Luke 6:32-35 – “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners can do that. But if you love your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again, your reward shall be great and you shall be children of the Highest, for He is kind to the unthankful and faithful”.
Notice there, that ‘great reward’ is given to servants who show unconditional love. Your reward will be ‘great’; and you shall be children - that's a bad translation. The word is ‘huios’, meaning mature sons. Maturity - overcomers have developed a generosity, and a loving heart towards people, that has no hidden agendas. He says: that's what sonship looks like, because when you do that, you're acting like the Father does.
The third one - a daily walk with God, by faith. This is not just one thing we do now and then; this is our lifestyle. The example given there is Enoch.
Genesis 5:24 – “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away”
He was translated - never saw death, and that makes him a prophetic picture of those in the end time, who are alive, and never see death. What a great thing to never see death, never grow old, get cancer, fade away, weakening and whatever; but rather, we are just suddenly changed. So, he's a prophetic picture of someone who was resurrected, and the reason they give there is: he walked with God.
Hebrews 11:5-6 – “By faith Enoch was take away so he never saw death, and was not found because God had taken him, for before he was taken, he had this testimony: he pleased God”.
He walked with God, and this is the testimony that they gave: he brought pleasure to God.
Verse 6 – “…for without faith, it's impossible to please Him. He that comes to God must believe He is and He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.
When you put those scriptures together, you see then that Enoch was a man of faith, who trusted God. To “walk with God” means he had a relationship with God, and all the things that he did brought pleasure to God. So, that's an example for us.
There's another scripture about Enoch. There’s a whole Book of Enoch. Enoch was a very significant man in the Old Testament, and the Book of Enoch tells all about Genesis 6:5 - about the watchers, and the defilement of demonic spirits with mankind, which led up to Noah and the flood – it’s very interesting.
Jude 1:14-15 – “Now Enoch, the seventh of Adam, prophesied about these ungodly men, saying: behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints, to execute judgement on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds”.
Notice there, he was prophetic. He prophesied, and he warned his generation. He had a walk with God, a daily walk with God. That means he had relationship, and intimacy, he had faith, he trusted God. He lived a life that brought pleasure to God; and he was one who warned people about a coming judgement, which took place after he had vanished, at the time of Noah. So, he walked with God, had a life testimony that pleased God, he had faith, and he was looking for the coming of the Lord. Jesus reveals what it's like to be an overcomer, who inherits the First Resurrection - we're called to walk with God by faith and live a godly life that pleases Him.
A fourth one is to focus on eternal rewards, and a life of faith. I think that it's important if we want to qualify as an overcomer, that we think in terms of eternity, instead of in terms of just temporary things. I'll just share with you a scripture then, and this one here is about the Old Testament saints who pleased God. We saw that Enoch pleased God, now it tells us in again Hebrews 11, about the Old Testament saints.
Hebrews 11: 13-16 – “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them, embraced them or welcomed them into their arms, confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And those who say that kind of thing declare plainly they're seeking another country.