If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. — 1 Corinthians 3:12-15
When we first got married, JoAnn and I moved into a fairly decent apartment. It was only 900 square-feet, but that’s all we needed. It had a single bedroom which was a fairly good size. We were set. Some newly-married couples move around a bunch their first few years but JoAnn and I stayed in that little apartment for 5 years. There wasn’t really a reason to move.
But about year four we began to notice something: we weren’t getting much for our money. Sure, the rent was fair and we had a roof over our heads, but every month we wrote the rent check that was it–the money was gone, never to be seen again. All we were doing was buying a time slot for an allotted space. There was no real return for our money. That’s when we decided to buy a house.
Month-to-month, there is very little different between buying and renting. In both situations you have to make a payment every month. Renting, you write the check to the landlord. Buying, the check goes to the mortgage holder. Most times, buying a house is more expensive on a monthly basis. But there are two very distinct differences when you buy: every month brings you closer to a time when you no longer have to pay, and every month you gain a little more ownership. It’s the difference between spending and investing.
This always makes sense to us from a financial perspective. The funny thing is, we rarely apply this principle to our lives. In the passage above, Paul points out that every follower of Christ builds his spiritual house on the same foundation: Jesus Christ. But then God allows us to build on top of that foundation any way we please. The currency we use to build that house is the time we spend here on Earth. Every action, every choice, every pursuit is a piece of the “spiritual house” we are building. Some of those pieces are like rent–they won’t last. Others are like the mortgage payment–they continue into eternity.
So here is the question: are you spending your life, or investing it? We spend our lives when we give no thought to the future. For some of us, thinking about the future means thinking about tomorrow, or next week. Others think long-term means ten years down the road. But if you are a follower of Christ, your future extends throughout eternity. Realizing that should force you to think from an eternal perspective–force you to value only eternal things.
What are you taking with you into eternity?
