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As a 19-year-old student I remember a friend telling me his motto: 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' - he told me that he would rather party all night getting drunk and fat - he would have all the time he wanted to relax and sleep when he was dead. How many people today have this attitude? And how long has this attitude been around for?

Isaiah was well aware of this worldview and pointed it out on many occasions: '“Come,” they say, “let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.”' (Isaiah 56:12) In other words, let's get drunk today because tomorrow we'll wake up just as we did this morning - and then we can do it all again! '“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”' (Isaiah 22:13) In other words, life is short - so let's make the most of the time we have on this planet by eating and drinking, two things we will not be able to do when we're dead! It would not be hard to imagine sticking the words 'and have as much sex as possible' onto this list.

The Apostle Paul was also aware of this attitude around 800 years later - he quoted Isaiah's words in 1 Corinthians 15:32. Indeed, it would appear that this mindset appears to be the default fallen view of life on this planet. Richard Dawkins, the atheist lecturer at Oxford University and author of such books as The God Delusion, recently caused a bit of a stir when he headed up the scheme to put adverts on the side of London buses saying: 'There's probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy yourself'. He obviously missed out on the teaching that said: 'if there's even the slightest possibility that God exists, fear for your life'.

What does this all mean?

Well, Paul’s view on this was clear, and is challenging if we will accept it. He said that ‘if the dead are not raised’ (i.e. if the gospel is not true) then we may as well hold the same attitude as the non-Christians. But if it is true, if Jesus really did die in our place, and if our eternity depends on this then our existence should be dramatically different. He concludes in 1 Corinthians 15:34: ‘Wake up from your drunken stupor…and do not go on sinning.’

Earlier in the chapter he touched on the same note: ‘if Christ has not been raised…we are of all people most to be pitied.’ (1 Corinthians 15:17-19) Why pitied? There can only be one answer: the life lived by a Christian should be pitiable by the world’s standards because (1) we deny ourselves the world’s ‘fleeting pleasures of sin’ (Hebrews 11:25) and (2) opt instead for a life of potential suffering in the name of Jesus.

Suffering

I never particularly like using myself as an illustration but on this occasion it fits. While at university as a new Christian I had a part-time job, and I was offered a promotion provided I would work on a Sunday. I said no because I wanted to go to church, so the promotion went to my colleague. My friends who worked with me pitied me for turning down the good offer – that’s Paul’s words in practice. Now my ‘suffering’ is incredibly trivial in comparison to the suffering that some go through but I think it serves the purpose well; I chose to ‘suffer’ with the low wage when I could have accepted the promotion easily!

I genuinely believe that as Christians we are called to suffer. If you looked at your life and compared it to Paul’s description then how would it line up? Are you ‘of all people most to be pitied’? Or do you have it quite nice actually? Does your faith cause you to be pitied by those around you? Or are you admired somewhat for your high moral standards?

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

Things that go bump in the night