BY STEVE DUNN
The Apostle Paul was a
prisoner in Rome. He was, in fact, in
the hands of the madman emperor, Nero. This
was one more piece of suffering with which Paul was intimately acquainted
during his life. He was writing to his
beloved church at Philippi. Although he hoped to be vindicated and released and
able to return to them; he was vividly aware that death might be his fate. He also knew that the Philippians were
fervently praying for his release.
To pray for his life to be
prolonged posed a bit of a quandary for Paul himself. Part of him would gladly embrace death
because it would reunite with Christ in heaven, but there might be a purpose in
his remaining in this life, even if meant continued imprisonment. “I am
hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for
that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your
account.” (Philippians 1.23-24)
We are all indeed going to
die at some point. (Hebrews 9.27) In
fact, that is the way the Creator designed us.
But the inevitability of death is no reason to devalue or despair of
this life. The reality is that our Creator has created us for a purpose. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians
2:10)
Christians do not fear
death because death does not have the last word. Our death is but a door into the nearer presence
of God. But neither is life to be
disdained or escaped. We believe that
God is at work in and through us. Our
lives are intended to be “salt and light” – seasoning life with love, preserving
our world by our presence, and being the truth of God’s love and grace that
brings light to the world. (Matthew 5.13-15)
With Christ working in and
through us, life will always have purpose—and ultimately, reward,
© 2018 by Stephen L. Dunn. You have permission to reprint this provided
it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for
sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com
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