Knowing the right way gains you nothing. Christians have a tendency to identify themselves by their particular convictions about things: we know truth and we know what is right and wrong. We believe that this is the right way rather than what those people are doing. We believe these things about God and life and we don’t believe what those people claim to be true. In all this there is a great measure of futility. There is no point in wisdom and knowledge if we don’t actually embody and enact the ideas we so articulately contend for in words. Unless we actually live differently to those we would see as foolish and ignorant, then we are really no different in the end. “The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness,” says Solomon, “but I came to realise that the same fate overtakes them both” (2:14). We all die in the end and what matters when your life is assessed, as it certainly shall be, is not what you thought was true and right, but what you did. The Apostle Paul is clear on this: “God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Romans 2:6,7). Jesus saved us so that we could live a new Spirit-empowered life, not just so that we could hold correct convictions. Unless you actually live differently to other ‘godless’ people you are essentially the same as them.
Reflect on your life and priorities.
Read Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
