This World Holds Nothing for Me

Loved ones, I want you to know that if I am not up in arms about causes in this world, it’s not because I don’t care about how you feel. I care more for eternity than what happens at City Hall, or the County Courthouse, the State House, the White House, or any world parliamentary hall. Men will do what they have done from the beginning; governments will do as they have done since the beginning, and that is to seek the best solution for themselves, often apart from the Holy Uncreated One who is seated pm Eternity’s Throne. This life is temporary. I have no hope in it. I am here and gone in a blink, as are the woes and worries about this existence I bring with me. My hope is in Jesus.

I do not say this to trivialize your causes. I care for you deeply. But I am not long for this world. Whether I have a total of 48 years (I’m 42 now), or 148 years, I’m barely a blip on the radar, if I am that at all. I have no hope or stock in this life. My eyes are on eternity, specifically, the One who made it possible. In His time on this earth, Jesus’ disciples wanted to focus on the earthly Kingdom; Jesus pointed toward Heaven. He understood that Kings and Tyrants will do as they have always done: seek their own interests and Kingdoms. He was about the destination of the soul, about reconciliation with God, and about defeating sin and death.

So please, understand something: this world holds nothing for me. I am interested in it so far as to attempt to lead people to Jesus Christ, who can bring anyone from death to Life. Politics, policies, Lords and laws mean little to me. I’m a sojourner and exile in a foreign land on my way to my permanent home. I know the One who prepares a place for me, and I am absolutely sold out to Him as my Lord and King. Can I introduce you to him?

Philippians 3

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.