“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (John 6:27, ESV)
Have you ever considered that everything you and I can see and touch is ultimately going to pass away? We live in a perishable world; it is all subject to decay and destruction. However, the things of heaven are imperishable; they will last forever!
Jesus said, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal” (Matthew 6:20, NASB). Do you want to be rich in the next world, the real world, the world that will last forever? If so, you need to be actively converterlating the perishable items of this world into the perishable treasures of the world to come.
Converterlators understand that we all live in a time bubble that can pop in this perishing world at any time. When that happens we will find ourselves in a totally different paradigm. The wise person realizes that in the end, all of our earthly time, talent, and treasure is going to perish. The apostle Paul made this point clear when he said, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7, NLT). Think of it, everything we know and love about this world will eventually be gone!
This eternal focus was at the core of Paul’s teaching. He set his eyes and his heart on the eternal because he knew that the world as we know it is temporary and wasting away. Paul’s eyes were fixed on eternity, and he conducted his life accordingly.
As we study the Bible, we discover we are in the middle of two totally different value systems that are striving to win our commitment and loyalty. The first is what we call the perishable world system, and the second is the imperishable eternal realm.
The world system is doing everything it can to consume all of our temporary time, talent, and treasure, enticing us to invest all of them into stuff, activity, and experiences that in the end of life will have no eternal value. For the most part, the world system is held together by force, greed, and power. It caters to developing a self-centered life, a self-first mindset; it is bent on finding significance in power, fame, status, and accumulation of wealth. A wrong emphasis on these things often destroys the lives of people and their loved ones.
Self, fame, status, personal wealth: these often become idols in the lives of many people, even those who profess to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. These things take the place that God should have in our lives. In many instances the world system emphasizes striving to get more for doing less. Get as much stuff as you can so you can retire from work and have a life of ease doing what you want to do when you want to do it. It does everything it can to keep us from thinking about the eternal aspect of life.
On the other hand, we have the value system of the heavenly realm revealed to us by the person of Jesus Christ emphasizing a life of love, giving, and serving. This involves work that leads to glorifying God, building treasure for oneself in the next world, and living a life of fulfillment in this world as well. Jesus Christ came into this world not only to save us from separation from God for eternity; he also came into the world to save us from wasting our lives while we are here in this world.
In what ways are you living your life dedicated to the values of this perishing world? In what ways are you living your life in way that will echo into eternity?
Converterlators set their eyes and their heart on the eternal.