Verse by Verse Devotional on Philippians by Pastor Jack #190

Minds Set on Earthly Things

3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

It is so easy to set our minds on the things of earth: they are all around us. It’s all we see. But God calls His people to see something much bigger and more real than what is visible.

The Judaizers were professing Christians but they were preoccupied with earthly matters. Specifically, they were taken up in earthly regulations, like circumcision and food laws and animal sacrifice.

There are many professing Christians today who are also taken up with earthly regulations and appearances and positions of status. Everything we do is supposed to be directed toward heaven, but many of us, I am afraid, though we believe in heaven, hardly ever think about it. Heaven doesn’t mean much to us because we are content with what we have here on the earth. How we have settled for a counterfeit! It is Satan who wants us to think this world is a place of security and pleasure. God wants us to see this world as a wilderness we must walk through on our way to our true home. But so often the way we live betrays the fact that we see this world as our home. Our minds are set on earthly things.

I remember as a young pastor coming to the realization that heaven was a part of my theology but not a part of my daily thought process. And even today I find myself falling often into the same trap. If I am really honest with myself, I see that so much of what I do is done for here and now and not for heavenly gain.

But heaven is what gives the Christian life its flavor. As Paul said, "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." (1Cor.15:19) If you take the notion of heaven out of Christianity there is nothing left! And yet, when we are comfortable, it is easy to act as if this earth is all we need. May God help us!

O Lord, burn eternity upon my eyeballs, so that I see everything in its light. Help me to see the things of earth as they really are: "Vanity! Vanity! All is vanity!" Surely the reality of heaven is what gives everything its meaning in the here and now. Help me to live according to this truth. Help me not to store up for myself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But help me store up for myself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." (Helen Lemmel, 1922)