Some statistics to think about

When one compares the world with a village of 100 inhabitors, taking into account all the existing people, then the population of the village would be:
57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 Americans, 8 Africans
52 women, 48 men
70 coloured, 30 white
70 non-christians, 30 christians
89 hetero’s, 11 homo’s
6 persons would own 59% of the total wealth of the world
6 persons would have VS-Nationality
80 would be homeless
70 would be analphabetic
50 would be dependent on others
1 would die
2 would be born
1 would have a PC
1 would have a diploma

When you look at the world in this way, it becomes clear, that understanding, acceptance and studies are necessary.
When you woke up this morningand you are not ill, then you are happier than 1 million people who will die the coming days.
If you never experienced war, loneliness, hunger or suffering of the wounded, then you are luckier than 500 million people in the world.
If you can go to a church without feeling threatened, without being arrested or killed, then you are luckier than 3 billion people in the world.
When there is food in your refrigerator, you are dressed, have a home and a bed, then you are richier than 75% of the world’s inhibitors.
When you have a bank account, some pocket money in your wallet, or a little money in a box, then you belong to the 8% richest people in the world.

When you can read this, then you are double blessed, since:
1. Somebody thought about you
2. You don’t belong to the 2 billion people who cannot read
3. And…. You have a PC!!

Once somebody said:
Work – as if you don’t need money
Dance – as if nobody is looking
Sing – as if nobody is listening
Love – as if you have never been hurt by someone
Live – as if Paradise is here, on earth.

How do you live the rest of your life?

Today the sermon in church impressed me much, maybe also because almost a month ago I became 50. Such a 'honorable age of half a century' makes you look both back and ahead. Today’s sermon was in line with this process. Maybe that is the reason it stroke me. The Bible text for this sermon is Romans 13:8-14, where we get practical instructions how we must live as Christians in the light of the soon return of Jesus Christ.

The best time of your life
Wat are you going to do with the rest of your life? What do the statistics say about our time spending? When you become 70 years old, you have spent 24 years with sleeping, 17 years with working, 12 years with playing, 6 years with traveling, 7 year with eating, 3 years with dressing and 1 year in church.
Paul gives us in this part of Romans six practical tips how we can make the time, which God gives us still, to the best time of our life.

1. Solve (vs. 8)
“Owe no one anything”. When there is one practical advice is in the Bible, then you find it here. Paul doesn’t say that we may not borrow, take a mortgage, buy something on loan. De Lord Jesus says: “Give to him who asks of you, and you shall not turn away from him who would borrow from you.” (Matth. 5:42). But Psalm 37:21 reads: “The wicked borrows, and never pays again; but the righteous shows mercy, and gives.” Lending money is not forbidden in the Bible, but borrowing and not paying back, so that the debt remains is sin. Why does Paul talk about this? When you ever had financial problems, and maybe you have them right now, then you know how it can make you laying awake at night and how paralyzing it works. Paul is very practical here: when you want to make the best of the rest of your life, get rid of your debts. Start today with it.
This is not only about financial problems, but about debts in all areas of life. When there is still something to confess to somebody, talk something out, or if you fell short on somebody, than solve it. (compare Matth. 5: 23-26)

2. Build up (vs. 8b -10)
We all have one healthy debt to each other: owe no one anything, but love. There is nothing more building up God’s community than mutual love. We cannot spend our time until the Lord Jesus returns better than loving each other.
In the famous chapter about love (1 Cor. 13) it is clear that all we can do only guarantees fruit for God, when it is done with love for the other. In Greek there are two different words for “the other”. One words means “something else but of the same sort”, the other word means “something else but from a essential different sort”. It is striking that Paul uses the second word. It is easy to love people who are of the same sort, have same interests as you, who has nice character. But it is God’s order to love everybody, no matter how different the other is. There is the challenge.
Love is also fulfillment of the law. You can study on God’s word, His law, His rules, but if we want to keep the rest of our life simple yet fulfilling whole God’s law and building up the community, then we must just love each other.

3. Stand up (vs. 11)
How early do you get up in the morning? One is immediately awake; the other first needs a “coffee drip”. Proverbs 27:14 says: “He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.”
A Dutch encyclopedia give the following definition of sleep: a period in which the body remains in a state of decreased awareness, together with a reduced activity of all kinds of physiological processes.
Paul says: stand up, wake up. Of course he is not talking about the physical sleep, but about spiritual laziness and indifference. He talks about a state of reduced spiritual awareness which goes together with low spiritual activity. Be alert and know the present time. Be aware that the Lord Jesus may return any moment, even now, and be prepared. In parallel with these verses you can read Eph. 5:14-20.

The Lord Jesus has urged us to know the signs of time with alert, to see that this world is moving rapidly to its end (Matth. 24 and 25). Once a little boys stayed with his grandfather, who had an antique clock in the hall, which was off-stroke. One morning the clock turned all around and tolled 20 times in a row. The little boy ran into the room and yelled with enthusiasm: “Grandfather, it has never been so late before.”

