Living with the end in view?

Last year I attended a conference in which the main theme was ‘Training with the end in view.’ The conference focussed on training young people for missionary work with the end in view. The organisers believed that there should not be any training for the sake of training but it should be with a goal in mind. The goal of training must take into consideration the output that we expect after the training or the end purpose of the training. If there is no goal for missionary training, then the training  will lack direction and purpose. This theme came to my mind again this month when I read Deuteronomy 32:29. “Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” The verse says that the people of Israel had become so foolish that they failed to live with the end in view. They looked only for the things of the world and not for the things of the other world. Sometimes we also live in this world like these people with this world in view.

I Let us study the example of some men of God who lived with the end in view.

1. Abraham: When God called Abraham to leave his place and go to a new land, he obeyed and went to the land promised by the Lord. The Bible says that there he lived in tents and as if living in a foreign country because he, ‘waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’ (Heb. 11:9,10)

2. Moses: When Moses was young, he left his status as a son of Pharaoh and forsook all the pleasures of Egypt and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. He considered ‘the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.’ (Heb. 11:24-26)

3. Jesus Christ: When Jesus Christ was living on the earth, He told his disciples that His desire was to do the will of Him who sent Him and to finish His work (John 4:34). He openly shared with His disciples that He would suffer and be killed in Jerusalem (Matt. 16:21). This was because He lived with the kingdom in His mind. For He said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36)

4. Paul: Paul lived with the end in view. He wrote: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20, 21)

II. People who lived with the world and the things of the world in view

1. Gehazi: Gehazi was the servant of Elisha. When Elisha refused to receive the gifts of  Naaman, and sent him off,  Gehazi coveted the money and the clothing and ran after him to receive them. He received money and clothing from Naaman, even when his conscience spoke against his deeds. Moreover, he lied to Elisha. The love for money and clothing cost him dearly. He got the leprosy of Naaman and got the curse that his descendants would also get this deadly disease (2 Kings 5:20-27).

2. Judas Iscariot: Judas was one of the disciples of Jesus Christ. He was the treasurer and carried the money. He criticised Mary for wasting the costly oil of spikenard for anointing the feet of Jesus Christ (John 12:1-11). He considered money more important than Jesus Christ. He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces silver and committed suicide.

3. Ananias and Sapphira: Ananias and Sapphira lied against the Holy Spirit. They kept back a portion of their land and lied to Peter that they gave everything. They loved money more than the Lord and so lost their lives. (Acts 5:1-11)

4. Demas: “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica.” (2 Tim.4:10)

5. False teachers of Philippians: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things.” (Phil. 3:18,19)

6. Ahab: Ahab the wicked king of Israel coveted Naboth’s vineyard and murdered him. In 1 Kings 21:25 we read about him: “But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.”                                                                         “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col.3:1-3)

(Dr. C. Barnabas, Taken from True Discipleship, June 1999)