The profitless life

What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. – John 6.62-62

We have it made in our western culture. The vast majority of us are well fed, have a roof over our heads, and are well clothed. That says a lot. An awful lot of the world can’t even say that. We ought to be grateful that we can go to bed at night in security and safety, that there is food for breakfast, and that we’ll have clothes to put on tomorrow morning.

But our flesh craves so much more. Our flesh craves this our way. We want our flesh to provide our security. We are discontent when we don’t have the stuff we want the way we want it. We seem to always want the biggest and best and nicest of everything. We don’t want to have to trust God for our daily needs.

So we live to fulfill the flesh.

And that is the ultimate profitless life. What does it profit us if we gain the whole world but lose our soul in the process. What good will all things of the flesh do when We stand before God to give an account of our lives. Everything I see around me is only ever going to give temporary satisfaction. It is only the Spirit tht gives life that matters.

So we are challanged in another place to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. We are challanged to set our affections on things above. We are challanged to look on the unseen.

That’s quite a task considering how visible everything around us is. But oh the value of treasuring the eternal instead because those things are, well, eternal.