David Ray
As a sales associate for a new home builder, I get to assist lots of people in their search for a new home. This is usually the largest investment most people will ever make. As such, it’s always strange to me when potential homebuyers express more interest in, and concern for, the smaller, more cosmetic parts of the house (e.g., paint color, size of pantry, space for TV, number of electrical and cable outlets) than for the more important factors (e.g., builder reputation, quality of construction, energy efficiency, length of warranty, etc.–matters they seem to have relatively little, if any, interest in at all).
Having also worked in the auto industry many years, the running joke was always that the customer’s primary concern was not how well the car was built but how many cupholders it has! Today it seems that people are far more interested in their cell phones than they are their homes or cars.
So, it should be no surprise that the biggest investment of all, one’s eternal home after this life, is the furthest thing from their minds. The average person has virtually no interest at all in his spiritual eternity. Atheism may account for much of this; but sadly, the reality is that most people are practical atheists, believing in the existence of God (even claiming to be Christians), but whose lives, decisions, and actions display the opposite. Consider Titus 1:15-16:
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Notice that Paul is referring to the “unbelieving”, but defines this not as atheism, but as those who “profess to know God; but in works they deny him.” These unbelievers not only believe in God, but actually claim to know Him. When Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God instructed him (Num. 20:8, 11), God punished him, saying that “ye believed me not” (v. 12). There is a big difference in believing in God (i.e., His existence) and believing God, which clearly requires knowledge of, and obedience to, His will.
Most folks are going to be shocked in the end of time when their homes, cars, and cell phones will be “burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10ff) and they are required to “appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). For “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).
As people go through the home buying process, do they consider that this is the largest earthly investment they’ll make? As you live your life, do you recognize that the most important investment you’ll ever make is in your soul and where you’ll live eternally? “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
