He Has Promised Us Long Life
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established in them. They know what is theirs, what they have a right to, and what belongs to
them, so they’ll know what to resist, what to stand for, and what to fight for.
In Philippians 1:21, he says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It is not loss, it is
gain. But it is a common thing for people to say at funerals, “Sorry for your loss,” even among
believers. A while back when my dad went home to be with the Lord, people kept saying that to
me. Instead I was saying, “I didn’t lose him. I know where he is. I didn’t lose him. Yes, I can’t
go visit him here in this life, but I didn’t lose him, and he’s not lost.”
If you have a relative who moved from Arkansas to California, people don’t come and say, “I’m
sorry for your loss.” They would say, “No, he’s not lost. I know where he is. I can’t visit him
right now, but I know where he is. He’s over there.” Heaven is a real place.
He said, “To me to live is Christ, to die is” what? “is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the
fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose, I wot not.” What is he talking about? What is he going
to choose? He is going to choose whether to die and go to be with the Lord, which is gain, or
whether to stay here and live, work, and get more fruit. We see in the writing of the letter that he
makes his decision.
In this verse he is saying, “What I’m going to choose, I don’t know at the moment,” then he
keeps writing. “For I am in a strait betwixt two,” I’m pulled in two directions. “I have a desire to
get out of here and depart, to be with Christ,” he said, “and personally, that’s what I want to do.
I’m ready to do that right now.” At first he said that to be with Christ is gain, and now he says it
is far better—better than being here.
I don’t want to live down here forever. I want to run my course and finish what I’m supposed to
do, but as soon as I know I have that done, I want to get out of here. Because compared to
heaven, this place is a garbage can.
But let’s be good soldiers. The Bible says to endure hardness as good soldiers. (2 Timothy 2:3)
Yes, the curse is down here. Yes, we have to clean up everything every day, and our bodies are
growing older, and we have all this stuff to deal with. There are the devils and crazy people and
attack, and we have to believe for our needs to be met. But we’re also on the front line, where
it’s happening. We are where the action is, and our tour of duty only lasts a couple of hours.
Let’s set our face like flint. Let’s endure hardness. Let’s get this job done. Let’s tell everyone we
can about Jesus. Let’s get them in, as many as we can. Let’s help everyone, and encourage
everyone we can, because we’ll soon be out of here anyway, in a very short amount of time.
When things get tough, everyone wants to go home. But someone needs to stay and win the
battle.
Say this out loud:
I can endure hardness.
I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
He went on to say in verse 23, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to
be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”
