Colossians 3:24 Meaning and Explanation
“Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →The Lord we serve holds an inheritance for us, a reward no earthly master could give.
The Context of Colossians 3:24
Paul is still addressing servants in the Colossian households, people who owned almost nothing and could legally inherit almost nothing. To them he speaks the surprising word that an inheritance from the Lord is waiting, the very thing the world denied them.
What Does Colossians 3:24 Mean?
An inheritance was something a child received from a father, a portion that marked you as belonging to the family. The bondservants Paul wrote to were shut out of that hope by their station. Yet he tells them they will receive the reward of the inheritance from the Lord. What no master would hand a servant, Christ freely gives. Their daily, unrewarded labor was being kept account of by a Master who pays in family wealth, treating servants as heirs.
And the verse closes by naming who this Master is: the Lord Christ. We are serving Jesus, and He is the kind of Lord who turns servants into sons and daughters with an inheritance to come. Whatever we lack now, whatever goes unrewarded, He holds something secure for those who are His. The hope at the end of our service is a place in His family that lasts, far better than a wage that runs out.
Colossians 3:24 in the Original Language
kleronomia (κληρονομία), 'inheritance' -- the portion that passes to an heir, a possession received by belonging to the family.
Where Colossians 3:24 Echoes in Scripture
Paul elsewhere makes the same leap from servant to heir: 'thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ' (Galatians 4:7). The reward is to be made family.
How to Apply Colossians 3:24 Today
When our service feels unrewarded, this verse points past every earthly wage. The Lord Christ keeps an inheritance for those who are His, treating servants as heirs, and that hope holds steady whatever this life withholds.