Enjoying life in a healthy way

The Chief Apostle used a well-known Bible text in Joachimsthal (Germany) on 28 May 2017: “… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6: 20). Jean-Luc Schneider also started with the well-known interpretation: “We must work now and enjoy later, much later, in the hereafter, in heaven, in eternity.”

Enjoying life in the here and now

“When you read the gospels you see that the Lord Jesus enjoyed life. He celebrated, He ate, and He drank,” the Chief Apostle said, and then looked at the Bible text from another perspective. The point is not only the contrast between this life and the hereafter, he said, but above all the domain of good and evil also in this life.

“As Christians we may certainly enjoy life,” he stated. All we have to do is set the right priorities. “Because if we collect heavenly treasures now it will also help us to shape our earthy lives.”

“Let us seek the treasure: Jesus Christ. He is the greatest treasure, whose value is eternal and unmatched,” the Chief Apostle said. “We possess the treasure Jesus Christ if we have a firm faith in Him, if we have great knowledge of Him, and if we make His qualities our own.”

How we can gather this treasure

And how can we make this treasure our own?

• “We seek Jesus Christ through prayer. This is a job that no one can do for us. It is something we have to do ourselves.”
• “We hear the word of God in divine service. But the sermon is not a ready product. It has to be assimilated and we have to work on it in our hearts, and we have to ask ourselves: What am I going to do with it now?”
• “Before the celebration of Holy Communion we must think about the Lord Jesus and constantly think about all that He did, what His nature is like, and what His plans are.”
• “We receive so many insights into the nature of Jesus, for example, when we look around us in our fellowship and see how beautifully someone reacts to something. That is how I imagine the Lord Jesus.”

An inventory of our wealth

If we gather this treasure, Jesus Christ, we are rich.

• Let us always be aware what a wonderful friend Jesus Christ is. He loves us, no matter what. He does what He says. He keeps His promises. He always tells us what condition our soul is in. He does so with a great deal of love, but without disguising the truth.”
• “Those who possess this treasure possess freedom. Their happiness does not depend on earthly possessions. They are free in their relationship to their neighbour, free from all prejudice. They can see their neighbour as Jesus sees him. They can do what they want. They want to enter into fellowship with Jesus Christ. And with the help of Jesus they will succeed.”
• “Those who have Jesus Christ have divine wisdom. Because they include Jesus Christ in their decision-making process, they can be sure that they will never be totally wrong. They will not build their happiness on someone else’s pain. We also think of the coming generation, which is why we treat the environment in a responsible way.”

In summing up, the Chief Apostle said: “Let us gather treasure in heaven so that we fulfill the prerequisites for eternal life already today, but also that we can be children of God who are full of the joy of life and who have success.”