In light of all the economic turmoil, Calvin has some timeless truths for Christians:
Whatever…tribulation presses upon us, we must ever look to this end: to accustom ourselves to contempt for the present and to be aroused thereby to meditate upon the future life. For since God knows best how much we are inclined by nature to a brutish love of this world, He uses the fittest means to draw us back and to shake off our sluggishness, lest we cleave to tenaciously to that love.
There is not one of us, indeed, who does not wish to seem throughout his life to aspire and strive after heavenly immortality. For it is a shame to be no better than brute beasts, whose condition would [not be] inferior to our own if there were not left to us hope of eternity after death.
But if you examine the plans, the efforts, the deeds, of anyone, there you will find nothing else but earth. Now our blockishness arises from the fact that our minds, stunned by the empty dazzlement of riches, power, and honors, become so deadened that they can see no farther. The heart also, occupied with avarice, ambition, and lust, is so weighed down that it cannot rise up higher…
The whole soul, enmeshed in the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on earth. To counter this evil the Lord instructs his followers in the vanity of the present life by continual proof of its miseries….
…We rightly advance [in] the discipline of the cross, when we learn that this life, judged in itself, is troubled, turbulent, unhappy in countless ways, and in no respect clearly happy; that all those things which are judged to be its goods are uncertain, fleeting, vain, and vitiated by many intermingled evils…At the same time , we conclude that in this life we are to seek and hope for nothing but struggle; when we think of our crown, we are to raise our eyes to heaven.
For this we must believe: that the mind is never seriously aroused to desire and ponder the life to come unless it be previously imbued with contempt for the present life.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.9.1
Cf. Colossians 3.1-11, Matthew 6.19-24, 10.37-39, 16.24-26, 2 Corinthians 5.1-10, and a host of others.
Dorian
I am really enjoying Tuesdays with Cal.
Bryce and I are reading through Pilgrims Progress, and this post reminded me of it a lot. There are so many times when Christian hears of dreadful sufferings he will have to experience on his road to the celestial city. But, when he considers the terrible state of the city of destruction from which he came, he is strengthened and walks on. He knows all he will find apart from the celestial city will amount to nothing more than misery.
Likewise, we as Christians need to recognize that the world has nothing good to offer us. We must continue on our journey in spite of the trials that we face in order to reach our goal. And we should be thankful when the Lord allows bad things to happen to us because it is just a reminder that earth is not our home.
And we must pray that would be our mindset (because it is easier said than done).