TIME IS SHORT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.

For this world in its present form is passing away.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Time is short.

Nothing this side of heaven is eternal. Not our lives. Not the world that we live in.

As sure as everything is created, it’s equally certain that everything will die. All created things will perish.

This is truth but we don’t seem to live in this reality. Rarely do people live with a sense of urgency. Rather, they go through life as if they have all the time in the world and a day usually comes when a person realizes they have let life slip away without accomplishing much at all and by that time, it’s typically too late to make amends.

As we see in today’s passage from our continued study of 1 Corinthians 7, we find that this way of living existed in biblical times as well. We know Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and as we see in these three verses, he is trying desperately to send a message about the brevity of life. Look again at his words here:

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.

For this world in its present form is passing away. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Now, this passage isn’t the easiest to understand and in these instances, I like to look at the verses from a different translation. I’ve found that this opens up new windows of understanding for us as we study the scriptures. To demonstrate my point, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 7, verses 29 through 31 as translated in the Contemporary English Version of the bible. It reads like this:

My friends, what I mean is that the Lord will soon come, and it won’t matter if you are married or not. It will be all the same if you are crying or laughing, or if you are buying or are completely broke. It won’t make any difference how much good you are getting from this world or how much you like it. This world as we know it is now passing away.

Here we get a richer insight into the main point Paul is trying to make with the Corinthian Christians. Jesus lived, died, was resurrected, and then ascended to the heavens to sit at the right hand of God in authority over all things in heaven and earth but He won’t remain absent from the world He departed. Rather, He is going to return, this time as the Judge of all mankind and once He has drawn those who believed in Him to His side, all others will enter into eternal damnation and torment (aka Hell) before the earth and heavens as we know it will be destroyed (Revelation 20:15, 21:1). Here’s what Jesus Himself said:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:36-37

Jesus is coming back. There is no question about this. There also isn’t any question that no one on earth knows when this will happen. It could be at any time. Maybe sometime today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe any single day afterwards. Jesus’ return could come at anytime and when it does occur, nothing else will matter. This is the main point Paul is making.

It won’t matter if someone is married or single.

It won’t matter if a person is filled with joy or sorrow.

The financial status of a person will be non-consequential. Ditto for anyone who has acquired an affinity for this world as we know it.

The world as we know it is on the path to death. As soon as Jesus returns, it will pass away, replaced by the new earth and its main city, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-2).

Time is short and this means Christians need to get busy carrying out the Gospel work Jesus called them to do because anyone who has not chosen to believe in Christ will be minus a Savior when He returns. There are literally millions upon millions of people on earth who would suffer eternally in Hell if Jesus came back right now. That shouldn’t make any of us feel comfortable.

It’s not the time to settle into a comfort zone. That time will only come for those saved by Jesus when He comes back to relocate them to a life eternal, a life where time will know no limit.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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