What’s the Point? What is the Meaning of Life?

Have you ever had a close brush with death? There is nothing like it to make a person think about eternity. In my early life as a commercial fisherman off the East Coast of England, I had many close calls where death came knocking on my door. There's nothing like having an unexploded German magnetic mine twelve feet long lying on the deck to prompt such thoughts! That was when I first began to think about what would happen to me when I died. Is there life after death? God was gracious to me in revealing the reason for Jesus Christ’s death. When I became a Christian, I gave my life entirely and unreservedly into His hands, and I found that my vision of my future changed. After my conversion, the lure of money, possessions, and success as a commercial fisherman held no appeal for me. What’s the point of working six days a week, fifteen hours a day? Chasing after money is as pointless as chasing the wind. I wanted my life to have meaning.

That's the big question for many people today—What's the Point? What is the meaning of life? When one looks at creation and the natural world with a critical eye, a logical person concludes that there must be a God or a Creator. If there is a Creator, He must have a plan that is being fulfilled on Earth. This plan aims to train and transform individuals who will walk with Christ, going against the flow and the status quo of this world. There will come a time when God ends the testing and training of His people, and He will reward those who have lived their lives for Him and His kingdom.

In the following passage of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses on the rewards given on the day when this evil world ends, found in chapter 6, verses 1, 4, 5, and 6. We have only one life to live on Earth, and we should seize the opportunity now to glorify God and bless others. This reminder about rewards encourages us to live for eternal things rather than the transient and empty aspects of this world. In His message to the people that day, the Lord spoke words urging us to seek eternal rewards:

Giving to the Needy

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:1-4, Emphasis added).

Our motives are as important as our actions. Who are we living for? Our inner desire for the approval of those around us can be compelling, but we must not let this become our goal. Jesus tells us to "Be careful" (v. 1) about our inner motivation for sharing our acts of righteousness with others. Why do we behave this way? The Lord provides an example of things He has observed occurring in Israel. He called out those who were hypocrites, a word that means a stage actor on the stage of life—those who would wear a mask and portray a character that was not true in their lives. At a particular time in the temple courts, the trumpets would be blown to issue the call to give. People within earshot of the trumpets would drop what they were doing, put on a holy face, and parade themselves to the offering boxes. Yes, they receive a reward, but it is not for an eternal laying up of treasure; it is wasted because of the motivation of their hearts. They were not giving but buying. The hypocrites sought some payback in the form of the worldly influence that returned to them.

When the thought arises to give, Jesus said not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. How is that possible? Most people give with their right hand, so Jesus uses the laughable image of attempting to be so secret about our giving to God that the left hand remains ignorant of it. He says this because our inner motivations can be deceitful and influence us more than we realize. The Lord truly desires for us to receive a heavenly reward that is eternal, not just what is fleeting. Let’s continue this theme tomorrow. Keith Thomas

This meditation is from the complete study found at the following link:  https://www.groupbiblestudy.com/engsermon/4.-the-heavenly-rewards-of-the-believer