Why Did Paul Say YOLO?

• What Is Hope
• Why Did Paul Say YOLO?
• Hope in Heaven

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Why Did Paul Say YOLO?

… “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

1 Corinthians 15:32

Life can be difficult. Sometimes it’s just a season and sometimes it’s hard to see when it hasn’t been difficult. But somehow, we are called to have joy through it all. How is that even possible? We saw last time that the answer is hope, that:

“Hope enables us to enjoy the good God has for us even while we are surrounded by the bad that sin has caused”

But in the darkest hours, what hope do we have? What can we hope in when trials and afflictions have overcome us to the point that there seems little good left on the table?

The Promise of Troubles

The first thing that can serve as a foundation for our hope is a promise we were given. But probably not one of the promises you’re thinking of: the promise that we will experience tribulations, persecutions, and hardships. Consider this example where Jesus is “encouraging” the disciples:

“In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Jesus does this over and over with the disciples where He warns us about the realities of Christianity. That while there is good for us in following Him, it comes with a cost. Like in Mark 10:29-30, Jesus tells us we’ll be asked to give up a lot but assures us we will gain more than we lose even in this life. As if that wasn’t hard enough, He goes on to warn that even what we gain in this life will come “with persecutions”. Um… thanks Jesus?

Why did Jesus tell us all of this? Was He just weeding out the class to those who were serious? Maybe that was part of it, but the verse from John 16 was just the core 12 disciples, so we know there’s more to it. Jesus actually tells us why:

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”

John 16:1

He said these things because they were true, because He didn’t want us to be surprised. So, how does this promise for trouble help us have hope? Because when we experience hardship, that experience doesn’t undermine the promise of hope we’ve been given. Our hardship does not invalidate the promise of salvation. In fact, it reinforces it, because the promise of salvation included a promise of tribulation.

The Necessity of Heaven

To be honest though, if the promise stopped there, I’m not sure it would all be worth it. Would we rather have just one house/family or a hundred with persecution? I’m not so sure I’d take that trade. Luckily Jesus didn’t stop there. In addition to the promise of “a hundredfold now in this time … with persecutions”, with just two words at the end of the verse He overwhelmed the balance of His proposal: “and in the age to come eternal life” (see Mark 10:29-30).

Jesus’ honesty about the troubles we will face tells us something that’s rather shocking. Without the promise of heaven, the reality is this: Christianity may not be worth it. Does that sound wrong to you? It’s the truth though. Not convinced? Consider what Paul said. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul corrects those in the church who do not believe in the resurrection, who don’t believe in the promise of heaven/eternal life.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:19

In other words, without the promise of heaven, Christianity is a raw deal. To remain constant in the true Christian lifestyle is impossible without a present hope in eternal life. A real, felt hope in heaven is absolutely essential: we cannot truly do what Christianity asks of us, we cannot truly take up our cross daily without it.

Captive in the Fear of Death

Without hope in heaven, we are left with a focus of simply enjoying this life. This focus inevitably leads to a lifestyle that is held captive to sin. The author of Hebrews explains this when He tells us what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection:

Through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Hebrews 2:14-15, emphasis added

Does the fear of death really influence our life so completely though? Let me give an obvious example to make the point: Ashley Maddison’s tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair”. The phrases we use today “You only live once”, “Life’s too short to ___”, often are used to justify decisions that run contrary to the Christian imperative to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). In our passage from 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses a similar phrase from Hebrew culture and explains the way this type of thinking affects us:

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

1 Corinthians 15:32, emphasis added

In saying this, Paul is implicating the lifestyle that follows when we don’t keep our eyes focused on the hope of heaven. Paul goes on to correct us when we fall into this way of thinking:

Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning.

1 Corinthians 15:34

The Necessity of Hope

What does all of this tell us? It tells us that true Christianity makes this life hard. So, if you are feeling the weight of hardship on account of your faith, be encouraged: that means you’re doing it right. If you are “becoming weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9), there’s an answer to your struggle: Find hope in heaven.

On the other hand, when we find it easy to be a Christian without a constant/anchoring awareness of our hope in heaven, we’ve probably gotten too comfortable. If we don’t need hope in heaven to endure the tribulations we’re promised as Christians, are we really taking up our cross?

If we don’t need hope in heaven to endure the tribulations we’re promised as Christians, are we really taking up our cross?

Hope in heaven is nothing short of absolutely essential to consistently walking out the reality of what we are called to as Christians. That’s a sobering, challenging reality for me too. So, if this hope in heaven is so necessary, how do we actually find it? How do we develop a real, tangible hope in heaven that gets us excited, that gives us joy? To put it simply, we can’t get excited unless we know what to get excited about. What is heaven really going to be like? Let’s ask the question in the back of our mind: If it lasts for eternity, will it ever get maybe just a little bit boring? You’re going to love the verse I found that answers that question! Next time, we’re going to get excited about heaven! Don’t forget to subscribe/follow so you don’t miss it!