Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

Author:John Piper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Religion
ISBN: 9781581346107
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2004-04-13T22:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 7

LIVING TO PROVE HE IS MORE

PRECIOUS THAN LIFE

To make others glad in God with an everlasting gladness, our

lives must show that he is more precious than life. “Because your

steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm

63:3). To do this we must make sacrificial life choices rooted

in the assurance that magnifying Christ through generosity and

mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. If we walk away from

risk to keep ourselves safe and solvent, we will waste our lives.

This chapter is about the kind of lifestyle that may keep that

from happening.

HOW NOT TO BETRAY JESUS

If Christ is an all-satisfying treasure and promises to provide all

our needs, even through famine and nakedness, then to live as

though we had all the same values as the world would betray

him. I have in mind mainly how we use our money and how we

feel about our possessions. I hear the haunting words of Jesus,

“Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall

we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after

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DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). In other words, if we look

like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things,

we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ

look great. He will look like a religious side-interest that may

be useful for escaping hell in the end, but doesn’t make much

difference in what we live and love here. He will not look like

an all-satisfying treasure. And that will not make others glad

in God.

If we are exiles and refugees on earth (1 Peter 2:11), and if

our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and if nothing

can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35), and if

his steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3), and if all hard-

ship is working for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians

4:17), then we will give to the winds our fears and “seek first

the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

We will count everything as rubbish in comparison with Christ

(Philippians 3:7-8). We will “joyfully accept the plundering of

our property” for the sake of unpopular acts of mercy (Hebrews

10:34). We will choose “ rather to be mistreated with the people

of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin,” and we will

count “the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures

of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:25-26).

WHY DON’T PEOPLE ASK US ABOUT

OUR HOPE?

There is no doubt that if we lived more like this, the world

would be more likely to consider whether Jesus is an all-sat-

isfying Treasure. He would look like one. When was the last

time someone asked you about “the reason for the hope that

is in you”? That’s what Peter said we should always be ready

to give an answer for: “Always be prepared to make a defense

to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in

you” (1 Peter 3:15).

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LIVING TO PROVE HE IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN LIFE

Why don’t people ask us about our hope? The answer is

probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do.

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