What will we do in heaven?

Question 10062.

What will we do in heaven? I suspect the reason so many Christians secretly dread the question is that the picture they inherited involves an endless church service with no coffee afterwards. Somewhere between medieval art and Victorian hymnody we acquired the notion of clouds, harps and a permanent expression of mild vacancy.

Scripture is far more interesting than that. What we will do in heaven, and then on the new earth, is worship, serve, reign, learn, build, feast and enjoy one another in a world with the frustration taken out of it.

Clearing away the harps

The harp appears in Revelation, but so do thrones, cities, nations, rivers, fruit trees and armies. If you build a doctrine of eternity from one instrument you will end up with a very strange orchestra. The Bible’s pictures of the life to come are drawn from a working world, not a waiting room.

It also helps to distinguish two stages. Between death and resurrection, believers are consciously with the Lord, which Paul calls “far better.” After the resurrection and the return of Jesus, we live in bodies on a renewed creation. Most of what we will do in heaven in the fullest sense belongs to that second stage, which is why the Bible’s language is so physical.

Keeping those apart saves a lot of confusion. The intermediate state is real and blessed, but it is not the destination. The destination has ground under it.

One further caution before we start. Everything I say here is drawn from what God has chosen to reveal, and He has revealed less than our curiosity would like. Where the text is quiet, I intend to be quiet too, because speculation dressed as certainty does nobody any good.

Worship that never runs dry

The activity mentioned most often is worship. Revelation 4 shows the living creatures who “day and night never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'” (Revelation 4:8), and the elders casting their crowns before the throne.

I know how that can sound to a tired modern ear. Endless praise sounds like endless repetition. But nobody who has ever been genuinely overwhelmed by beauty complains about saying so twice. Worship there will not be duty performed against the grain; it will be the honest reaction of creatures who have finally seen God clearly.

And notice that it is unhurried. Here our worship is squeezed between commitments and interrupted by distraction. What we will do in heaven is adore God without the clock, without the wandering mind, and without the sin that keeps making self the subject of the sentence.

Service and real responsibility

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Revelation 22:3). The verb is latreuo, priestly service. We are not spectators in glory; we are servants with something to do.

Jesus builds His parables of stewardship around the same idea. The faithful servant is told, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.” Responsibility now is training for responsibility then. That is a startling thought for anyone who assumes that eternity is when everything finally stops.

What exactly that service involves is not spelled out in a job description, and I will not invent one. But the shape is clear enough. God gives His people work that is meaningful, and He gives it to them without the curse of futility that has dogged human labour since Genesis 3.

Reigning with Jesus

Paul writes that “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12), and Revelation 22:5 says of God’s servants that “they will reign forever and ever.” Revelation 20:6 places the saints reigning with Jesus for the thousand years of the Millennium, which I take literally, as I explain in my answer on the millennium.

Reigning implies administration, judgement, decision and care. Paul even asks the Corinthians, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” That is not a metaphor he then withdraws; he uses it to shame them for taking petty disputes to pagan courts.

So one honest answer to what we will do in heaven is govern. Under Jesus, never apart from Him, we will exercise the dominion that Adam was given and mishandled. Humanity gets its vocation back, and this time it is carried out by people who cannot be corrupted by the power.

Learning, building and enjoying

We will not become omniscient. Only God is that. Which means eternity contains the delight of discovery, an infinite God explored by finite creatures who never come to the end of Him. Paul says that “in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7), and the word “ages” is plural for a reason.

Revelation 21:24 speaks of the kings of the earth bringing their glory into the city, which suggests culture, craft and creativity carried into the new creation and offered to God. If nations remain, then languages, music, food and art remain in some purified form. I find that a far more compelling picture than eternal disembodiment.

And there is feasting. Jesus spoke of drinking new wine with His disciples in the kingdom, and Revelation calls it the marriage supper of the Lamb. Table fellowship is one of the most human things we do, and it survives into glory.

Fellowship without the friction

A large part of what we will do in heaven is enjoy one another. Every relationship you have ever had has been damaged by sin somewhere, whether by your pride, their pride, or the sheer wear of misunderstanding. Remove that, and what is left is friendship as it was designed.

Hebrews 12:22-23 describes what we have come to: “the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). Made perfect is the phrase that changes everything. Perfected people are very good company.

I have written separately on whether we will recognise people in heaven, and the answer there feeds straight into this one. What we will do in heaven is enjoy people we know, by name, without the friction.

Will what we do in heaven ever grow dull?

Hebrews promises “a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” and Revelation says of those who die in the Lord that “they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them.” Both are true alongside service. The rest of Scripture is not the absence of activity; it is the absence of striving, anxiety, exhaustion and futility.

Think of the difference between digging a trench you hate and gardening a plot you love. Both are work. Only one of them empties you. What we will do in heaven is the second kind, permanently.

That also answers the fear of boredom. Boredom is a symptom of a fallen imagination and a restless heart. Put a redeemed heart in an unfallen world in the presence of the God it was made for, and boredom has nothing to feed on. I have written more on how rewards shape that life in my answer on degrees of reward in heaven.

Seeing His face

Above every other activity stands one line: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). Moses was told that no one could see God and live. In glory, the redeemed look straight at Him and live forever.

Theologians have long called this the beatific vision, and I am content with the term so long as we do not make it abstract. It is not the contemplation of an idea. It is the sight of a face, the face of the Lamb who was slain, still bearing the marks of what He did for us.

That is the centre of everything we will do in heaven. Worship, service, reigning, learning and fellowship all radiate outwards from it. Take that away and eternity would be a very fine museum with no reason to visit.

So, now what?

If eternity is active, then this life is apprenticeship and not a holding pattern. The habits of worship, service and stewardship you form now are not left at the door. Faithfulness in small things is preparation for larger things, and that ought to change how you view a dull Tuesday.

It should also change how you speak about heaven to people who are dying, and to children who ask. Give them the Bible’s picture and not the greeting card one. And ask yourself the plain question underneath all of this: what we will do in heaven is enjoy God forever, so how much are you enjoying Him today?

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

Revelation 22:3-4, ESV