 Earthly Good
Last week, we looked at the idea of progressivism here. This week let’s think more about what we should be progressing toward. Have you heard the old saying, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good?” While I’m sure the original meaning of this phrase was that many people can get bogged down in foolish controversies and debates about the hereafter, which are not revealed in scripture and only promote disunity, this would be akin to people debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. However, I think that the statement is simply wrong. What this statement implies is that individuals who think of heaven often and deeply will not be practical in their decisions and actions. But by what standard would we judge this practicality? One must assume that the standard is how efficient and successful the person is in this temporal realm. But if one’s practicality is judged on the eternal effects, then wouldn’t it be advisable for everyone to be as heavenly minded as possible so as to increase success quotient in the eternal realm. I suppose it could be that the statement is right, but who cares if the 80 or so years you have on earth are fantastic if your eternity is terrible! Good Investments I’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey alot lately and one of the things that he points out is that what is good long term is usually hard in the short term. Spending now is of course more immediately gratifying than saving and investing but someday when you have an emergency, those savings will be a blessing. And someday when you are ready to move from your work earning a living to the work of finishing well, you will be thankful for the investment! So as we consider earthly and heavenly thinking, which equates to temporal and eternal thinking, practically we must be focused on the long term gain not the short term benefits. The Apostle Paul refers to us longing to put on our heavenly dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:2) He also encourages us as believers to seek the things which are above us, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1-4). This is where our minds ought to be focused and our efforts ought to be invested. If we truly believe that we are going to live forever with God and that how we live now will affect that eternity for us and for others, then why would we not live toward that end? Short Sighted Everyone knows they need to be saving and investing, but statistics show that most people are not doing either one. This is probably because people think that they have plenty of time for that later or they genuinely don’t think about the fact they will someday reach a point in life where they will need those long term benefits. I believe it is the same with Christians and eternity. Many Christians really don’t think about it in concrete terms. Also, many have fatalistic ideas of eternity. By this I mean that they believe that they have been saved by grace and so they are going to heaven and that their eternity will be the same regardless of how they live the rest of their lives. But that’s not true! Our eternal lives will forever be affected by what has taken place in the body even for those who have been graciously saved by God. The Apostle Peter said it this way in 2 Peter 3:11-13. “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” So what do you think? What sort of lives ought we to live? Heavenly minded or Earthly Minded?
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