Question
“Why should we as people play, build and do things if it is only going to be destroyed in 10 to 1000 years?”
Response
First of all, working to obtain things, working to accomplish things, working to produce things, pursuing various activities, and the like, are all part of man’s nature and makeup. Or in other words, they are part of what makes man to be man. When God created man, He did not create man to be ‘bump on a log,’ so to speak. To just be an ornament on the earth, or an idle fixture. Rather man was created to labor and to work; actually, to labor and work with God in His design and purpose for the earth, and in the accomplishing of His business on the earth. And even though man became sinful by nature, and as such his work, play, activities, and the like, are not now by nature godly nor God honoring, the things that make man to be man still exist. In other words, the fundamental issues of working at things, working to produce things, pursuing industrious activities, as well as play, and the like, are still a part of man’s makeup. Sin has not erased these issues from man’s makeup at all. Hence, there are reasons for working and the like that exist simply because they belong to man’s makeup/nature. And they belong to all men, being part of the makeup of all men, including that of Christians.
Moreover, in connection with sin’s entrance into the world and its results, man now needs to exert labor and to work in order to obtain from the earth things necessary for his living on it. Fundamental living and livelihood demand it. And this is so and not only true with regards to a man’s individual living on this earth, but it is also true and needful for his living within the structure for orderliness and restraint that God ordained when He established the issue of men living on the earth in various nations with civil and organized societies, and all of the issues that would belong to them, etc. So regardless of what is eventually going to happen in the day when God has His day of wrath and righteous judgment, man has reasons to work and needs to work to obtain things, accomplish things, advance things, and the like. These natural reasons are in effect and remain so. And therefore, they in and of themselves are reasons enough for working, etc.
However, for a Christian there are reasons that exceed those that are common to man. Specifically in view of our sanctification “in Christ” we have the profound privilege of God’s grace to be able to honor and glorify God right now in the details of our daily lives. And this is something we can do even in such ‘mundane’ things as our jobs and the like. In view of this the apostle Paul, for example in Ephesians 6:5-9 and Colossians 3:22-4:1, exhorts believing servants and masters (believing employees and employers) to understand and appreciate this in their respective work. Hence even though we ourselves are the ones who know what is coming when after God concludes this present dispensation of His grace He has His day of judgment and wrath, we are not taught to look at our present time common labor, work, and necessary activities, as if it is fruitless or without value. Rather we are taught the opposite. We are taught that they are not only natural and needful for the common reasons that were previously stated, they are also to be understood, appreciated, and engaged in by us as opportunities in which we are able to put our sanctified position “in Christ” into practice, and thereby right now serve our Lord in righteousness to His honor and glory. And as we do so, it will be the “fruits of righteousness” that are brought forth by such sanctified labor that will last and endure, even though the present time environment in which we bring them forth will undergo judgment from God in His coming day of judgment and wrath.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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