Objection: We Should Live for Eternity, Not for Temporal Blessings
I will assume this is a case where the objecting Bible teacher was right in his heart but wrong in his head.
As a general concept, I completely agree that we should live with heaven in mind and put God’s kingdom first. God expects that of us!
Colossians 3:1-2:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.
Matthew 6:33:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
In fact, putting earthly things first can cost you dearly:
1 Timothy 6:10:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
So far it sounds like I agree with the objector. That’s because I do! The problem is not the general concept that we should live for eternity, as all Christians should agree on that.
The problem is the implication that we should not care about healing or prosperity or any other blessing that is strictly for this life, and that’s where the objector was going in his article. The stated idea was that we SHOULD be uncomfortable in this life, assuming that our desires will only be met in heaven.
That sounds spiritual, but when you read the Bible, it is full of instruction on how to walk in “temporal” blessings in this life. God doesn’t want us to have a religious “pie in the sky by and by” mentality where we spend just a few more weary days before we fly away, walking like beggars through the heat and the cold.
3 John 2:
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Psalm 35:27:
Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
The blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 all applied to this lifetime, not eternity. In fact, God was upset that people didn’t serve Him with joy and gladness due to the abundance of things they had in this life:
Deuteronomy 28:47:
Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things,
While eternity is important, Jesus wants everyone to have abundant life now (John 10:10), not just in the future.
Jesus certainly didn’t have the mindset that you should suffer through this life by staying sick. He was willing to heal ALL – in this life. He never made anyone wait for the age to come. If the objector is right, Jesus is not as willing to heal ALL today as He was when He walked the earth. If the Bible is right, Jesus is the same today as He was then (Hebrews 13:8, Hebrews 1:12), so He must be just as willing to heal ALL in this life.
Do you seriously think that God would want people to say, “It would have been much better to be alive in the days before Jesus died and rose from the dead because anyone could get healed then, but now after His resurrection, He just wants people to suffer through this life, not expecting healing?” When ALL could be healed before the “better covenant, established upon better promises” was inaugurated, it would be a stretch to think that God is NOT willing to heal ALL under a “better” covenant. If healing for all was taken away, what is “better” about the new healing-less covenant? Doesn’t sound better to me; does it to you? If God was the One who “heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3) in the days of the Law, and He does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17), who has the right to declare that He no longer heals all your diseases in the day of grace when we have what Old Covenant prophets got a glimpse of but were never able to enjoy?
Modern religious teaching has tried to create two Jesuses, One who healed anyone who wanted it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Today Jesus who isn’t as willing to heal. This is a tragedy. It makes Him less attractive to the world than He was when He went around “healing all who were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). We need to preach the REAL Jesus, not the religious “Today Jesus.” If we do, the REAL Jesus will prove Himself as the Healer to people just as He did in the Bible.