What Living Is All About

The scriptures often discuss what life is about verses what some think life is about. As Christians, it is imperative that we understand what does and does not matter while living here on earth. The Bible helps us by first of all listing a number of things which life is NOT about.

First, life is not based on our wealth. In fact, Timothy was told that the love of wealth (or money) is the root of all forms of evil (I Timothy 6:10). Jesus told us that we cannot serve both God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). It's certainly tough to want more money to keep up with our friends, but as Christians, we can't lose our perspective on life.

Second, life is not about our possessions. The great weakness of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 wasn't that he was a rotten person. After all, he confessed that he had continually followed the law. Yet, his many possessions were more important to him than his spiritual welfare. When Jesus told him to go and sell his stuff and give the proceeds to the poor, the man went away "sorrowful" (Matthew 19:22).

Third, life is not about our work. There's nothing wrong with liking our work. In fact, liking our jobs is probably better than hating our jobs! Yet, we must remember that when life is over, all the work that we've done won't matter too much. Solomon pointed this out when he said, "What profit has a man from all his labor" and then went on to say that really, it doesn't matter at all (Ecclesiastes 1:3).

Fourth, life is not about family. Now this one is tough! All of us love our families (most of the time) and our relationships with spouses, parents, children, and the like are important. But, those relationships can never be more important than our relationship with God Himself. The Savior said, "he who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me" in Matthew 10:37. Simply put, God must always be number one.

Of course, that means that life IS about God and doing what He wants. Solomon concludes his writings by saying that the whole of man is to, "fear God and keep His commandments" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is truly the meaning of life and the purpose of our existence. When Jesus would come about centuries later, He pointed out that we are to love God first and love our neighbors too (Matthew 22:37-40). If each of us dedicate ourselves to doing that, we'll not only fully appreciate what living is all about but we'll also make our world a better place and most importantly, be more faithful in service to the great God of creation.