Title: Philosophy of temporality / Luke 17:22-37
Contents
Philosophy of temporality / Luke 17:22-37
“Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will want to see a day on the Day of the Son of Man, but you will not see it...” On that day, if a man is on the roof and his belongings are in the house, he shall not come down to pick it up, nor shall he in the field turn back in the same way... Where the corpse is, the eagles gather.
Man is a temporal being. There is a time to be born and a time to leave. It is people who come and go at that time. In the East, time is viewed as a cycle. It was believed that the seasons came and went, and that they went round and round endlessly. A typical Buddhist doctrine is Circulation. For example, all living things are reincarnated, so killing is also forbidden. On the other hand, some argue that humans create time. They even shout to become the creators of time. However, all of this is foolish and wrong in God's time. The writer of Ecclesiastes gives us the concept of accurate time. It is a human being to enjoy a 'given' time. People are not able to take advantage of this time. Human beings live in the times set by God. But it's up to us to make use of that given time. You can't do what you're given, but you can use it
So, you should plant when you need to plant, and knock when you knock on the door. To make good use of the time is to do what should be done at the time. The verse in the text explains two times as an example.
The first is 'the days of Noah'. It is an example of a time when a person is living well and has a little more leisure time. The time has come for the sons of God to associate with the daughters of men. It is full of luxury, debauchery, and lewdness. It made them lament when they saw the world that God had created. So it was judged by water. At that time, Noah was living through that time by faith, and he was a man of faith who knew the will of God and lived his life. In other words, Noah made good use of his time and came to salvation.
The second is 'the time of Lot'. You are giving an example of not using the time well. The destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had been foretold through an angel of God. When Lot shared God's will to his sons-in-law, he was joking and burned to death on the Day of Judgment. Fortunately, Lot's family managed to escape, but only his wife, possessed by material lust, looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. The explanation that she was a very greedy woman even though the angel of God had asked her to do so is still being pointed out at the shape of the pillar of salt.
The days of Noah and the days of Lot have the following in common. The first was when we did not follow God's will, and the second was that it was the age of humanism. Because they could not understand the will of God, the greed and hope of faith disappeared, and human greed prevailed. Third, it was a time of depravity, indulgence, and sexual promiscuity. Noah used the same time for good and was saved by faith and accomplished a great work that could be a turning point in history, and Lot's wife is being pointed at as a pillar of salt because of human greed.
During this trip to the United States, I carefully looked at the ship at the Titanic Museum I visited. The great ship sank due to the captain's negligence, and I was curious to know what the fare was for those in first class. The records show that the first class fare was $2,500 ($10,000 in today's money) and $35 ($120 in today's money) for the third class. However, as a result of the sinking of the ship, relatively few people in first class suffered casualties. The passengers who were below the third class died without even being able to get up. I don't think our beliefs are like that. We must become those who are saved by first-class faith. It is true that there is such a distinction in faith. There is also a first-class faith of diligently serving, evangelizing, and tithing, and a third-class faith that just goes to church and sits quietly in a corner of the chapel.
How are you? Of course, the fact of being saved is the same. The thief who was saved by dying on the right side of the cross of Jesus is saved, but he has no reward or crown. Our believers' faith must also be first-class faith. We should make good use of the time of faith.
In the words of the text, we can see the disciples asking Jesus, who were curious about that time. But Jesus' answer was that it doesn't matter how or when the time of the kingdom of God will come. The important thing is to make good use of the time given to you by faith. When we do worthwhile service for the Lord, we accomplish the work of the kingdom of God.
If you do not use your time well, and if you do not use your place well, you will disappear from the time of history. What will our Shindang Central Church look like 50 or 100 years from now? How will you use your time? It is something that we must work hard to gather and evangelize. We must believe well and do a lot of volunteer work to make it like the days of Noah. Amen.