Life has more than one meaning. In most cases, we think of human life as breathing and a heartbeat. Christ often talked about a different kind of life--a spiritual life. Those who lack this type of life are not necessarily dead or dying physically, but they lack contentment, lack a sense of fulfillment, of purpose, of power, of destiny, of virtue. When we continually seek after and completely give ourselves over to Christ, we live in a state of continual joy, peace, love, and fulfillment. Christ came that we might have such life, and that we might have it more abundantly. I interpret this to mean, deeper joy, love, and fulfillment as we increasingly live as He did. If we prove that we are willing to do all things He asks us, we will be awarded with life that is so deep in its richness, it can be referred to as eternal life.
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Hope as the term is often used in scripture refers to hope for eternal life. It is therefore important to understand to what was referring to that specific type of hope rather than other hopes such as hope that a person will change, hope that trials will disappear, hope that there are still some sandwiches left in the fridge, etc.
If we read this scripture with this more pointed type of hope in mind, we can see that a person can feel discouraged, depressed, diminished, and otherwise down but still have at least some hope that eternal life may yet be obtained. As the Prince of Egypt main theme song says: “Though hope is frail, it’s hard to kill.” Despair or hopelessness comes from our own iniquity or the iniquity of others. The reality is iniquity is the only thing that will keep us from eternal life, so if we have despair, either we have sinned, and we know it, or we haven’t sinned, but believe we are unworthy anyway. This kind of deception is iniquity, and can be committed by others or by ourselves. "Some say God is incomprehensible. He says that to know Him is life eternal. The one takes hope out of life. The other is an eternal beacon."
-Hugh B. Brown, links added How well do I know my Heavenly Father? The New Testament teaches that knowing Him "is life eternal." So, how deeply do I need to know Him before I attain that promised eternal life?
Certainly it can't be as simple as knowing who he is. Even an evil spirit, before being cast out by Christ exclaimed, "I know thee who thou art." Yet evil spirits will not attain eternal life. So I must come to know Him on a more personal level. But how close? As close as a good friend, maybe a best friend? I think the best example to look at Christ Himself. He said over and over that He did nothing of Himself. He only did those things which Heavenly Father would have Him do. He knew God so well that He knew how God would have Him act in every decision. Aristotle referred to the conundrum of the man who is the best in a given field or vocation. To truly appreciate (deeply understand) how good this man is, a person must possess the knowledge that this man has. Otherwise, a person can offer praise but won't understand exactly what he or she is praising, because it is a mystery to those without understanding. Thus, the "best" man is the only one who can truly appreciate and fully understand what He has. Well, that's just philosophy, but it may correlate with Jesus' example. He commanded us to "be... perfect, even as I, or your Father in Heaven is perfect." Perhaps Jesus Christ could fully appreciate and understand Heavenly Father's perfection, only because He had fully attained that perfection. How well do I have to know Heavenly Father? I think the answer is "perfectly." Better get to work. Even when we accept that God allows trials in our lives, it can be difficult to understand why He allows the premature death of our loved ones. They've done nothing worthy of death, and yet God allows it to happen. It seems that their future has been needlessly thrown away and ours permanently scarred as a result.
If this life were the beginning and the end of our existence, it would be difficult to see how God could be merciful and yet allow such catastrophes to happen. However, this life is not the end. In fact, it isn't even the beginning. We lived with God before we chose to come to earth. We knew what trials and heartache we would have to endure, but we so wanted to become like our Father that we trusted His explanation that this schooling would be necessary if we were to reach that goal. Some exit the school of life seemingly early. But these, like all of us, simply move on to further education. The great Teacher knows who is ready to move on, who is needed in the next life, and who would ultimately benefit from enduring the trial of the death of a loved one. Death is not the catastrophe we make it out to be, because death is temporary. Extremely difficult, yes. Heartbreaking, true. But the disconsolation can pass. We will have opportunity to lived with our loved ones again, this time for eternity if we've done well in school--if we've become what we came here to learn to become. Though we don't necessarily think of it explicitly, we sometimes tend to regard faith in an either "on" or "off" paradigm. Like many principles of the gospel, faith is better compared to a scale than a switch. A switch implies full power resulting from a single action, but the power resulting from faith is not in full force from the minute we choose to believe.
Peter had great faith in the Lord, but it grew over time. His confidence in God and his resolve to stay true increased with experience and diligence. Some of Christ's disciples found that their faith, though "on," was insufficient to cast out a devil. Christ taught them that further action was needed if they were to increase their faith to the necessary level. Though their faith was strong enough to leave everything they had behind to follow their Lord, Christ's truest disciples asked Him how they could increase their faith. Faith can start out smaller than tiny seed, and yet have great power even at that level. However, a seed is relatively fragile. To realize the greatest power of faith such as that seen in the great Apostles and prophets of the past and in our day, we must be true to the faith that we have. We must build our faith over time through diligent, unwavering obedience. Those deceived by the light switch paradigm see greater value in "temporary" disobedience. It seems not as risky to simply turn the switch off for a short burst of carnal satisfaction, since the switch can be turned back on at any time. Though a child of God always has the right to choose to believe, simply making the choice to believe is only the first step, rather than the end goal. Those who are awarded eternal life will be known by the Lord for the strength of their faith. Christ will present them before the Father at the last day as having proven their commitment to the truth, come what may. If the Lord cannot be sure that we will be true to Him, why would we feel worthy to live in His Kingdom? Even if we believe in Him, our belief and our confidence in that belief may not be strong enough to endure the most difficult trials of our faith. This strength of faith requires work, humility, patience, and grace to achieve. The purpose of life, then, involves the training and testing our faith, refining us (if we choose to allow it) into one who has a perfect faith, strong enough to guide our actions even in the face of the greatest opposition that can be combined against us. This life is a school, a testing ground, a refiner's fire. Bad things have to happen to good people, temptations must come, trials must be endured. If there were none of these, how would our faith grow? |
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