1 Peter 4:5-8 

⁵But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. ⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. ⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

The Cat is Away

When the cat is away, the mouse will play! Have you heard that saying before? What does it mean? The cat is compared to a supervisor, and the mouse is compared to subordinates. When the supervisor is absent, subordinates will take advantage of the situation and behave as they please, and thus they disregard and break the rules.

In school, when the teacher isn’t in the room, students are very noisy and rowdy. At home, when parents are not around, children are disorderly, loud or scatter clutters. Peace and order are not observed during the absence of authority. Human beings are inclined to follow their natural instinct; this is why authorities had been established.

Everyone wants to do as they please. Choices dictate behavior. We may behave in godly righteousness or choose to follow worldly pattern of lifestyle; all of us will give an account at the Judgment Day, for sure. It is very beneficial now and in eternity if we prioritize our eternal destination instead of indulging ourselves in temporal things.

Can Christmas season and the celebration of Advent cause you to be mindful that our Lord Jesus Christ will return sooner? Individuals who are busy indulging in worldly pleasure are not amused when reminded of the second advent of Christ. They would rather gratify their sinful self than to prepare for their eternal destiny.

Worldly pleasure is very attractive to worldly mindset. It happened in the past; it happens in all generations. King David himself confessed that he was also envious of his materialistic generation. Pertaining to worldly behavior, he testified in Psalm 73:16-20:

¹⁶When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply ¹⁷till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. ¹⁸Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. ¹⁹How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! ²⁰They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

Make no mistake. Make sure you have prepared. Christ will return anytime soon.

The celebration of Advent Season reminds us when Jesus Christ was born as human on earth. He surely returns again sooner and takes us into his heaven. While waiting for him, we must store up eternal treasures for ourselves. We must always encourage one another and preach the gospel of Christ in season or out of season.

1.  Preach

⁵But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

Everyone will face the Lord at the Judgment Day. Be sure you will enter heaven.

When it says that the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, what did Apostle Peter imply? Did Peter share the gospel even to prisoners who were sentenced to death? Peter was imprisoned and sentenced to death in Rome. He may have encouraged his fellow prisoners to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Emperor Nero issued a decree that it was illegal to be Christian. Death was the punishment of anyone who preached the gospel of Christ. Those who were found to be practicing Christianity, they were sentenced to death according to human standard. In eternity, anyone who heard the gospel of Christ will be judged according to the standard of God. If they sincerely believed Christ, they will live forever in heaven.

Prisoner or not, everyone will certainly face death. Christians will give an account before God also. The Lord had distributed spiritual gifts to all believers according to his grace; he mandated and gave us responsibility to preach the good news and tell about the goodness of God. King David confessed in Psalm 40:5, ⁵Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

Wherever God situates you, tell others about the goodness of God. Tell potential believers about your personal experience of the love of God. When someone appreciate or notice your good behavior, tell them that you believe Christ has changed your life.

If they want changes in their life, encourage them to believe in Christ.

Do you desire to tell potential believers that God loves them also, and that God knows the best for them? Normally, we prioritize things that attract us, right?

Here’s a reality. Whoever is in control of our life, we follow. Truly, whatever we treasure and cherish in our heart, we do our best effort to preserve and secure it.

If Christ is in control of us, we prioritize his mandate for us to witness for him.

Servant

We can learn from the servant of Abraham. Abraham instructed his servant, “Go! Travel east and get a wife for my son Isaac from my relatives.” The servant brought camels loaded with many precious gifts and travelled east for several weeks; he found Rebekah, and she agreed to become wife of Isaac. It was narrated in Genesis 24:54-56, ⁵⁴Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.” ⁵⁵But her brother and her mother replied, “Let the young woman remain with us ten days or so; then you may go.” ⁵⁶But he said to them, “Do not detain me, now that the Lord has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.”

The servant and his companions tasted the generosity of Rebekah’s family when they ate and drank; they could have agreed to spend few more days drinking and eating. But he prioritized his mission purpose of bringing a wife to Isaac. What does it imply? It was not mentioned, but the servant may have experienced that serving his master Abraham was far better than to indulge himself eating and drinking among other people.

