The Bible often speaks of sin as a thing of the past pertaining to the believer’s life prior to salvation. This is not because believers are without sin, but the goal of every believer should be to depart from and avoid the sins which once controlled his life prior to salvation. These past actions which helped us to see our lost condition should be viewed as the friend of our past and the enemy of our present and future. This is exactly how Paul spoke of envy in his epistle to Titus. According to Paul, “we . . . were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” Concerning the sins of the past, Paul further admonishes: “let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints” (Ephesians 5:3).
Charity is the peak of Christianity (2 Peter 1:5-7). The Bible says that after salvation, charity is to be desired above all other things (1 Peter 4:8) and is the bond of perfectness (Colossians 3:14). Yet far too many people, Christians included, know so little about charity. God has not left man without answers, both simple and profound. First Corinthians chapter 13 offers the most vivid description of charity: charity suffereth long and is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4). It rejoiceth not in iniquity but in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). It beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Out of all the wonderful things associated to charity, the Bible makes it clear that charity will have no part with envy.
Life is full of polar opposites that cannot simultaneously reside within the believer’s heart and life (i.e., truth and lies, love and hate, holiness and sin). Some of these conflicts are familiar and easily identifiable. Yet, the Bible indicates that a similar conflict exists in an individual’s life concerning envy and the fear of the Lord. When a man reflects upon the life of the wicked with envy, he ceases to walk in the fear of the Lord. Why? A man who fears the Lord considers the coming judgment directed toward those who know not God. Every person will stand before the Lord and those who fear the Lord and know the end of the story do not desire to have the lot of the wicked pertaining to this judgment. Every man must choose. Does he choose to walk in the fear of the Lord or does he envy the wicked because his eyes veered away from the Lord?
Where envy finds its breeding grounds, there grows confusion. Rather than churches, homes, and individuals choosing the blessings of peace, many have chosen the struggles resulting from envy and strife. In doing so, they reap the resultant confusion. Where strife oozes from the people, so will a mass state of confusion. This fact definitely accounts for the magnitude of Christians living outside the will of God with no opportunity to even discern what it is. The church should be a haven of truth, a place that clears up the confusion outside of its fellowship. The Christian home should be a place of clarity that serves to protect from the confusion perpetrated by the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Yet, far too many Christians have chosen rather to accept the curse of confusion.
The Bible clearly states that all comfort comes either directly or indirectly from the Lord. The Bible says that He is “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). Any true and lasting comfort man receives originates with and through the Lord (James 1:17), and the comfort given by God can comfort each of us in any and all tribulation (2 Corinthians 1:4). Unfortunately, man seems to think that every problem he faces requires a different area of study with various solutions. Yet, the Bible contradicts this line of thinking by stating that every tribulation has only one source of comfort. It is important to note that the comfort received by one person can be passed on to help others regardless of the trouble faced. That is the power of God’s comfort!
Man is made up of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Death takes place when the soul (Genesis 35:18) and the spirit (Genesis 25:8) leave the body. This event happens to everyone regardless of the individual’s spiritual state at death. Saved or lost, a person’s spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 3:21; Ecclesiastes 12:7). However, the soul’s destination is based upon whether or not a person has trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour during this life. There exists no midpoint between earth and heaven (or hell) to purge one’s sins, including places invented by religions to do so. For a saved person, the Bible declares that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Unfortunately for the lost, this same outcome is not true. Following death, the Bible reveals that the lost man’s soul immediately goes to hell (Luke 16:23).
Although the Bible repeatedly warns against fretting, believers fret because of others. Sadly, one’s worry can make the sin of others seem more desirable. We should not fret because of “evildoers” (Psalm 37:1), or “him who prospereth in his way (Psalm 37:7), or “the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass” (Psalm 37:7), or even “evil men” (Proverbs 24:19). Some believers may fret about these people because of their fears, but the scripture offers another reason why believers fret over the wicked. According to Psalm 37:1 and Proverbs 24:19, fretting over the wicked is directly associated to one’s envy toward them. Perhaps believers worry about these people so much because there is a deep-rooted desire to become like them. This desire can be rooted in the fact that those whom we fear are viewed as more powerful, more in control, and even more confident. Eliminate the envy and you will eliminate the fear.
Many people fail to enjoy the present blessings by worrying about the inevitability of future difficulties. Though each time of life is certainly filled with its difficulties, it is also filled with tremendous opportunities for blessing. When young, a person ought to rejoice in his youth while keeping in mind that God will bring his deeds into judgment. When growing older, people ought to rejoice in getting married, having children, working, and serving the Lord. As one grows older, he can enjoy the benefits of each phase of life knowing that God has special blessings in store for each day. After all, why be robbed of today’s joys by worry concerning troubles and sorrows that may never come to pass? And if they do transpire, effort spent in worrying about them was useless.
This life offers only a window of time and opportunity to work for the Lord. Youthfulness and old age both offer their own hindrances to service. In many ways, though not entirely, youth should be spent in learning, middle age in doing, and old age in teaching those who are learning and doing. Many of the greatest servants of the Lord found in scripture began their journey in youth by learning of the Lord and His ways (1 Kings 18:12; Psalm 71:5; 2 Chronicles 34:3; Job 29:4; Ecclesiastes 12:1). As they approached the prime of life, they invested their learning by serving the Lord (Numbers 8:24-25). As they passed their prime, they would pass their knowledge on to the next generation in hopes of the Lord’s work continuing and flourishing (2 Timothy 4:1-8)..
Life is cyclical. Many of the physical challenges experienced by young children will once again be encountered by those who live long enough. As a person ages, many things taken for granted long ago in the prime of life begin to deteriorate. For instance, the Bible says that Israel’s eyes “were dim for age” (Genesis 48:10), Barzillai’s hearing and taste buds were ill affected (2 Samuel 19:34-35), and David “gat no heat” (1 Kings 1:1) as he grew old. For these reasons and others, the Bible emphasizes that aged saints are “old and well stricken in age” (Genesis 18:11). In other words, the passing of time or the coming of age strikes the physical well-being of the body and its physical and mental functions. This physical and mental degeneration is the fulfillment of the cycle of life as the body prepares to return to the dust from whence it originally came (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
