by Elder Peter Lim

Some fun state mottos include “It Grows As It Goes” (New Mexico), “By and By” (Washington), “She Flies With Her Own Wings” (Oregon), and “Manly Deeds, Womanly Words” (Maryland). But perhaps the most memorable motto is New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die”. This motto means serious business. They desire that the government keep their hands off as much as possible. They have no state tax. On one hand it speaks of a most noble desire to live with freedom above all else, even death. On the other hand it communicates a militant agenda, no doubt a reference to the values that led to the American Revolution. For Christians, our motto is similar to New Hampshire’s with some differences. It is based on Philippians 1:21 – For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul had a difficult time deciding which option was better for him. (Phil. 1:22-24) To be able to live his life, he knew that he would fill it with profitable activities (see my last article “Minesweeper, Solitaire, Sudoku”) and so his life would revolve around Christ and His gospel. To die would mean an immediate trip home to be with Jesus forever. This was a win-win situation.

Too often, many Christians don’t think the way Paul thought. We would rather live our normal lives doing all the usual things that other normal non-Christians do. We may even try to Christianify different aspects of our life in order to justify our lifestyle. (yes, I made up that word) For example, we go watch a movie or play basketball and call it fellowship. We idolize celebrities and entertain ourselves with worldly thoughts, ideas and TV shows and separate these areas of our lives apart from our faith. Most of us work for a living in order to take care of our families. We strive to get promotions at work in order to earn a larger paycheck and to move up the corporate ladder. Then we buy nicer cars and live in big houses in order to make life convenient since we are working so hard to sustain this lifestyle. Note that none of these things are necessarily sinful all by themselves. However, the question is not whether something is sin or not. The question is, are we living for the sake of the gospel or not. A non-Christian family can do exactly the same thing as the example above. Then what is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? The difference must be Christ. Imagine someone going through High School with straight As, getting accepted to Harvard, starting a company that grows into the Fortune 500, retiring at age 40 with $500 million in assets, but is not living for Christ (whether this person claims to be a Christian or not), this is the epitome of a wasted life. If we don’t live for Christ, it’s not worth living. I am proposing that as Christians, we adopt our own motto based on Phil. 1:21: “Live For Christ or Die.”