[Sons to Glory!]

I basically concur with UntoHim on this. And if you look at most of the verses in his post, they are about rewards. Much of what is conveyed by Paul seems to be more in line with rewards for running the race well. And the word "bema," translated by most as "Judgment Seat" also applied, according to my readings, to the place of authority used in the Olympic Games. It was from there that the judgments were made as to how contestants fared in the games - whether they won or not or whether someone should be disqualified (BTW - not about loss of salvation). Paul talks about this in 1st Corinthians 9:27.

For instance, we are now in the NBA playoff season. Our home team, the Phoenix Suns, are looking to win it all this year and are seriously geared-up for that, physically and emotionally. If they loose in the playoffs, there will be supreme disappointment. However, if they do lose, I don't think they are going to receive a formal punishment - the loss of the championship will be a hard enough "pill" to swallow by itself.

In the New Testament context, there are rewards . . . or the loss of rewards, but I don't see that it's so much in the way of outright punishment. That is, loosing the reward is a punishment in and of itself. For instance, if you were a member of the church in Laodicea, you might fully expect to win the reward, but find instead in that day, that while you thought you were a sure "winner," in fact you had let yourself not be in good shape for the race (poor, blind, wretched). Therefore there might be much anguish and even "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in such a situation, as you loose the expected reward.

There are many warnings in the Bible and the New Testament for believers, but I think warnings are there there to make us aware of the possibility of not gaining the reward. I think the main focus is to keep doing as Paul exhorts us, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14)