As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labour which he may carry away in his hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:15)
While the ‘Preacher’ is speaking of the vanity of living to amass wealth, possessions and property, the principle can be applied to other areas of life too. The simple reality is that we cannot take them with us when we die.
It therefore asks what you have lived for? What fruit did your existence produce? How are you going to spend your remaining days?
Christians have a different view of life a view that operates on the basis of faith. they see that these things have a place for our life and enjoyment in this world, and we believe that God has given them to us to use for His glory. They understand a different controlling call in life: “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys…” ( Matthew 6:20)
Unlike the person in Ecclesiastes 5:15 Christians take a fruit and profit of the labour of their soul with them. It is safely deposited and stored with and by their Father who is in heaven.
Indeed, it suggests to we who are believers the need to regularly undergo a reality check to our lives. Is our life fulfilling its purpose?
Have we progressed in our spiritual lives, making good use of the means of grace God has given us? All the Bible texts we have read, sermons we have heard, fellowship and worship we have enjoyed, Lord’s Suppers we have partaken of … can we look back on our lives with thankfulness and joy to see that we have matured spiritually in Christ, that we are now stronger in resisting sin, repressing selfishness, and to deny self and not our God?
What have you become? But also, What have you done?
What moral influence have we shown, what influence for good? Is your family and society the better because of your faith and life in Jesus Christ? What works in the name of Christ have you done – of compassion, and especially of the gospel and the Kingdom? Has your vocation and calling been the scene of serving Christ in this world?
In Revelation 14:13 the Spirit says of saints who die in the Lord, “their works follow them”. What blessed truth! Hae we so lived and so worked that this will be said of us? Or has your time and energies in the world as well as in the church and Christian company been fritted away?