Philippians 1:21
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.
We will all die. However, some don’t act that way. At one point all see the scary part of death. I think most choose to ignore it. The fright goes away. This is unfortunate. It puts Christ and His offer of redemption off. This means those that ignore it and Him go into a Christ-less eternity.
Paul chose Christ as did millions. Once we choose Christ we have to work with the concept of His lordship. He’s the boss. It begins with the commandments. We aren’t to live contrary to any of them.
Jesus re-explains the commandments as love God and love people. We are faced with loving others all throughout the day. Jesus introduces another concept; “Then Jesus said His to disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”‘, (Matthew 16:24). We have our plans as we live our days. We run into roadblocks as others are doing the same thing. We aren’t to get frustrated, but to love them. We may need to sacrifice our place in line to others.
Behaving this way is living for Christ. Sometimes we need to lift up our annoyances and ask Him to replace them with His love. He does it. The importance of our schedule begins to fade. We learn to love to bless others.
The next part of the passage says, “to die is gain”. If we are in Christ we know we are going to heaven and there will be no sorrows or tears. It will be perfect. We’ll see our loved ones. We will also see God. I Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.” We feel the Lord in us and sense His guidance. It’s wonderful. However, it’s greatly veiled. When we are in heaven, we’ll see Him face to face. Our knowing Him in part is wonderful, being face to face will be without human words.
We no longer fear death. It just a transition. Like someone who is transferred to another location for work purposes. Our work is done here. Which brings up the point, God has His reasons for keeping us here. We have a place in our families, with our friends and coworkers. He is using us to bless them. This also teaches us to be less selfish and to be more loving.
Psalm 90:10a refers to how much time life generally lasts, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years”. A score is twenty years. That’s 70 to 80 years. Our bodies aren’t eternal. Depending if people do risky things, they could die much younger. There were several young people in my high school who died in their teens and twenties. Then there are those who do drugs which give them a life span of five or so years.
This wild behavior is against God’s advise. He wants us to take care of ourselves. I Corinthians 6:19,20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” We’ve been redeemed from our creditors. We were guilty of death. It’s as if we were in jail and had to be bailed out. Jesus did that with His own deathly sacrifice.
We aren’t our own. I admit I rarely think of that. Our world is obsessed with our own rights. Me, me, mine, mine. If we are in Christ, we will live as long as He wants us to. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. His ownership gives us meaning and purpose. Prior to that, we did our own thing. There was some meaning in that. However, it was limited and self serving. In Christ we have a much greater purpose. We do things that have a much greater significance.
Lord, thank You for redeeming us and for giving us purpose. You have a great plan for us. Thank You.