Utter Foolishness

"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

The above verse from 1 Corinthians 15:19 comes from a passage where Paul is explaining to the Corinthians how essential it is for Christians to believe in the Resurrection (firstly of Jesus, then our own in the future) (because some of them had doubts about that!). Correctly interpreted in its context, Paul's point was that if Christians did what they did but did not believe in the Resurrection, then we are utter fools because living in a Christ-like manner in this world costs too much and gains nothing if there was no such thing as Eternal life.

However, last night something hit me about this verse : I had a profound thought that looked at this verse from a different angle that I had not thought of before.

So last night I was watching the movie Battleship. I won't spoil it for you, but among other things, it was talking about this guy that had incredible potential but wasted it completely by just being a drunken brawling mess of a man. In short, an utter fool.

As I was coming out of the movie, two things struck me: this verse, and the realisation that I knew people like this guy. Not in a worldly sense but in a spiritual sense.

Lately I've been seeing a fair few of my Christian brothers and sisters throw their lives away in worldly pursuits. Gaming is a prominent one; some are so addicted to it that they would prefer it over sleep! Similar to that is the addiction to the pursuit of friendship and fun; they think that simply hanging out with Christian friends is the equivalent of real Christian fellowship, never realising that they keep on excluding Christ out of these gatherings. Or else they might pursue their studies as if that was all that mattered in life. Older ones are pursuing careers, their first house, worldly riches and worldly comforts. None of them are pursuing Christ.

But the problem is that they know that they're supposed to be living for more! We hear day-in day-out about our living hope in Christ, how we are looking forward to His Kingdom coming. Yet so many of us live as if God's Kingdom is of no importance; we are living life as if "only for this life we have hope in Christ".  And that is an incredibly pitiful site; "we are to be pitied more than all men".

This thought fills me with great sadness about the state of things for a lot of my brothers and sisters. But I suppose it means there's just more work to do! :)