James 4:14 whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
John 3:16b whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Forgive me for waxing philosophical but when I saw these two passages paired something more than their singular meanings became apparent to me. If, as john says, we have everlasting life through Jesus, and yet this life is even a vapour according to James then how do we live it? how should we live it?
-The Revig
A quote of Gandhi's comes to mind "live each day as if it where your last, but learn as if you will live for ever". I was reading the art of war part two the other day, where it talks about going through long battles and the point that it brought out was that even though in the grand scale of things it's just a short time "even vapour" the lessons that we learn can not be learned any other way. That is to say that even though this life may be short, what we learn here will be more valuable to us then any thing that we could learn any other way.
ReplyDeleteYou could compare it to Jesus' life on earth, only 33 years and yet what He learned in that short time, what He went through, what He gave to us has and still is changing the world.
So in answer to your question both, live each day as if it where your last, yet at the same time take what you learn to heart and let it change you,because if you don't then you may never get a chance to learn it like that again.
(On a side note the two versus are talking about two different things, James is referring to this earth life, and John is speaking of the one to come so there is in a sense no question)
Ah yes indeed but what about this ephemeral life? why not change it for the better of those passing through it... it will make eternity so much better for us with out having to apologize for everything...
ReplyDeleteeternity is a long time... if how we live here determines what we get later... "the love you make is the love you take" then that should be more than enough incentive to get it right... mostly... now since being saved were now stuck with eternity... and if such emphasis is put on this life then why don't we try and live it the best way possible, not only for ourselves but for others?
(sorry for not posting sooner, cmas push)