The Righteous are not Immune to Vanity

The Righteous are not Immune to Vanity

If your view of life is focused only on this current world and your time in it, then it is a natural thing to build a life, gain wealth, make memories, and aim for a comfortable retirement. However, this is not the view that the Bible promotes. In the context of a Biblical view, an eternal view, a view that places value on a human life after death, the Bible speaks of life as vanity, which literally means "vapor" or "breath", and is also translated as "meaningless", "emptiness", or "futility". Both Psalms and Ecclesiastes raise this topic throughout their pages,

Psalm 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

Psalm 94:11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Psalm 144:4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

Ecclesiastes 12:8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

If you are living a life outside of faith in Christ, your life is signed and sealed in vanity. You might be living it up in this world for the years allotted to you, but it will pass away and be of no use beyond the grave. Though you have built an empire here on earth, you will be judged for everything you have done in this life, and it will be found wanting, of no heavenly value, and your life will be cut off from the light and love of the Almighty God and Creator. 

For others who have placed their trust in the gospel of grace, and believed in the death and resurrection of Christ, your life is delivered into the hands of God and secured in His lifegiving power, but, you too are subject to judgement, as so eloquently penned by Paul in 1 Cor.3:13, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is".  

Now, what does this judgement mean? It is not a judgement for eternal life, since this is settled with surety in the cross of Christ, but this judgement renders reward to that which you build upon the foundation of Christ while you were still here on earth.

1 Cor.3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Let me give you this small nugget of motivation and truth. Our journey does not end when we get saved at the foot of the cross. On the contrary, this is where our journey begins. The cross has paid for our eternal salvation, but vanity still has power over your future life if you just sit back in ignorance of the Word, not heeding its instruction and the will of God for you to press on to a higher calling,

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The judgement of rewards will burn up the good works that you do in your own strength. If, after your salvation, we ignore the Word and go on to building on the foundation of Christ with our own materials of wood, hay, and stubble, —works out of our own will and pride, works that do not originate from the love of Christ being fashioned within us, —these works are themselves vanity, as they will come to nothing at the Bema Seat of Christ, causing you to suffer loss in that eternal realm. Remember what Paul says in 1 Cor.13:1-3 [paraphrased]; "you can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, you can have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, you can have all faith, so that you could remove mountains, and bestow all your goods to feed the poor, and  give my body to be burned, but if it is not done from the love of Christ that exudes out of you, that love that is based on not seeking its own glory, but in the motive to glorify Christ alone, your works and investments are nothing, ash on the altar, worthless to the purposes of God".

Let us take heed that it is God's will that we come to the knowledge of His Son in us. The only way to do this is to get into the Bible and have it get into you! We need to study His Word diligently, we need to get in tune with our doctrine, Paul's epistles written for our edification, so that we might grow up in Christ, contributing to His body and investing in His glory. The only cure for vanity as a believer is to grow in obedience in the Word of God, to become mature in the things of Christ, to become the adopted sons of God who tend to the will of the Father. This is a process of faith. Building with gold, silver, and precious stones, is not a work of the flesh, but a life given wholly over to Christ, where Christ lives in and through you, from faith to faith, and in the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.