Now For The Sake Of Then

"There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." - Psalms 86:8-13

Some Christians have trouble with the concept that God is just. Not directly of course, but it is implied by the characteristics of God they ignore. Many Christians do not like that God sends people to hell. Many Christians do not like that God has a wrath, or a hatred. I wonder if these Christians would prefer that all unrepentant God-blasphemers not be punished. I, personally, prefer that our God is just. I prefer that our God does hate sin, does despise evil, does look on unrighteousness with fury.

If the Christian accepts the notion that God is not just, what are the repercussions? No one is punished for their sins; everyone gets to go to heaven; love doesn't exist. These are a few of the necessities for a world ruled by an unjust God. Looking at this list, I hope you quickly realize this is not the God we serve. This is a mythical god, it is not our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our God does punish sin, but not yet. The people living in sin are fortunate enough to be able to live out their lives with mere consequences of their sin, but not yet any true punishment. In fact, if they are to repent of their sin, they shall be saved, and they have a whole life-time to do so. As for us Christians, we are the opposite; our sufferings come during this age. Christians endure temporal suffering for the sake of eternal joy, whereas the unbeliever relishes temporal enjoyment and will suffer eternally for doing so. There is a choice to make here. Either suffer for a life-time, or for infinite life-times.

The Christian at this point may be thinking to them-self "I have suffered so little. I go to church sunday, I do all the right things, but I haven't suffered." I am sorry to tell you this, but if you have truly pursued the Christian way of life, you have surely suffered. You have been persecuted, slandered, hated, cursed, and worn-out. You will say "can one not be a Christian without suffering?" and I tell you no, they can not. "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:12). The Christian will be persecuted. Does not Jesus tell us "whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:38)?

I want you to understand, friends, that the Christian walk is a short period of suffering for the sake of eternal time with God! Endure my beloved, do not cast aside Christian values when life gets difficult, but push all the harder. When you don't have time for prayer, fast; when you don't have time to read your Bible, read it longer; when you don't have time to do the dishes, do the laundry too. Let the Spirit of Christ keep you and guide you in all that you do and always remember: temporary suffering, eternal reward. God bless you.