Title James 04:13-17 Eschatological Goodness
Contents
apocalyptic good deed
James 4:13-17
If we say that the first Sunday is our start, the last Sunday has the same meaning as the end. The Christian view of history is straightforward. Buddhism says it goes round and round because it is reincarnation, but Christianity has a beginning, a course, and an end. The Christian view of time is that time passes, once gone, never comes again. An unprecedented year in our lives is approaching.
Whether we live in youth, in adulthood, or in old age, we only live once. We don't have time to practice. Many people think that life is a practice, but we don't have the opportunity to practice, repeat, because we all go through life once in childhood or as an adult. It's just one time and it's just the end. Following this direction of history, life only goes through once. No one is by chance. Therefore, each passing day in our life is our last, our last, our all. As we close this solemn year, we will have to reflect on ourselves.
In order to live wisely, a person must know three things. The first is awareness of one's existence. 'Why do I exist, why do I have to live, and who am I?' Knowing the essence of who I am is the supreme wisdom of being human. The most important thing is to know your identity. It is the wisest thing to think about why I was born and exist in this era in this history. This is what it means to know life rightly.
The next step is knowing what to do. Human beings live in this world and feel rewarded by what they do, creating their lives. Because he himself has meaning for it. When you feel valued for what you are doing, you feel the meaning of your life.
In the course of life, there is puberty and there is puberty. Puberty is a time to think about spring as a boy, and puberty is a time to think about autumn. So, in adolescence, we pursue the beauty of our appearance just as flowers bloom in the bright spring season. So, when I was young, I often change my clothes, my characters were lively, and my whole life was consistent with the pursuit of beauty. However, if you are over 40, you are not satisfied with your appearance. Because squash thinks of autumn, there is no beauty in flowering. If you go to the mountains, the autumn flowers are shabby. Autumn must have fruit. A tree must have fruit, and a grain must have fruit for it to be beautiful, but there is no beauty when it blooms.
If you are over 40, your life should have meaning. It has to be worth it. It should be rewarding. It's not worth it even if you're over 40. Then, life starts to become empty from that point on. Many people over the age of 50 suffer from depression. When I look back on the past and feel the emptiness, 'How did my life come to be?', that life becomes depressing. Why? Because the purpose of life is not clear. It is a loss of purpose. This is where he starts to feel the meaninglessness of his life.
As the year goes by, you have to look at yourself to see if you are doing what suits your purpose in life.
The third is to know the end of life. The end is the day your life ends. It's the day to die. The day I leave this world. There is always an end to man. There are days to die. To live knowing your own end is wonderful wisdom.
The end doesn't just mean some death. There are days when a business goes well. There are days when a child who enters school graduates from school. If you go to work, one day you will come out. If you go up, there will come a day when you will fall. He who knows the end knows the age of life and knows the futility of life. I know that life is short. It counts the days you live.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a moment and then vanishes” (verse 14).
The apostle James gave us a brief and clear expression of the shortness of life, its futility, and its fragility. “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a moment and then vanishes.”
What are you thinking now? 'A year is gone! The years that will never come again in my life are passing by!' You will feel such a sense of emptiness.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may be wise in how many days we live” (Psalm 90:12).
“O LORD, make known my end and what is of my days, that I may know my weakness” (Psalm 39:4).
Once upon a time, David was a great man. Even though he was in a splendid position as the king of a country, he thought about the end of mankind, thought about time, and knew that humans were fragile.
“You have made my days the width of my hand, and my whole life is as if nothing before you; for truly every man’s time when he stood firm was in vain” (Psalm 39:5).
They say that their business is strong and their health is strong, but they do not know when this will disappear like a fog. King Solomon, who described the futility of life well, said that the futility of life is chasing the wind. “I have seen all that is done under the sun, it is all vanity and a chasing after wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
The wind is not caught. But, like many people chasing after the wind, life is foolish and vain.
“What is your life? You are a mist that is visible for a while and then vanishes.” In this previous verse, “You do not know what will happen tomorrow.” This phrase precedes this. What is tomorrow? Tomorrow is not your day. If God gives it to you, if you don't, it doesn't exist. In other words, every day of your life is a day that the Lord has given you, and if you allow it, it is my day, and if you take it away, it is not your day. So, wise people live in a private house called this earth for the period of the lease that God has given to me, and they know that it will end when they say, “End it.” This is life.
God has given us the period of our premortal life. One year has now passed during the charter period. Today is the last day. So you have to calculate. That is why our ancestors who passed away wrote these poems about the days of life, about the futile lives that passed by.
Who gave my youth and who brought white hair?
If I had known the path of gray hair, I would have stopped it
Even though I knew it, I couldn't stop it, so I feel sorry for him.
Someone did. “Because you’re over 60, a year is new, when you’re over 70, a new month, and over 80, a new day.”
It is the same as feeling futile about the fact that our time is passing. But we must not be deceived during our short life. How great is the injustice when you are being scammed of the wealth you accumulated while you were young or the money you had after retirement? It is being deceived by time. It is to live my youth as if I was deceived, to live in vain by being deceived by a short life when I was busy with vain things, and then I should not become a being who would grieve and suffer as if I was deceived.
What is deceiving me? “Listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we will go to any city, and stay there a year, and trade and see what we are doing” (verse 13).
He has no God, no purpose for God, no plan for God. Most people today live with this spirit in the name of Christ. It has no purpose. When you make money, you must have a purpose to make money, and when you run a business, you must have a purpose of business, but there is no purpose. Building a building should not be the purpose of business. After that, we Christians should aim for that high place.
Not long ago, a bearer made a business at the Pyeonghwa Market and received a 50 million won savings account and received a plaque and a savings award from the bank. The moderator asked the winner. “What are you going to do with that money?” The winner answered without hesitation. "I have to save. And I want to save 50 million won this year too. So I'll make 100 million won." The moderator asks again. “What are you going to do with that 100 million?” “I will continue to save and make one hundred and fifty thousand.”
I thought this guy was great. Of course, it is really surprising to say that he saved 50 million won by selling full bread. But I have no idea what to do with that money.
People have fun making money, and having money is fun. But the last one is no fun. Spending money is no fun. It should be fun to spend money, get compliments, and get rewards.
What purpose do you live for now? What purpose did you live for when you close the year? Is it just your mind, 'Today or tomorrow, you will earn money and see it'? Many people today say that if you make money, you are successful because you want to die while building or expanding your business. However, how many lives have gone bankrupt? How many people have made money and broke their consciences? If others say that he has failed, but he stands right before God, if he has hope for tomorrow and is thankful, he is a successful person. We should not be deceived about our own lives.
In fact, there are so many people who live without purpose around us, and we should learn a lesson from them.
Jesus left the end of the foolish as a lesson.
“There was a rich man in the field that yielded abundantly, and he thought in his heart, “What shall I do, since I have no place to store the grain?” And he said, “I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and goods there. I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:16-19).