Philippians 1:21-24

Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”

This is such an important attitude to have! Can we honestly say that Christ is our life? Do we view death as gain, or loss? It’s so easy to get so caught up in this world that we come to view death as a tremendous loss – we leave behind a career, a life, fame, power, money, possessions, or whatever it may be. It’s certainly tempting to think that way.

And yet, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Perhaps the key is not to spend our lives trying to get everything this world has to offer, but instead to simply be like Christ: to love, to serve, to help. If you’re living a life of service then you have a different perspective. Then death has no loss, for you go from serving here to serving in Heaven – and, in fact, there is great gain because the problems of this life are gone and “in His presence is fulness of joy”.

“To die is gain” is not a hopeless statement, but a focused one. This is saying that life is about serving Christ, not gathering “things”, and that death takes nothing away but rather removes the trials of this life and replaces it with the joy of being in the presence of God.

Perhaps we are simply trying too hard to “win” this life when we should be focusing more on being a servant of Jesus. Servants don’t have complicated lives: they simply serve their master. Yet we get so easily caught up in serving ourselves instead.

Temptations tend to focus on things that people want. However, if the world does not hold our interest because we’re too focused on serving Jesus then many temptations lose their power. If pleasing Jesus is all we really want in life then the devil is going to have a very hard time trying to tempt us.