The saddest words in the Bible

How would it feel to find out we had wasted our lives?

It can feel like we are wasting our lives if we aren’t fulfilling what we believe is our full potential, whatever that is. For some of us it is if we don’t get to the top of our career ladder or earn a high salary. Or we may feel that way if we don’t get married or have kids, or if we are not going out to work, but are at home looking after children. Or if we are stuck stacking shelves in a supermarket.

Just living a mundane life, going to work, school or college, coming home, eating, watching TV, going to bed (repeat, day in, day out) can be frustrating and feel empty and pointless.

And yet what we do, or don’t do, isn’t always a measure of a wasted life. Great human achievements aren’t always a mark of success.

The only really wasted life is …

I have discovered what it really means to have wasted your life and it is described by the saddest words in the Bible:

“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7:22-23.

What a tragedy that would be, if I lived what I thought was a good life, a life in the service of God, only to find out I never really got to know Him at all. If on meeting Christ at the end of my life, He looks at me and says, “I don’t know you.”

How could that happen?

It is possible for me to accept a form of “Christianity” that is basically little more than this: agreeing that Jesus died for my sins and has opened up a way to heaven, as long as I believe it, and have accepted Jesus as my Savior. Full stop. Personally, this baseline belief spurred me on to volunteer, become involved in clubs and good works and think this was enough. This was the Christian life that I lived when I was young. My husband and I lived very “active” Christian lives at our local evangelical church; we served on committees, ran a youth club, helped run discussion groups, and more.

And yet …

When we looked at how the Christian life was described in the Bible, it included phrases like:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:4.

“… do not let sin reign in your mortal body …” Romans 6:12.

“… according to the power that works in us …” Ephesians 3:20.

“… he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” 1 Peter 4:1.

“I have been crucified with Christ …” Galatians 2:20.

And then, when we observed how we were living the Christian life, it didn’t match these verses. We concluded that although we had accepted Jesus as our Savior, we weren’t actually living the life that Jesus came down to give us. It was scary and exhilarating at the same time.

Making sure Jesus knows me

Once we understood the difference, then we aimed to become people that Jesus knows.

We decided that to become people that Jesus knows would be the biggest success that we could ever achieve in life – irrespective of how much we earned, if we had kids and a big house, how our careers developed or if important people respected us. The biggest success I personally can have in life is first of all to know how Jesus overcame the temptation to sin in His own life, and then to follow Him through it …

This is “to partake of His sufferings.” (1 Peter 4:12-13; 1 Peter 2:21.) The resisting of my human tendencies in my own life, day in, day out, so that gradually I get more divine nature.

It doesn’t have to be dramatic stuff. Once my sister and I were talking to a friend who said that they had an item of furniture they were getting rid of, and did either of us want it. “I’ll have it!” I said, barely before he had finished the sentence. I knew that piece of furniture and I wanted it badly and didn’t want it to go to my sister. I got the furniture, but as I later reflected on my behavior and motives, I found something to judge: selfishness and an unpleasant graspingness. This judging of motives happens quietly, between me and God. My sister and friend didn’t know it was going on, but as I admitted to God that I had been selfish and grasping and asked for forgiveness and strength to deny that behavior in future, I was getting to know how to follow Jesus and He was able to communicate with me.

When I live in this way, I am not wasting my life whatever my circumstances are. I know I am not a successful person by many standards: I don’t command a huge salary, I am not well known or high up in my profession, I don’t live in a fine country house. But a “successful life” for me is to hear these words:

“Well done, good and faithful servant … Enter into the joy of your lord.” Matthew 25:21.