The Walking Dead!
1Tim.5:5-6 - Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and
continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in
pleasure is dead while she lives
Dead and yet alive? This bears investigation!
"She" peers intently at the mirror. The reflection staring back is beautiful and
flawless. Perfect health is obvious. Even old age (early stages of dying) is
nowhere evident --not even a wrinkle to be seen. Yet God looks, and sees only
her corpse!
In my garden, squash plants all look lush. No bugs at all. You see no squash
borer. In stealth, he enters the stem and eats the inside of the stalk. Abruptly,
the squash wilts and dies -- dead from the inside. So is this woman. She is
already dead --dead from the inside. On the other hand, "she who is really a
widow" is old and gets older. Yet she is alive --inside and out. She will still be
vitally alive when she expels her last breath --alive even when she is dead.
Why is "she" "dead while she lives"? --because she "lives in pleasure." Enjoying
life is not evil; this is rather a problem of emphasis. "Pleasure" is not the focal
point of life; fun does not define life. For many, fun is more important than
money --they only work so they can afford to play. Pleasure is all there is to her
life. If it is not fun, she will have none of it. Fun is her absolute demand. Contrast
now the "really widow" who "trusts in God." God is her core of life; faith is her
solid connection to Him. Even if she is poor --or alone --or old, she has God. God
is her life; He does not fail her. The "dead while she lives" woman stakes all on
pleasure. Trusting God comes in a distant second best --if at all! Her choice is
fatal!
How bad is this "living in pleasure" problem? Just a little flaw? --a slight glitch?
No! She missed life --"living in pleasure" killed her. This is deadly serious.
She has no exclusive on "dead while she lives." It is not gender specific. Men are
plagued with the disease at least as much as women --and results are the same.
Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his
own eyes.
This deadly blight is also not exclusive to living in pleasure. All living in sin (life
characterized by the practice of any sin) has the same fatal result. A drunk
eventually dies from drinking, but has already destroyed his own spiritual life long
before he expired. An immoral man suffers numerous ills and consequences from
carousing, but his "sins against his own body"(1Cor.6:18) already killed his inner
man. Lying is usually not a life threatening matter --according to who you lie to
and what you lie about. However, it is always fatal to the soul.
"Dead while she lives" also conjures up in my mind some church applications as
well. Some churches are dead --already dead --and no one even notices. Nothing
seems amiss; everything proceeds as it always has. The church died, but no one
grieves --nor laments --nor cries. There are no efforts at resuscitation. That is
sad!
A church is dead while alive when the ability to edify the members is lost. People
are not mean or rebellious. Yet no one edifies the saints! No one is "equipping ...
the saints for the edifying of the body of Christ"(Eph.4:12) --which is a
fundamental purpose of the church. They will not grow better, but they will
eventually weaken --and wither --and just dry up. By then, they will have been
dead a long time --just waiting to be buried.
A church is dead while alive when a sense of worship has expired. Awe in God’s
presence is forgotten. Songs are dirges; prayers are by rote. Bread and grape
juice are consumed without remembering. The "acts of worship" are all in place,
but "worship" is gone. Ritual rules! The church is dead --just waiting for the doors
to close.
A church is dead while alive when spiritual fervour burns out --where they are
"neither hot nor cold"(Rev.3:15) --when they are not "stirred up" being "put in
remembrance"(2Pet.3:1). Oh yes, they are dead --just waiting for the funeral.
A church is dead while alive when a zeal for souls is gone. At that very point, the
church is as good as dead. Surely no one will notice it --or accept it. Sooner or
later, people move --die --desert the Lord until finally, no one is left. The building
is an empty monument. The church has been embalmed for many years; it is now
time to proceed to the cemetery.
Amos 8:11-12 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD God, "That I will
send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the LORD.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to
and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it.
John 8:32
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
ARE YOU READY TO DIE?
"I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the
Lord Jesus" (Acts 21:13).
The words of our text were spoken by Paul as he was going toward Jerusalem. A
prophet said he was going to suffer at the hands of the Jews, and his friends had
tried to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem. Why could Paul so confidently
affirm that he was ready to die? Death is so serious that most of us dread the
experience, but it held no fears for Paul. He had faced death so many times that
he did not fear it. Furthermore, Paul had so prepared himself for death that he did
not fear it. But how had he prepared himself for death?
Proper Relationship.
Paul was ready to die because he had established the proper relationship with
God. This relationship is expressed in the phrase "in Christ."
If one is in Christ he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). In Christ we have
redemption (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14). In Christ we have all spiritual
blessings (Ephesians 1:3). Those who die in the Lord are blessed (Revelation
14:13). Those who die in the Lord and sleep in Jesus will rise to meet Him when
He comes (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).
The question comes, how did Paul get into Christ? Paul answers that question by
saying, "We were baptized into Christ" (Romans 6:3).
And he speaks of others being baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27).
So we conclude that when he believed in Jesus, repented of his sins and
acknowledged Jesus as his Lord (Rom. 10:9-10), he was in a position to be
baptized into Christ.
Being in Christ where he enjoyed redemption through the blood, Paul was ready
to die and sleep in Jesus until the Lord comes for him.
Divorced From the World.
Paul could say that he was ready to die because he had so completely divorced
himself from the world and the love of the world that he was ready for heaven.
Many people who have been baptized into Christ still love the world and the works
of the flesh to such an extent that they are not ready to die.
Paul teaches that some people of his day, though in Christ, were walking after the
flesh and warned that if they continued to practice such things they would not be
permitted to enter heaven (Romans 8:12-13; Galatians 5:19-21).
Eph 5:14,15 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as
fools, but as wise.