One Life To Live
The title of this week’s article has the same name of a popular soap opera that was broadcast in America from July 15,1968 through January 13, 2012. This daytime drama began with thirty-minute episodes each weekday. In 1976, episodes were expanded to a forty-five-minute timeframe. Then, in 1978, the daily installments were lengthened to one hour, which continued for the remainder of the forty-three-year run of the show. During this time, there were cast changes as some characters were written out of the show and new ones written in to expand the storyline and to entice viewers (old and new) to watch. This series, finally (as all things do), reached the end of its life.
Perhaps the most famous quote about “one life” is attributed to Nathan Hale. He was a 21-year-old Continental Army captain who served as a spy during the American Revolutionary War. Hale volunteered for a dangerous intelligence-gathering mission for General George Washington in New York City in September 1776. He was captured by the British and hanged without trial on September 22, 1776. He is reported to have stated "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country" right before his execution. There are more modern notable quotes about life, and two seem to be most relevant. One is from Albert Einstein who said, “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people or things”. Another is from George Sand, the French novelist. This was her pen name, (her real name being Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) who also wrote, “There is only one happiness in this life: to love and be loved”.
These three sayings or quotes and many others about life are important because all humans have but one life to live and one life to give in service to what or who we will serve. Now, as most consider this, they will think of the many physical things of this life to which these concepts could be applied. Everyone should have a goal that transcends this life and prepare for it while living because Eccl 9:10 tells us that when we enter the grave there is no work. And as one pursues love in this life, it needs to be centered in proper love for God and His Word (1John 5:2). Too many folks go about this life seemingly with the attitude that there is not a day of reckoning coming. These seem to misapply the final phrase of 1Cor 15:32 to their lives. “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.” It is not as though when we die our existence is over.
Everyone needs to think about the things of this life in a spiritual context. Heb 9:27 shows that mankind has an appointment with death (not a specific time to die). This life is our “one life to live” but the conclusion of it is when each soul enters an intermediate place in which to await the return of Christ. Some will be “in Christ” (1Thess 4:13-17) and some be awaiting eternal punishment (2Thess 1:8-9). But in the meantime, what goal will we seek to attain? The prize of Phil 3:14 of which the Spirit had Paul write is the loftiest goal. This is the goal everyone should strive to gain. And one can see from 1John 4:10 and 1John 4:19 in the New Testament Word of God that the one life we have been given to live is about loving and being loved. God loves us and sent His Son to die on the cross to purchase the church and give man the opportunity to prepare for eternity. Christians love God because He loved us.
However, many fail or refuse to understand God’s plan for the Salvation of souls. Sadly, many have been, and are being deceived by teachers of false doctrine. These are guilty of teaching such abominable ideas as “asking Jesus into their heart”; “once saved always saved”; or “the Adamic nature” (that all are born “in sin” or are born sinners). Another detestable idea promoted by some false teachers is the idea of unconditional election (that before creation God chose who would be saved), or that there is nothing a person can do in this life so that we might be saved. These are only a few of the falsehoods by which countless souls are being deceived. When so misled, folks live their “one life” believing a lie and are headed for eternal condemnation.
I ask all who support or seek to promote such doctrines to show them to me in the New Testament. I also ask if God chose who would be saved before creation, why did Christ need to come to die on the cross? Also, if there is nothing one MUST DO whereby they might be saved, why did Jesus send the Holy Ghost to guide the apostles into all truth, and why in Acts 2:38, did Peter and the eleven, through inspiration, answer the folks’ question of “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” of Acts 2:37, with “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”? Such questions could be asked and New Testament Scripture given to dispute every falsehood listed in the previous paragraph.
The Spirit had the apostle Paul in Rom 16:17 write to brethren and admonish them to “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Then in verse 18, we see the reason this needs to be done. “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Not all that sounds good is good, and not all that is claimed to be true is truth. It must be compared against the rightly divided Word of God (2Tim 2:15). The Spirit had Peter warn of false teachers of the first century in 2Pet 2:1 and teach that they “bring upon themselves swift destruction.” It is equally important that false teaching needs to be refuted today, and false teachers need to be identified (marked) and folks warned so they aren’t deceived and enter eternity unprepared.
Friend, you only have one life to live. In this life is when one chooses. This is why all need to know the one plan God has for the saving of souls. All need to hear the truth (Rom 10:17), Believe in Christ as the Son of God (John 8:24), Repent of past sins (Acts 17:30), Confess Christ as God’s Son (Rom 10:9-10), Be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins (Rom 6:3-4), and Remain faithful until death (Rev 2:10b). To do otherwise is to waste the one life we have been given to live. Why not apply and obey God’s New Testament Word now before it is everlastingly too late?
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
