What does it mean to 'live as not'? #amcl

Today in the Annual Moore College Lecture Series we thought about the nature of the world, in particular, the fact that it is passing away.

One of the texts we considered was this passage in 1 Corinthians:

And I say this, brothers: The time is limited,  so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)

It's an odd thing to say.  What does it mean to 'live as not'?  In terms of the marriage example, Paul is clearly not advocating spousal neglect or adultery (see everything else he writes on the topic!).  He is also surely not saying that we should be emotional suppressed (consider how he encourages us to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice - Rom 12:15).  His point is not that we should deny these things.  Rather, it is that we should, in some way, live as though we don't have these things.

I think Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy 6 helps to provide some further insight into what this means.

     For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root  of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (v7-10)

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.  Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real. (v17-19)

This passage also reminds us that this present world is passing away.  We will leave it, and we will not be able to take anything with us.  Those things too will perish.  That is why we should not put our confidence in them.  Rather, we should be our confidence in God.  I think this is the sense of what he means by 'living as not'.  We not to deny marriage, possessions or emotions, just like we are not to deny wealth.  But we are to deny their attempts for power over us.  As we search for security and certainty, we are not to hold onto these fleeting things, but onto God.  And as we hold onto God, we are able to let go of those other things, being generous because we know that God is our provider in both this age and the next.  So we don't need to deny these things, but we do need to hold on very lightly to them.

However, there is also a sense in which we may choose to deny these things.  Jesus has changed everything.  Since him, we now live in the last days.  This changes our priorities.  As we see the future, we act differently.  For example, Jesus and Paul teach how marriage and singleness are shaped by the future.  Previously marriage was important as it was part of the way God made the world, and also to keep having kids so that the Saviour would be born one day.  But now the possibility of choosing singleness is more prominent.  The Kingdom of God has come, so now is the time to call people to repent.  Singleness is encouraged by both Jesus and Paul so that people can devote themselves more fully to this task (Mt 19, 1 Cor 7).  This is not denying the goodness of marriage (which is good because God made it, but is also good because it is a pointer the relationship between Jesus and the church), but is highlighting the possibility of making a new choice in light of the Kingdom.  Similarly, disciples of Jesus are able to throw themselves into Kingdom work without worries about their possessions here because God will provide for their current needs and will also give them treasure in heaven (Mt 6).

So we can see that God provides us with good things to enjoy, so we should enjoy them, but not put our confidence in them.  And secondly, we may choose to give up some of God's gifts for the sake of the Kingdom.  Taking either of these paths will not be lamented in the end, for things that are truly good, real and lasting will be given to us in the age to come.

pondering heaven and the nature of the Christian life

This was a story that I made up to tell the kids in Scripture today about what life is like as a Christian, both in this age and the age to come.  Especially since I'm teaching young kids I decided to do this via a story.  As I was thinking about this I realised that a good allegory about this has already been written; namely, Pilgrim's Progress.  But that is a little long to read out to the class.

It was done in a hurry, but hopefully it's not too heretical :-)

~~~~~

There was a girl named Katie.  When Katie was 8 she decided to ask Jesus to forgive her for her sins.   Katie told her friends about Jesus.  She said, “Jesus loves you.  He died to forgive your sins.”  Some her friends said to her, “why do you follow Jesus?  That’s just silly.  It’s a made up story.  You must be an idiot for believing it.  Katie wanted to get really mad at them, but then she remembered that Jesus said, “If you love me, other people are going to hate you and be mean to you.  Don’t worry, they just do that because they hate me.”  So Katie calmed down.  Then she prayed, “Jesus please make them love you and not hate you anymore.”

When Katie grew up she wanted to be a missionary tell people overseas about Jesus.  But one day Katie got sick.  She was so tired she could hardly get out of bed.  Her mum came into her room and said, “Come on Katie.  It’s time to get up.”  “Mum I don’t feel so good”, Katie said, “I’m so so tired.  Can I stay in bed today?”  “OK” her mum said, “you can stay in bed today”.  So Katie stayed in bed and rested.  Before she went to sleep she said, “Jesus I know you’re powerful and you love me, so can you please make me all better by tomorrow.”

So Katie went to sleep.  When she woke up in the morning she was still tired.  Her mum came into her room and said, “Come on Katie.  It’s time to get up.”  But Katie said, “I’m still really tired Mum.”  So her mum said, “I’m going to take you to the doctor.”  Katie had to go see lots of doctors.  Every day she prayed, “Jesus I know you’re powerful and you love me, so can you please make me all better by tomorrow.” 

Eventually one of the doctors said, “Katie you are very sick.  You have leukaemia.”  Every day she kept praying, “Jesus I know you’re powerful and you love me, so can you please make me all better by tomorrow.”  Then one day Katie died. 

The very next thing she knew, she was in a bright and shiny place.  It was very beautiful.  There was a big area of grass.  It looked so beautiful, so she took off her shoes, and went running down the hill.  The grass was so beautiful and soft; there weren’t any prickles in it at all.

When she got down to the bottom of the hill, she started to hear some noise.  So she went to investigate.  She went a bit further, and the noise got louder, then she came to a big high fence.  The noise was coming from the inside.  She said to herself, “It sounds like everyone was having a great time, there’s all this laughter.  Ooh I hope I can go in!” 

So she walked along the fence and found a gate.  On the gate there was a sign.  It had big writing on it “ONLY FRIENDS ALLOWED!”.  Standing next to the gate was a man.  He said to Katie, “Are you a friend of my master?”  “I don’t know”, Katie said, “Who is your master?”.  “My master’s name is Jesus”, he said, “are you friends with him?”  “Oh yes!” she said, “we’ve been friends for so long!”  So the man opened the gate and let Katie in. 

When Katie got inside she saw the biggest party ever.  There were lots and lots of people.  They were all laughing and chatting and eating.  There were all sorts of different people there.  There were old people and young people.  There were people from all different countries too, people with white skin, people with black skin, brown skin and yellow skin.  There were lots of people there.  They were sharing the food around with each other.  No-one was yelling or fighting or grumpy.  And Katie thought to herself, “No-one is fighting or being selfish. I’ve never been a place like this before.”

There was a band playing too.  They sang lots of great songs.  They were praising Jesus, saying, “You are amazing and holy.  You have made a whole new family of people.  You have got rid of all the bad things in the world.”  And Katie thought to herself, “These people love Jesus, just like me”.

As she was listening to the band someone came up to her and said, “Here are your new clothes.”  And they handed Katie the most beautiful dress she had ever seen.  She put it on, and it fitted her perfectly.

She twirled around in her new dress, and out of the corner of her eye she spotted someone who was so bright and shiny she could hardly look at him.  She stopped to get a closer look at him.  Then he looked up and saw her too.  Then he smiled and started walking towards her.  Immediately she knew who he was.  And Jesus said to her, “Welcome home Katie.”  Katie smiled and thought to herself, “This is the best place ever.”