A tale of two lives

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

A TALE OF TWO LIVES

Prov 24:19-20

19 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of the wicked, 20 for the evil man has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

NIV

It was at the beginning of Proverbs 24 we had something very similar to this. Again we are assured of the destiny of those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Why all the warning about their fate? They do not even care to read these words, for that matter, if they did they would not understand or believe them. But this is not a warning about their fate, for we know their fate and it is unquestionable they will perish, cease to exist, die, not only in the physical, but also in the spirit. Their lamp, their life, their being, all they are, their soul or spirit will be snuffed out. The original language carries the meaning of being extinguished or to expire. It has also been translated as being extinct. All this we know. All this has been a part of our understanding from our first encounter with the truth. They have no future hope. It cannot be any plainer then that. We have a future hope. We are going to live forever in the presence of our Lord and Savior. That sends shivers down our spine. Our heart, our spirit rejoices to know we are saved, we have been set apart, and God has made us holy. He no longer holds our sin against us. He has declared us innocent because of the blood of Jesus. Although we will never be free from some sin in our lives, God has promised us he will not remember our sin, he will not hold that against us because we are in Christ. That is difficult to grasp at times, because it seems we fail all too often. But the truth does not depend on our perfection or imperfection. The truth does not depend on anything about us, it is the truth because God spoke it. Jesus said he was the truth the light and the way.

John 14:6-7

6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

NIV

So then because we are in Christ, we have the way, we have the truth, and we have the life and we are going to the Father, or we will be coming to the Father. So why then would we ever be envious of those who are not going to the Father? Is it because they live life with no restrictions, and we think we do? Jesus set us free from the law. Oh, right we do have all those commands of God in the New Testament. The one that says we are to love others as we love ourselves. There are a lot of attitudes we are to rid ourselves of, like:

Eph 4:31-32

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

NIV

We can go through a whole list of scriptures like this which admonish us to rid ourselves of certain attitudes and behaviors and at the same time telling us attitudes and behaviors we are to add to our character. But do we tend to make these attitudes into a law of our own? Do we make lists of all the bad sins we do not do, but leave out some of these attitudes off our lists of don’ts? Do we forget to add some of the attitudes and behaviors to our list of do’s. Do we just think good works is what is needed? Everything is wrapped up, according to Jesus, is in loving God with all our heart, mind, spirit and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  That is it. The heck with the list, it is just another set of laws. We have the blessed hope of eternal life with God, so then let us not be like the world. Let us not envy them for their freedom from lists, for we have no lists either. Let us not be jealous of their lives, for theirs are coming to an end, ours is not. Let us not fret about their way of life. What it comes down to is a tale of two lives, one with an end, one without an end.