"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple--truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

In Revelation 3.20 Christ says "Listen!  I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me."  Many times that knocking comes in the form of God's ordained ministers of the Word.  He himself has chosen them and sent them out throughout the earth.  We hear them knocking and in welcoming them and their message Christ tells us we are welcoming him, and through him the Father.

Not only are we to keep our hearts open to God's ordained ministers but even righteous people who are doing God's work.  We are not to welcome them with a worldly welcome however, but with the welcome of the righteous, that is, as fellow Christians.  Have we ever encountered a brother or sister who is actively trying to promote Christianity but have not welcomed or assisted them in their efforts and acknowledged them with our own Christian response?  Perhaps this was done out of sloth, negligence, fear, jealousy or another spirit of evil.  It must not be so - we are impeding the spread of the kingdom.

If we want to participate in the reward prepared for those who are doing God's work, we must help them wherever we encounter them.  We do this by any and all means: a glass of cold water, food, housing, money, time, compassion, defense, prayers...an open heart.  Otherwise we need to closely evaluate whose side we are on in this great battle of faith.

We can meditate more deeply here on how Christ spreads his kingdom on earth.  We pray "thy kingdom come" - we must participate.  We do this either directly through answering the call or indirectly through assisting those who have.  Sometimes it is a combination of both.  But we must participate.