You Are a Gift: And Gifts Are Meant to Be GivenSample

Over the last couple of days, we've explored how Jesus stepped into our brokenness and asks us to follow in His footsteps to do good to one another.

Some days that's easier than others. Other days, we're more prone to wish it all over, so that we cry out Maranatha ("even so, come quickly, Lord!").

Today, we'll look at a time when Paul wrestled with this very thing.

To Live is Christ

What does Paul mean when he says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”? In this letter to the church at Philippi, this phrase comes in the middle of a conversation Paul is having with himself about his desires regarding the outcome of his trial while he waits in a Roman prison. He knows that his life hangs in the balance of the verdict of that trial: if convicted, he will be put to death; if acquitted, he will be released to be able to continue his missionary work, and even to return to the Philippians again.

He begins the conversation by stating that he knows the outcome will result in his deliverance.

He just doesn’t know what flavor that deliverance will take.

Here is where Paul begins wrestling with what each deliverance means for him and the church. If delivered up to be killed, he himself will gain MUCH: his final deliverance into his reward and from this body of death. To die is gain. This he prefers.

But if spared, he will be delivered to more fruitful labor. He will continue to be God’s instrument to deliver the good news of Christ to the Gentiles. To live is to continue in the footsteps of Jesus who became incarnate—put on flesh—and walked among us that He might make known His Father who sent Him. To live is Christ: to receive all the riches of the Father—not for his own gain, but that he might give abundantly of those riches to show the Father’s love for His lost children.

And when it comes down to it, these are the paths we constantly have before us. One day, we will die and GAIN: all the riches of heaven, our eternal rest, deliverance from this body of death and suffering.

But each morning until then, we have all the riches of heaven at our disposal to share with a world in need.

Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength (Matthew 22:37-38). You must be living to have all those things to love the Lord with! To live is Christ!

Reflection

You’re reading this, which means you’re living. How are you spending all your heart, soul, mind, and strength to love God and grow His kingdom?

Have you given God a blank check for all that you are, up to—and even including—your life, so that He may use you as an instrument for the furtherance of His kingdom?

Remember

You are God’s gift to the world for such a time as this.

How does God want you to give yourself away today?