter. What the judge said did. That is the way it will be when we stand before the Righteous Judge to see how He will reward us. I guarantee, no believer on that day will ask Him, “You were serious about that?” It will be obvious that He was.