Living for Today

It was described as ‘the harshest Budget for a generation’, with its ‘harsh medicine of tax hikes and spending cuts’.¹ The new Chancellor’s financial programme, presented to Parliament on June 22, was an attempt to reduce the huge deficit in the British Government’s accounts. This is not the place to discuss the wisdom or otherwise of the Chancellor’s proposals. But there can be no doubt that, sooner or later, something must be done to straighten out Britain’s finances; the country has been living beyond its means, just like many individuals – who make large numbers of purchases on credit, incurring debts which prove difficult or impossible to pay off.

Many people have been living for today and forgetting tomorrow. They have been anxious to possess the good things of life today and to indulge in the sinful entertainments which so effectively distract sinners from thinking about their responsibilities to God and the state of their souls, while they ignore tomorrow, when they will have to pay off the debts they have incurred and the interest, often unbelievably high, that follows these debts.

While they are living for this life, they are forgetting eternity. Their philosophy is the old one referred to by Isaiah: ‘Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die’ (22:13). Everybody knows they must die, but most people assume that it will not happen in the foreseeable future, most certainly not today. Accordingly they are not concerned to worship God from the heart; most of them do not acknowledge him at all; they do not feel their need of repentance, of a new heart and of forgiveness for all their sins – particularly for their unbelief and their rejection of God. As they ignore eternity, they do not feel their need of preparing for it.

Yet there are some who cannot ignore eternity completely; they have heard sermons warning of the danger of meeting death while unprepared for it. But they follow the philosophy which Isaiah opposed; they feel safe in living for the things of this world, as they irresponsibly assure themselves that they still have plenty of time to prepare for eternity. How awful the end of those who stumble blindly into a lost eternity with religion in their heads but none in their hearts! The devil is busy blinding their eyes, just as effectively as he deceives those who completely reject religion or follow a false religion.

The present financial uncertainty is a call from God to this generation to turn to him. While we should acknowledge that most people in the West remain, by historical standards, very well off, we should recognise that the prospect of ever-increasing prosperity was indeed an illusion. Real incomes were, on the whole, increasing steadily, but people did not recognise God as the giver. And we do have many reasons for thankfulness, particularly if we have sufficient to eat and to drink, and have clothes and shelter and friendship. We should be thankful too for the greater gift of the Word of God – though we should ask ourselves if we are making good use of it. In it there are riches – Christ, and all spiritual blessings through him – which are pressed upon us, but how unwilling sinners are to receive them!

Some people may be remarkably contented in very poor circumstances. But spiritual contentment is a wonderful grace. A minister visiting in a hospital came across an old man who was suffering severe pain. The minister started to sympathise with him and asked, ‘Is there anything, my friend, that you want?’ ‘No,’ the old man answered, ‘I have many mercies and blessings in this place. I want only one thing.’ ‘And what is that?’ the minister asked. ‘I want’, the man explained, ‘a more thankful heart.’ Here surely was true spiritual contentment; indeed the old man’s desire for thankfulness indicated that he already had a good measure of that grace.

On the other hand, the Saviour spoke of those who lay up worldly treasures for themselves but are ‘not rich toward God’ (Luke 12:21). He gave the example of the prosperous farmer whose ground was particularly fruitful that year. The farmer looked forward to years of relaxation; he told himself: ‘Thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry’. He was rich for this life, but he had not provided for the next; he had no treasure in heaven; he was unprepared to face eternity.

What God said to him must have been as devastating as it was unexpected: ‘Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?’ Of course, it did not matter who would inherit the crops his fields had produced during that wonderful year; what mattered was that he would not be spared to enjoy them. He would have to leave them behind, and – what was most serious – he had nothing to take with him to the eternal world. Riches in time, and utter poverty in a lost eternity- without even a drop of water to cool his tongue! David Brown, comments on this man: ‘As to God’s favour which is life, and precious faith, and riches in good works, and the wisdom which is better than rubies, and, in a word, all the Lord esteems true riches, he lives and dies a beggar’.

Christ told his disciples: ‘Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink . . . For all these things do the nations of the world seek after’ (Luke 12:29, 30). The disciples must accordingly have a higher focus: ‘But rather seek ye the kingdom of God’. Besides, they were to trust in God’s provision, for they were assured: ‘All these things [food, drink and everything else they needed for this life] shall be added unto you’. And they were further encouraged to trust in the goodwill of him who had adopted them into his family: ‘Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things’.

Yet the Saviour was not setting up a total contrast between human effort and divine provision. After all, God works by means, both in temporal and in spiritual matters. The disciples, and the followers of Christ in all ages, are not to neglect their duties in this life – including whatever they need to do to earn their daily bread. But Christ was emphasising that in everything they must look to their heavenly Father to bless these means – with a consciousness that the good things of this life are not an end in themselves. Their great responsibility is to make sure that they have a place in the kingdom of God, and to seek its prosperity.

James reminds us that ‘the poor of this world’ may be ‘rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him’ (2:5). So all will be well with them. Even death will be a blessing; it will usher them into the eternal riches of heaven. And in this life, God is promising that he will ‘supply all [their] need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 4:19).

We are not to treat this world as our permanent home. We are not to look on the things of this life as if nothing else mattered. Yes, we may appreciate the comfort and beauty we experience; we will value kind friends and loving relations; but we must not be surprised if we lose them. We must not so set our hearts on them that we are in despair without them. Our hearts must be set supremely on God and on the things of God; if we once have them, we will never lose them.

Suppose Paul lays aside a half-finished tent and the implements he has been using and turns his attention to finishing his Epistle to the Hebrews. He reflects, perhaps, on the work he has been doing to support himself in this life; he appreciates all the provision that God is making for him in providence; but his heart is not set on any of these things. His focus is on something higher and better; so he reminds the Hebrews: ‘Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come’ (13:14). In a time when our outward circumstances may have become more difficult than they once were, let us seek grace increasingly to set our hearts, not on the things of this world, but on Christ and the city which he has prepared for those who love him!