"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" 1 Cor 15:19.Does this verse call into question the kind of preaching which addresses itself from beginning to end to those problems we're having with our spouse, kids, job, drug habit, porn addiction, indictment for murder, etc? Of course I see the need to address these concerns in preaching the gospel; Christ's triumph over death certainly has implications for those things we deal with while alive that make us want to die. But our teaching on these day-to-day topics needs to be always and everywhere explicitly tied to our future hope; otherwise all we have is over-hyped advice on how to feel better that usually just doesn't work. As Paul goes on to say,
"If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die" 1 Cor 15:32.
And (one of)the reasons Christ's message was Good News was that the ordinary working people he spoke to had no hope in the next life and little in this one. If there is no accounting after death then what we do in this life does not ultimately matter.
ReplyDeleteAs a pastor I once heard said, the only people living consistently are the Christians and the Hells Angels.