Indeed, brothers and sisters, it has never been so late before. It is fove to twelve on God’s prophetical clock. Every day is another day closer to the returning day of Jesus Christ. Do we use our days well? Indifference, spiritual laziness and delaying good decisions are severe enemies of a healthy spiritual life. One of these days I will choose for God, Oh, ever will I visit a bible study group. There will be a day in future that I will have myself baptized. Do not delay, because today… is the first day of the rest of your life.

4. Fit out. (vs. 12)
One of the most commonly used images of a Christian is the image of a soldier. As good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Tim.2:3) we must harness ourselves with the weapons of light, ready for the battle. It is a crucial danger that we not even realize that we are in the state of war.
From the moment that you became a Christian, you became enemy of the devil. Paul calls upon us to put on the armor of God and keep the weapons of righteousness in our right- and left hand ready. (Eph.6:10-19, 2Cor.6:7)
It reminds us of the heroes who joined king David and were skillful to use bow and arrow and slings with both left- and right hand (1Kr.12:2).
Or it reminds us of the people of God who with Nehemia were building up Jerusalem despite constant attacks of the enemy, with the pear in one hand and doing the work with the other hand and keeping the sword on the hip. (Neh.4:17-18)
Paul mentions the following weapons: truth, righteousness, dedication for the gospel, belief, awareness of the salvationof our sins and the word of God. Solve your problems, build up the community with love, stand up an be alert, put on the armor of God.

5. Clean up (vs. 13)
The fifth tip for a healthy spiritual life until Jesus returns is to have a major cleanup. Throw away everything that stands in the way for a good relationship with God and your neighbor. According to the Lord Jesus you cannot be resolute and radical enough with it: “If your right eye offends you, pluck it out and throw it from you. For it is profitable for you … And if your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it from you….”. (Matth.5:29-30)
Paul lists the following: carousing and drinking, co-habitation and lustful acts. Everybody will agree that these are severe sins which are not to be allowed in the community. But in the same breath Paul mentions strife and envy, being as severe sins in the community as vice and dissoluteness. According to our thinking often discord and jealousy are mere shortcomings, annoying, but more accepted.
God attaches importance to unity, harmony and love in the community, and every quarrelsome and jealous behavior that disturbs this unity is sin. Let’s cleanup what is the way of a healthy personal spiritual life en the health of our community.

6. Put on (vs. 14)
The last tip of Paul is that we must put on the Lord Jesus Christ. With that sentence he means very practical, that our thinking and behavior must be like Jesus. Actually this last tip is a summary of the former and also the basis of it.
“Be like Jesus” is the title of a simple Dutch children song, by Elly and Rikkert, and you are fulfilling all earlier practical instruction for a healthy spiritual life as being obvious.

Put on Jesus Christ
The expression that we must put on Jesus Chrsit is only found twice in the New Testament . Here in Romans 13 it reflects our practical behavior, which must be into conformity with how Jesus is. The only other time this expression is used it has a much more fundamental meaning.

“For as many as were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ.” (Gal.3:27)

In the letter to the Galathians Paul tells how by the cross of Golgotha we are redeemed from our debt of sin and from the law which condemned us. For God this goes so far, that when He today looks at you and me, He in His great love sees us princippaly as perfect as His Son, as if we are completely dressed with the perfectness of the Lord Jesus.

Baptism
The message of Galathians is beautifully illustrated in the baptism. This truth is for God so important that He wants it been practically illustrated and emphasized in the baptism. Therefore the baptism is so important. When you know that Lord Jesus also died for your sins and you are not yet baptized, then do not delay and take the first opportunity to be baptized and be surrounded and covered with the love and perfectionism of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Augustinus
The famous church father Augstinus lived before his conversion a loosely life without God, until he came in touch with Christians and Gods Word. When he during a spiritual crisis in the year 386 at the age of 32 sat in the garden of his house in Milan, he heard a child sing: take and read, take and read. This stroke him and motivated him to start taking and reading the Bible. As he did this he was so moved by reading exactly the verses of Romans 13, especially the last two verses, Rom.13:13-14), he went down on his knees before God and accepted Jesus Chrsit as his Saviour and Lord. Augustinus was tired of a life without God and made the rest of his life the best time of his life. He became one of the greatest church leaders in history, deeply aware of Gods love also for him, Who also put Jesus Christ on him.

I hope that also we immerse the rest of this day and the rest of our lives in the love of God, dressed with Jesus Christ Who gave His life for us on the cross of Golgotha, but arose from the dead on the third day, returned to heaven to prepare place for us, and Who will come back on the clouds to gather His community.

Amen. Yes, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Amen

(Rev.22:21)