How do you interpret what Christ Jesus declares in Luke 10-15, ¹⁰Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? ¹³No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”

When the servant of Abraham implied that he prioritized to accomplish the mission purpose that his master Abraham gave him; he also testified to the relatives of Abraham that life as servant of Abraham is far better than leisure drinking and eating anywhere. The servant was faithful because Abraham may have been generous to him.

This world offers attractive practical things that may dissuade even believers from prioritizing the mandate to preach the gospel of Christ. Be prayerful, brethren.

2.  Pray

⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.

How often do you pray? Do you pray while window shopping? Do you go to the marketplace only when you buy something? Have you been to grocery store, shopping malls and have no idea what you want to buy? Do you consider as form of exercise when you walk leisurely while window shopping of articles and products you may wish to purchase?

If you see a product that catches your attention, most probably, you would buy it if you have money. Or, do you pause for a moment and ask God for wisdom to decide?

To be prayerful, even with trivial things, helps us to practice spiritual alertness.

Rich Man

There’s a fictional story of a very rich and powerful businessman. His company was the most progressive in food business. Even in advance age, he gave much effort to stay prominent in the business society. One day, he became very ill and sickly; he didn’t have appetite to eat delicious foods. As he waited for his death, his children didn’t care.

Death is reality that many people try to ignore. Anytime could be our time to die.

Please reflect on what King Solomon personally testified in Ecclesiastes 2:18-19: ¹⁸I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

Everything we accumulated on earth will remain on earth. So, make sure that you have stored up eternal treasure for yourselves in heaven. As we celebrate this Advent Season, we remember that Christ returns and takes us into his heaven. During family celebration, do you pray before eating? What is biblical: To pray before or after eating?

We can learn from the instruction of the Lord to Israel in Deuteronomy 8:10-14: ¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

The generation of Israelites, who crossed the Jordan River when they entered the Promised Land, was grateful and served the Lord faithfully. The next generations of Israelites who were born in Canaan forgot the Lord and served the gods of Canaanites.

Materialism and worldly pleasure caused them to forget the Lord. We are not exempted. It happens in all generations. If materialism and worldly pleasure cause us to neglect the Lord, we must seek his forgiveness. God pardons us when we repent.

3.  Pardon

⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

The love of God for us was practically manifested when he let his only Son Jesus Christ paid all our sins on the cross. By faith, we trust that the Lord took all our sins and crucified them with Christ. Christ shed his blood on the cross and washed away all our sins. When we sincerely repent of our sins, God forgives us and forgets our sins.

Do you seriously believe how the Lord declares forgiveness in Jeremiah 31:34?  ³⁴For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

Forgiveness is the message of the Advent Season. Jesus Christ was born to save everyone who believes in him. Faith in Christ includes repentance of sin. He forgives us when we sincerely repent of our sins. Repentance is practically manifested when our life had changed from wickedness to righteousness. We no longer desire to follow our old sinful self. We eagerly desire to behave in righteousness before God and others.

But, why is it that many church attendees are still bothered by materialism somehow?

What could we do, so that every moment of our life we devote for the Lord? How can we have joy as we prioritize our preparation for our eternal destination?

Magi

We can learn from the Magi, the wise men from the east. Matthew 2:9-11 says, ⁹They went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

Trivia: Where did the Magi find the baby Jesus? Jesus and his mother Mary was in a house when the wise men found them, and they were overjoyed. The term ‘overjoyed’ in the original manuscript is the same term used in the fruit of the Holy Spirit, ‘joy.’ The wise men followed the light of the star that led them to the house where Jesus was. They were overjoyed and presented him with precious gifts.

Our Lord Jesus Christ had declared in John 8:12, ¹²I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Truly, when we follow Christ, he lights our way to the fullness of life he promised. His Holy Spirit produces fruit in us, and we sense joy. What do we do when overjoyed?

The wise men brought treasures and presented them to Jesus. The Lord did not require them. It was spontaneous for them to present precious treasures because they were overjoyed. Are we considered wise when we bring our treasure before the Lord?

When we sense joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us, we present treasure before the Lord spontaneously; we are not reluctant or compelled.

When you are overjoyed in celebrating his first advent and looking forward to his second advent, what precious treasure do you wish to present before the Lord?

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