For me, truly living is...

How do you finish that sentence? Is it having fun or pursuing pleasure? There’s a name for that—hedonism. And there are many who would finish that sentence with the term pleasure. In a blog titled “My Life as a Hedonist,” a blogger wrote, “I am a hedonist, someone who believes the most important thing in life is the pursuit of pleasure. I believe what drives people is pleasure. Everything we do from binge-watching a television series to digging graves, we do to gain pleasure.”

Others might say, “Truly living is finding success at work.” Climbing that corporate ladder all the way to the top and taking the company as far as it can go. Elon Musk owns six multi-billion-dollar companies and advocates for 80-hour work weeks. He tweeted in 2018, “There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” He is known for his 100+ hours a week of work and often sleeping at his office instead of going home. A person could reasonably assume that for Elon Musk, truly living is success at work.

What about Fame? Truly living for some is the attention of your fans. They pursue that new subscriber or follower on their social media platform, growing their fan base. They post regularly and get a rush as the number of views and followers increase. Fame might be how they fill in that sentence.

Then there are the health and fitness gurus among. Such individuals focus their time and energy and money on keeping their body in elite shape. Bryan Johnson has dedicated his life to reversing the aging process. Netflix came out with a documentary series on him called, “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever. On Johnson’s Blueprint website he claims “I have the best comprehensive biomarkers in the world.” The site claims his numbers are optimal for practically every area you can measure (heart, lungs, skin, brain, eyes, ears, etc.) His rate of aging is .69 per calendar year. He follows a strict regimen of sleep, exercise, and diet in order to reverse the effects of aging. He goes to bed at exactly the same time every night after performing his hour preparatory sleep routine. He has achieved eight months of a perfect sleep score by following his strict protocol. He believes that with the help and continual advancement of AI that he could actually live forever in his physical body. Truly living for Bryan Johnson is pursuing perfect health and fitness.

Amidst the host of ways to complete that sentence, consider how the apostle Paul finished it in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ…” For Paul, truly living meant pursuing Jesus and getting to know him better. His goal in this life was deepening his relationship with Jesus and serving him. It was all about Jesus. Paul expressed this thought throughout his writings. In Philippians 3:8 he wrote, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” In I Corinthians 2:2 he wrote, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Jesus himself stated it like this in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Truly living is knowing Christ and growing in that relationship. Everything else falls short. Why is that the case? Listen to the second part of Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The only term you can use to make that whole statement true is Christ. Think about it. If I say, “For to me to live is fleshly pleasure,” then to die is loss. That all ends when we die. We’ll experience the eternal joy of Heaven but the fleeting pleasures of this life will be over. Well, what if I said, “For to me to live is success”? Can I continue and say, “To die is gain”? No. When I die, I no longer have any influence or input into the business I sacrificed my life to. To die is loss. What if I’m living for fame in this world? Again, to die is loss. There will be no likes or followers or YouTube subscribers in the afterlife. The focus won’t be on me at all but on Christ. How about if truly living is trying not to die like Bryan Johnson? What if I pursue ultimate fitness to live as long as possible in this body? This is the no brainer answer. If truly living for me is health and fitness to cheat death, then dying is the ultimate defeat. When Bryan Johnson dies, tragically that will be ultimate loss, not gain. None of us will be taking these bodies into eternity. God will give believers new glorified bodies to believers that will live forever.

The only word that you can place in that sentence to validate it is “Christ.” “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” If I embrace knowing, loving, and serving Christ as truly living, then dying is the ultimate gain. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” When we die we shall know Christ fully and experience an unhindered and untarnished relationship with our Lord Jesus. That is gain. That is glory. That is our ultimate joy and goal as believers. 

For to me to live is _____________ and to die is gain. Only Christ can make that sentence true.

So how are you filling in that blank in your life?