Answer: Jesus explains through His teaching that each person will be rewarded according to what he has DONE, (verse 27).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
To enter into the kingdom of heaven through our OBEDIENT faith requires ACTION on our part, and not "lip service." To grow and mature and produce fruit in the kingdom of heaven requires ACTION on our part. Growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by continual study of His Word requires ACTION. Producing the fruit of the spirit in our lives that we learn about while we study requires ACTION. Remaining faithful in the Lord's kingdom until the end requires ACTION. Standing firm in the Lord and His Word through the trials, tribulations, worries, disappointments, illnesses, deaths, persecutions, etc., of this life requires ACTION. OBEYING the commands of Christ that we spread the Good News of the Gospel--plant the seed--requires ACTION. Loving the Lord, and loving our enemies, and loving each other in the family of God is ACTION, not emotion. We will be rewarded by what our faith in Jesus Christ demands we MUST DO--ACTION!
2 Chronicles 6:23: "then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty and so establish his innocence."
Job 34:10-12: "So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays a man for what he has done; He brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice."
Psalm 62:11-12: "One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that You, O God, are strong, and that You, O Lord, are loving. Surely You will reward each person according to what he has done."
Jeremiah 17:10: "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
Ezekiel 18:20-29: [The Sovereign Lord said,] "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all My decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die. Yet you say, ‘The Way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is My Way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Way of the Lord is not just.' Are My Ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?"
1 Corinthians 3:12-15: "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
James 1:22-25: "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the Perfect Law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."
Revelation 22:12-13: "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
