I'm thankful to say that I've never been anywhere near my own deathbed. Although I've crossed a Rubicon of sorts (age 40), I still feel pretty good.
That said, I recently pondered what I will care about on my deathbed. My guess is that it will be the same for all of us. Assuming we are right with God, we will care about two things. The first will be seeing Jesus soon. The second will be relationships we have here.
In light of that, it seems that church life should be the same. If there is an urgency to this life, then we ought to abandon distractions and secondary issues that come between us. If we won't care about it on our deathbeds, then let's not let it matter much now. As Christ's church, let's instead focus on our relationships with Christ and others.
This speaks directly to the issue of unity of the body. When on my deathbed, I'm not going to refuse to spend time with someone because he disagrees with me on baptism, the Lord's Supper, women's roles, tithing, etc., etc. Instead, my guess is that we will cherish relationships with everyone we care about. We'll want to spend time together.
We tend to go through life as if tomorrow is guaranteed. We allow things of lesser importance to come between us and other believers. Frankly, we are often distracted. We'd benefit from living as if we're on a deathbed. When we think in these terms, it helps us prioritize what matters.
Church life is about relationships. When we sense urgency, these are all we want. We grasp and hold onto unity when life is nearing the end. Instead of waiting for the deathbed, let's start living that way every day.
That said, I recently pondered what I will care about on my deathbed. My guess is that it will be the same for all of us. Assuming we are right with God, we will care about two things. The first will be seeing Jesus soon. The second will be relationships we have here.
In light of that, it seems that church life should be the same. If there is an urgency to this life, then we ought to abandon distractions and secondary issues that come between us. If we won't care about it on our deathbeds, then let's not let it matter much now. As Christ's church, let's instead focus on our relationships with Christ and others.
This speaks directly to the issue of unity of the body. When on my deathbed, I'm not going to refuse to spend time with someone because he disagrees with me on baptism, the Lord's Supper, women's roles, tithing, etc., etc. Instead, my guess is that we will cherish relationships with everyone we care about. We'll want to spend time together.
We tend to go through life as if tomorrow is guaranteed. We allow things of lesser importance to come between us and other believers. Frankly, we are often distracted. We'd benefit from living as if we're on a deathbed. When we think in these terms, it helps us prioritize what matters.
Church life is about relationships. When we sense urgency, these are all we want. We grasp and hold onto unity when life is nearing the end. Instead of waiting for the deathbed, let's start living that way every day.
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