A Matter of Life and Death
A Matter of Life and Death
“I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I Corinthians 1:4-9
Everything is a matter of life and death. Everything that is alive, will die.
Every living creature will die a physical death.
Every living creature with a soul, who refuse God, will die a spiritual death.
Every living creature with a soul, who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ, will have everlasting life in heaven.
We were created by God, in His image, to fill the earth, living a life that honors Him. We have free will to choose which life we will live. One that is obedient to God and honors Him or one that refuses Him.
Since we sin and are disobedient, we become separated from God. So God sent his son Jesus to the world as a perfect sacrifice for us. There was a price paid for us.
It is God’s desire, as His creations, that we would live our lives to honor and glorify Him.
So why do so many people take their life, and their death, so lightly? Do we live like we are dying? I think that was an old Tim McGraw song. Or are we simply and selfishly just living?
The Apostle Paul had his sources telling him about the church in Corinth and the Corinthian members. The letters he wrote to the church and the people in Corinth are chronicled in First and Second Corinthians in the Bible.
The Corinthian people were living a life of sexual immorality, jealously and divisiveness between them and failing to discipline wrongdoing within the church. Paul was writing to them to tell them the great privilege they had of being in God’s family. God had set the Corinthian members free from their sin already, by the death of Christ. They were to be witnesses of what has already been done by the death of Christ on the cross. In fact, if they followed the teaching of Christ and the commands of God, they would stand blameless when Christ returned. But they weren’t taking their life, or their death, seriously.
We go about life much the same way. Forgetting death. And forgetting the death of so many others. We forget the gift of our life and our purpose. We forget the sacrifice and the ransom that was paid for us. It’s so easy to get caught up in the world around us. We become distracted by the things that pull us away from our purpose.
It’s easy, sometimes effortless, to take our life for granted. But we really shouldn’t take our death, or the death of others, for granted.
Each one of us can be used differently by God, if we stay in His will. But each and every day, we circumvent the will of God by doing our own thing. We allow the world to pull us away from the importance of our life. We believe our life to be our own and it discourages us from living it for Jesus Christ. It is so easy to make excuses and to live the way we want by making our own things important. Our simple nature is to please ourselves. Many of us will have a desire to help others, but our nature is survive. Not many people would be willing to give up their own life so that others may live.
Our life is a gift. We didn’t plan it. We didn’t create it. We definitely don’t deserve it.
Each life is a gift from God.
This isn’t my ideology, this is life as we know it. Unless you believe in evolution, we were created by God. We were created to live a life that He gave us and to live it by honoring Him through our worship, obedience and service.
It’s not about us. It’s about Him. Our lives are so important to Him, that He sent Christ to die for the entire world, and for you and me. We are to fill the world with souls that will glorify God and to live lives that are a testimony to our faith. This is life.
When our physical bodies die, our death is a spiritual entrance into heaven. Our souls unite with our creator. We reunite with the body of Christ in our true home. It is our life everlasting. We should be living here in a way that honors the fact that we will live forever. Others should see what we have, why we have it and why it is so important.
You can’t convince someone else that they need it. You can’t convey to them why it is so important. Only through you can they see the change that is in you. It will only be important to them, when it is important to them. Not when it is important to us. We can share this with others through our love, our actions, our gifts and our talents. But if we hold back, they will never know. If heaven is important to us, it may become important to them. But if the world is important to us, heaven may never become important to them.
Our life here should be about the souls that don’t know Christ. The souls that haven’t come to see the new creatures we have become. Our every moment should be lived so that others will have everlasting life. Not selfishly because we already know it and because we already have it. Every single day our lives should honor God. Every single day.
Yet, every day I don’t see others living so that others will know what they know. I see people worried about what is happening in their lives. Selfishly living. Seeking material items. Living for themselves. Not others. Worried about things that won’t get anyone else into Heaven.
We are constantly surrounded by those that will die, both physically and spiritually. Their souls will be lost eternally. There will be no everlasting life free of pain, free of sadness or free of affliction.
So why aren’t their souls important to us? Do we not care about the death of others? Have we forgotten the death that we have experienced?
Just as we forget the gift of life so easily, we dismiss death as time passes by. Time eases pain. Time gets us from one point to another.
Each death should be a reminder that a soul is entering heaven or headed to hell. Each birth should be a desire for us to raise a child to know God and to live for Him, so that others may see Christ in them. It’s a chance for the cycle to touch more people.
Life is just as important as death. And the time in between is more important than you know. That time in between is so critical to the life and death of others, depending on how you choose to live it.
Even if you are secure in your salvation, you are not called to live your life selfishly. You are called to serve the Kingdom of God. Others will see the presence or the absence of Christ in you and it could be a matter of life or death to them.
Start living your life so others don’t have to fear death. Our life and death should honor God.
“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
I Corinthians 15:56-58