Living Understanding Pt 8: Live by faith
2Corinthians 5:6-10 6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7For we live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Philippians 1:21-23 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;
These verses are the only place in the writings of the Apostle Paul where he presents his thoughts about his own death. I admit to thinking such things myself, and I occasionally wonder just why we have to be self-aware of such things. Why can’t we be a sort of loving pet living out our days in blissful ignorance of our coming end? Well the answer of course is that life is just so much more than what we see, and that while God wants us to love and worship him, he also wants us to know the beauty of what the fullness of life is really about.
At home in the body…away from the Lord
We in the 21st Century like to think of ourselves as enlightened people, far advanced beyond our ancient ancestors, but the truth is that much of their philosophy is still present today. I’m thinking here of the Greek and Roman dualistic thinking; the idea that spirit is good and that flesh is bad. But Paul is arguing against this. He is saying it is all one life whether in the body (on earth) or out of it (in heaven). Who we are is far greater than what we see. My wife has been gone for more than 5 years now, but she is still fully alive in my heart. Our thoughts and affections for our friends do not vanish simply because they are out of the room, or are themselves gone.
We live by faith…
So we live by faith, not by sight. But this itself refers to more than just our physical existence. In fact, this is where this concept is the most profoundly true. Our body (in other Scripture Paul refers to it as our tabernacle), is only a temporary home, not our permanent place of residence. Paul clearly says it is better to be with our Lord and away from the body.
But we physical humans get it backwards most of the time. We get caught up in our five senses; we are far too caught up in preserving our physical self, and we forget that our spiritual self is the more important part of our existence. Our spiritual self, which died in the Garden, was brought back to life by the Holy Spirit when we accepted the Son as our Savior. Our new person, which now has a fully alive spiritual self, is indestructible—it has life beyond the grave. We still die of course, because we live in a fallen world and everything physical eventually wears out.
…so we are determined to please him
But while we are here on earth we still have a job to do. Oh! I bet you thought accepting Christ as your Savior would be all peaches and cream. It’s not. Believers have just as many struggles as do unbelievers—maybe more because they also have the added commandment to
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
So we all should live our lives attempting to consistently grow in righteousness and holiness. Notice I said ‘attempting’. It is not possible in the flesh to be fully righteous or holy. Not because flesh is necessarily evil (Romans and Greeks), but because we are not perfect. Every human being will come before the Lord one day, and I for one, want to hear him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I want to live my life in a way that pleases him. But I, like everybody else, am fragile and prone to deception. So I have to keep coming to him in repentance.
What about me?
You too are fragile, and so you too should repent. In the Middle Ages men and women entered monasteries or convents in an attempt to remove themselves from the evil of the world. It didn’t work. Their own sin nature went into isolation with them and so sin entered with them. The solution to our sin-nature problem is not isolation: It is engagement.
By this I meant the only solution is to have an intimate, prayerful relationship with our Savior. This is where living by faith becomes so important. Paul knew it was far, far better to be with Christ than to be in his physical body, but he also knew he was doing Christ’s work while here. How could he know that? Only through constant communication, and remembering that communication requires two-way conversation. So the growing in holiness means we must maintain good and continuous conversation with Jesus.
And just what is good conversation? If someone cuts you off in traffic and you make some well-intentioned prayer for him, is that good conversation? Probably not. Jesus wants intimate relationship with you; he wants wellness and contentment for your soul; he wants attitudes softened; he wants stresses calmed. These things require time and effort. If there is something in our lives that needs to change we have to make the effort to do that. If someone in our life is toxic, if we have an addiction, or if we have a co-dependency—these things are hard to stop by ourselves. We need Jesus actively guiding us, shaping us, and comforting us. In other words, we need prayer. And I don’t mean the seat-of-your-pants highway kind of prayer. I mean the devoted, personal, prayer-closet kind of prayer.
So, my believing friend, cultivate time with Jesus. Make some regular time in your schedule for him. You will find it well worth the effort.