“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
One could say this was Paul’s motto. He lived it. In today’s vernacular, you could say he was a fanatic, someone who was uncompromising in the way he lived for Christ. Yet God requires this kind of life. It’s the first and great commandment. (Matthew 22:38) “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
This is the life a child of God should live. But the world has such a pull on the Christian. Our motives are wrong. Our thinking is wrong. Brethren why do we work? Why do attend church services? Why do we keep our homes clean? Why do we do the zillions of things we do day in and day out? Don’t we work to satisfy our lifestyles, to eat and provided for our families? Don’t we go to church services looking and searching for what blessings there are for us? Don’t we keep our houses clean and orderly because we like to live in a clean environment? Whatever we do day in and day out we do them for self-serving purposes.
But in the fanatical way of thinking, we work to show the world love, to see which doors the Lord will open for His Word and His Will and to bring the light in us to a dark world. A word of caution here. At a job you are paid to do a certain task, not to preach, but in the break times and lunch times, you have opportunities to share God’s love, God’s wisdom and God’s Word with those you meet. In doing the job we were hired to do we should work with excellence because we do it for Christ and so our attitude and work should reflect that. A housewife keeps her house clean and orderly because she likes her home to reflect her personality and the beauty of things in her home. If she lives for Christ, she should keep her house clean and orderly because the Lord is with her, His Spirit is living in her and He lives where and how she lives. The fanatical attends church services because he gets to worship with and in fellowship with the family of God. The fanatical way is the way God expects us to live. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24)
Today, to be a fanatic and act fanatical has negative connotations. A Christian fanatic threatens the world because the thinking and core purpose is opposite of the world’s purpose. It’s a known fact that in today’s world, the Christian life is “counterculture.” But it always has been, except in America because our country was founded on Christian beliefs. But today the country is far from its foundational beliefs.
Paul went on to say in our Scripture that “to die is gain.” Solomon in his wisdom agrees. “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.” (Ecclesiastes 7:1) For the Christian, death is gain because while our body is buried and lifeless, we are in the presence of the Lord. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2Corinthians 5:8) We know our life after this body’s death is with the Lord and more glorious than we can imagine. Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3) But God has put in us a desire to live here on earth until our appointed time. This world is full of difficulty of one kind or another, but we live in hope and faith, trusting the Lord and His promises to us. We live to see the Lord’s victory where the devil has crept in to steal, kill and destroy lives. As we live our lives fanatically, we take our light and shine it in the dark corners of the world because for us “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Commentaires