Revelation 22:12

I am coming quickly
I am coming quickly is ἔρχομαι ταχύ [erchomai tachy] , present tense: I am presenting coming quickly. His arrival is imminent—He is already underway! See commentary on Revelation 22:7, Revelation 1:3, and Revelation 1:7.

My reward is with me to give every one according to his work
Reward is μισθός [misthos] which denotes either “reward or punishment as the case may be.”¹ To give is ἀποδοῦναι [apodounai] : “give back . . . of divine or human retribution . . . repay . . . pay back.”² Every one is ἑκάστῳ [hekastō] : to each. The emphasis is on individual judgment, either for rewards or punishment.

When the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, a proclamation from heaven declared:

The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward [δοῦναι τὸˊ μισθὸν [dounai to misthon] ] Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. (Rev. Rev. 11:18+)

The servants of God are judged to receive rewards (Isa. Isa. 40:10-11; Isa. 62:11; Luke Luke 14:12-14; 1Cor. 1Cor. 3:13-15; 2Cor. 2Cor. 5:10; Col. Col. 3:22-25; 1Jn. 1Jn. 2:28), but the God-rejecters are judged for punishment (1Pe. 1Pe. 4:18; Rev. Rev. 2:23+; Rev. 20:11-15+):

The purpose of the return of Jesus is to render to each man according to his works. His coming at the Rapture is to reward the saints for the works done in their bodies since salvation. The purpose of the Second Coming is to render judgment for the works of unrighteousness.³

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. (Mtt. Mat. 16:27)

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. ”As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right; it will leave him in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.” (Jer. Jer. 17:7-11)

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Rom. Rom. 2:5-10)

See commentary on Revelation 19:8 and Revelation 20:12.

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Notes

¹ Frederick William Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 523.

² Timothy Friberg, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 66.

³ Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of Messiah, rev ed. (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2003), 545.