April 27, 2023

I Peter 1: 3, 4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. (NIV)

Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom is not just a gospel for dying, but for living! It gives purpose to every day, and at the end of the road, Heaven awaits.*

Life is short. When we look back on our youth, on our children’s lives, the good times, we marvel that it’s all in the past already. But life is long, too. If you are living in misery – a bad marriage, chronic illness, a horrible job, loneliness – time drags. Eternity doesn’t sound like a good thing in a life without hope.

Peter’s exuberance in this passage reminds me of an old song: Is That All There Is?* The song is like the negative to Peter’s positive. “If that’s all there is,” the song says, “then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball.” Without the living hope, life – whether a good one or a miserable one – seems pointless. Why bother trying to make it meaningful? Nothing lasts forever . . . except our inheritance. Peter says that it can never perish, spoil, or fade.

Even with eternity to look forward to, it's often easy to question the meaningfulness of life. Let’s just skip this part and get on with forever. How selfish is that attitude?? God still has work for us to do. Life has meaning and purpose because we have hope to offer to the hopeless.

Only in the light of eternity is godly living always more rewarding.*