Expiration Date
All of the food we buy store has an expiration date printed on the package.
Sometimes it is called “shelf life.” In other words the edible item will last only so
long before it deteriorates and becomes unsuitable for human consumption.
In a similar way, every human also has an expiration date. No it is not printed on
us when we are born, but Hebrews 9:27 does say: “And as it is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Man has a shelf life in this
physical world because no human will live indefinitely on earth. Everyone will
eventually expire including you and I.
Needless to say, no one knows how long they will live. Some people die as
infants. Babies have heart problems, lung problems, SIDS, and other health
issues. Sometimes people die when they are teenagers. High school aged kids
die from various causes: i.e. auto accidents, the flu, and even from practical
jokes that go wrong. People have died in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties
of heart attacks, cancer, pneumonia, and diabetes. There are numerous other
ways people die: such as, drowning, fire, storms, falling, choking, electrocuted,
and on and on. We never know when that moment will come.
Yes, we all plan on living a full number of years and dying of old age; which
many, many people do. Someone said the other day that there are 77,000
Americans who have reached their one hundredth birthday. That’s both
amazing and wonderful. However, most people do not live to be a hundred. The
average life span for the woman is 81 years old and the man lives to be about 76
on the average.
The fact of the matter is, if the world stands long enough, you and I are going to
fill a cemetery spot whether we like it or not. There will probably be a funeral in
which someone will say something about your life. But what they say about
you at your funeral will not mean one thing as to whether you will go to
heaven or be lost in hell.
If at moment of death we were living a life of sin then people can say very nice
things about us at our funeral and it will not make one bit of difference, we will
still be lost. Why? Because the Bible says the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23);
and that’s talking about the second death (Rev. 21:8).
However, if at the time of our death we were living as a faithful servant of God,
then the Lord says that we will receive a crown of life (Rev. 2:10). Since no
person knows the day or the time they will expire from this world,
Revelation 2:10 should be our incentive to live each day faithfully serving
God.
Massey
Richard