Don’t Waste Your Life

2 Corinthians 5:10
by
Jack Fish

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Introduction

This year at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological
Society I picked up a book by John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life. What
an important message! That is my message today to you—Don’t waste
your life. You are young. Your whole life is before you. You have
tremendous opportunities for your life. Don’t waste your life! For
some people it is too late. Most of their life is behind them. As
they look back on their life, they have to say, “I’ve wasted my life.
It hasn’t counted for anything important.” Do not waste your life!
If you want to know how to waste your life, Piper has a very striking
illustration. It comes from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s
Digest. It tells about a couple who took an early retirement from
their jobs. He was 59 and she was 51. At the time of the article they
lived in Punta Gorda, FL where they spent their time cruising on
their 30 foot trawler, playing softball, and collecting shells. For
some people that sounds like the culmination of the American dream.
You have enough money so you don’t have to work. You can enjoy life.
You do what you want. But is that all that there is to life? Is there
no more importance and significance in life than walking along the
seashore, collecting shells, and playing softball? We must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ. Can you imagine standing before
the Lord? What have you done with your life? Here are my sea shells.
Do not waste your life.

How can you avoid a wasted life?

Notice what Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:9. Therefore, whether we are at
home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be
repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.
Paul here states here his goal in life. This is “our aim.” The word
translate “aim” means this is our ambition. This is what we want in
life. This is what we aspire to, what we strive for. This is what
life is all about. For Paul what he desired in his life was very clear
—“to be pleasing to Him.” That was the only thing that counted. Why?
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The point
of evaluation is this—Has my life been pleasing to him? When that day
comes, there won’t be anything else that is important. Have I wasted
my life, or has my life been pleasing to him?

This Covers Every Area of Life

You can evaluate everything in your life by this criterion. It covers
every area. It doesn’t only take in the things that we think of as
spiritual—Am I a worshipping Christian; am I a praying Christian; am
I living a godly life; am I growing in my knowledge of the Lord and
his word; what is my witness to others; how am I serving Christ in my
life; how am I using my spiritual gifts; how am I ministering to
others. We compartmentalize our lives into the spiritual and the
secular, but that is a non-biblical distinction.
Life also consists of routine things like washing dishes, changing
diapers, mowing the lawn, earning a living. Most Christians work in a
secular job. These things may not seem spiritual, but the Bible says,
“Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God.”
Whatever I am doing to the glory of God is pleasing to him.
I can even collect sea shells to the glory of God. In the OT God
commanded his people to rest, rest completely, one day a week. A
balanced life is not seven days a week of intensive Christian
service, burning out for Christ. It requires balance. There is a need
for rest, relaxation, and recreation. You can do that to the glory of
God. There have been active Christians whose time of relaxation has
been walking along the beach collecting sea shells. They have done
that to the glory of God. But that has not been their total life.
They use that to recharge the batteries so that they might do
something more important with their lives. What you do is not as
important as the fact that you do it to the glory of God, so that
what you do is pleasing to God, and so that God will say to you at
the judgment seat of Christ, “Well done.”

What Will You Say at the Judgment Seat of Christ?

What will you say at the judgment seat of Christ? Will you say,
“Lord, I made a success of my life. I was the president of General
Motors (or maybe a company that has had better success in business
than General Motors). Or, Lord, I earned five million dollars a year.
I was rich. Or, Lord, I was the mayor of my city. I was the president
of the Chamber of Commerce. I was highly regarded in my community.
What is wrong with any of these things? Nothing! But the question
when you stand before Christ won’t be, “What have you achieved, but
how have you used your life for Christ?” You made your five million.
Did you use it for self or for Christ? You achieved great success in
business or your community. But did you conduct yourself as a person
of integrity. Did you let your light shine before men so that they
might see your good works? But do you know what the rest of that
verse is? Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, so that
they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in
heaven.” That is the key. Have you lived in a way to bring glory to
self or glory to God? There is only one answer that will be important
at the judgment seat of Christ.

Conclusion

The story is told of a man who was a great lover of art. He traveled
all over the world and purchased many masterpieces which he kept in
his great mansion overlooking a lake. His art was his passion, his
life. One night he woke up coughing and choking with his bedroom full
of smoke. He crawled out of bed and made his way over to the window.
When he looked out he could see that both wings of the house were in
flames. Below was a fireman who shouted up to him, “Jump for your
life. The roof is about to cave in. He had scarcely jumped out when
the part of the house he had been in came crashing down behind him.
As he stood back and looked at the blaze, he watched the efforts and
expenditure of a lifetime go up in smoke. He was saved, but
everything that his life had counted for was wasted. Paul says that
the same thing will happen to many Christians. I urge you, do not
waste your life.