So, you’re a Christian, right?
On what are you focused in this life? Maybe it is your family; or, your career; or, your health; or, your possessions. Whatever you are focused on, if it isn’t God–loving and serving Him–then you are killing yourself.
Jesus said, “The thief [Satan/the adversary (of God and man)] comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10 ESV, parenthetical statements mine)” Clearly, He setup in this statement an “either/or” scenario; either you will be stolen from, killed and destroyed, or you will have life and have it abundantly. What Jesus means by this is that those who receive what Jesus has to offer will receive unbounded rewards in the kingdom after life here is over.
But wait, how can focusing on your family be wrong? And, you focus on your career to just provide for your family, right? And, if you aren’t healthy, then you aren’t any good for your family, or job. And, those possessions, they aren’t really the focus, but it’s always great to have more!
Jesus also said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes (things of this world), but for the food (the Word of God) that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man (Jesus) will give to you…. (John 6:27 ESV, parenthetical statements mine)” So, in this “either/or” scenario, by choosing the things of this world, such as family, health, career and possessions, we are choosing to be stolen from, killed and destroyed. Whereas, if we choose the Word of God (Jesus) as our pursuit, we receive eternal life. Does this mean that we will live long earthly lives like Methuselah? No, because, Jesus wasn’t talking about long earthly lives, but rather eternal life in the kingdom of our reward after this life.
So, how do we choose eternal life? For that we simply need to look at another quote of Jesus’:
“For whoever would save his (earthly) life will lose it (eternal life), but whoever loses (gives up focus on) his (earthly) life for my sake will find it (eternal life). For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:25-26 ESV, emphasis and parenthetical statements mine)”
According to this, we lay down our lives and pick-up Jesus’ life. But what does it mean to lay down our lives? And, how do we pick-up His? Again, it all has to do with our focus in this life. If we remove ourselves as the focus of our lives and place our focus on God, then we have a right relationship with Him.
But, what does it mean to focus our lives on God? Isn’t going to “church” on Sunday, paying our tithes, and praying when we feel like it, enough? Being focused on God, loving and serving Him means every minute of every day from now until we join Him.
But wait, that just might interfere with what we had planned! Exactly. And, hopefully it does. Because nothing we had planned for our lives is as glorious as the role God has planned for our lives. Nothing in this life comes even close to being as glorious as serving God because nothing in this life is as glorious as God.
The logic on this one is pretty simple: God is perfect, we are not, therefor whatever we do to honor Him is glorified and anything that we do to honor ourselves is not.
Idolatry of Self
