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Friday, January 7, 2011

To Live is Christ. To die is gain.

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."--Philippians 1:21.  Two points in this one verse alone. First, to live is Christ.  Second, to die is gain. This is a verse I still wrestle with to this day.  But Paul says that he is hard pressed from both directions later in the text.  Paul's attitude toward the brethren never ceases to amaze me.  Talk about setting the example and raising the bar for the rest of us.

To live is Christ.  If we are to live on we must continue to live as Christ lived.  We must continue in our labor for Him.  As long as we live in this life, this life is Christ for the Christian.  To live is Christ. But as I said I am amazed at Paul's attitude.  The main reason he wants to live on is so he can help others live their lives for Christ as opposed to themselves.  He says he will remain for the progress and joy in the faith of the brethren.  Joy. I heard an acronym for that once (JOY=Jesus Others Yourself).  There is no feeling quite like helping someone else in their walk with God or otherwise.  The awesome thing about helping someone else in their faith is that the benefits are eternal.  To live is Christ.  To live is to put Christ first, others second, yourself last.  As we live on, I encourage you to seek out someone in need, whether the need is physical or spiritual, or both, find that person I guarantee you will both walk away feeling 10x better even if the rest of the day was not all that great.  Helping others is what keeps me going.  I have quite honestly been through a lot of pain and heartache in my life especially recently and it's because I have that I don't want to see other people discouraged or hurting.  As long as we are in this life, this needs to be our attitude. To live is Christ.  However, its the same hardships that makes many Christians, including Paul, long to be with Christ hence why to die is gain.

To die is gain.  Death is known as the #2 fear of society.  Of course #1 being public speaking which I think is strange.  This means at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. Joke :). But for the Christian, death is nothing to be afraid of.  To die is gain.  My dad passed away recently.  His death may have been our loss but it was most definitely his gain!  While I am "hard pressed" by his death, I am thankful that he is at home with the Lord.  Even Paul acknowledges that death is better but he also realizes the importance of taking others to heaven with him.  Why aren't all Christians of this same selfless attitude? There is another passage which I am still trying to wrap my mind around where Paul says he would essentially give up his own salvation so that Israel could be saved. WHAT?!?!?!?! I am simply amazed at Paul's attitude.  I hate to admit that I don't think I could ever give up my own salvation to save someone else. I hate the feeling of shame that comes over me in just saying that. Like I said earlier Paul raised the bar for every Christian that would come after him.

As I said before, I am amazed at Paul's attitude.  As long as he remained in this world, he would do all he could to make sure others could make it to heaven.  He realized that being with Christ would be a lot better than living in this world.  At the same time though, he knew the urgency of saving others and wanted to spend every waking hour trying to save others all the way up to his death.

To live is Christ. To die is gain.  Live for Christ knowing that when you die, it is not loss but gain.  I encourage you to live as Paul did, seeking the salvation of others by encouraging others in their walk with God and bringing others to a knowledge of the gospel.  To live is Christ but to die is gain.  Love you guys. Pray about it. Do something about it! God bless!

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