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1 Corinthians 7:19: Plane to See

We all have access to Salvation through Christ Jesus. That is what is important. We should point people to that. We shouldn’t be distracted from serving the Lord by side issues. God will take care of our needs. The concerns of this world: our employment, our status, our wealth, our pride, whatever it is that is getting under our skin, even theological issues like end times or evolution, abortion, homosexual or re-marriage; these things that mean so much to people really are eternally and Salvificly speaking, ‘indifferent matters’. Arguing about any of these issues may not save anyone from hell.

This reminds me of a story: At the end of last century there was a revolution in an African country. As it became obvious that the government was going to fall, the wealthy North Americans had to flee. They made it out by the skin of their teeth. Some boarded the last plane out of the country and others managed to get on a foreign oil tanker as it was leaving. Everyone got out just as the freedom fighters liberated the country.

A disappointing thing happened on the plane with the Americans on it: the plane was a commercial airline with a first class section that had so much more comfortable seating than the rest of the plane. Now on this plane were rich, famous and important people. One of them first got it in her mind that because of who she was she deserved one of the good seats. Then someone else thought, ‘if she deserves a good seat then how much more do I deserve a good seat’; then the next person, then the next; soon everyone on the plane was fighting. They were so busy fighting that they did not notice that the plane was going down. In a sad irony, while they were fighting about who was the most important in this life, the plane crashed and they all wound up facing the next life where none of the things of this world matter anymore.

Our lives are like that plane going down or like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Worrying about our wealth or our status or our pride or the other things that try to bother us in this life is like, as the expression says, ‘rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic’. As Paul says, it is ‘adiaphoron’ – something of spiritual indifference- it really doesn’t matter!

Question for us today: Do we ever fight over eternally trivial issues when our world really is racing to its conclusion and we should be pointing everyone to salvation instead?
  
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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, 1 Corinthians 7:17 -24: Don’t Worry About Adiaphoron, Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale corps of The Salvation on August 31, 2008,and Swift Current on 06 April 2014. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/04/1-corinthians-717-24-dont-worry-about.html
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