“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Have you thought about what the whole “abundant life” thing is? Years ago my wife and I attended a Bible study that centered on a series of videos from the Focus on the Family group. This proved to be a fascinating series, and one full of a great deal of information, filled with precepts that stay with me today. One of the first things they covered was “Why did Jesus come to earth? Why was He here at all?” John 10:10 was the focus of their answer to this question.
It has taken me a good deal of time to formulate my thoughts on this verse (as well as others). Why is it written with the contrast to a thief, who obviously steals physical wealth, and why does it then talk about life as if an abundant life could somehow be stolen by a thief? Finally, what is an abundant life?
Well, as I meditate on God’s Word I think it is more than a matter of semantics. I think it speaks, in one big complete package, to the reason Christ came to redeem us in the way He did.
I’ve met many people who differ in their thoughts on what an “abundant life” is.
I used to have a job which took me all over the country, spending time with a variety of people from every state. I was doing speaking/training over long weekends, and I found myself spending a great deal of time with other speakers/trainers that were on the platform. One such person was a man who had just reached a goal he had set for himself four years before. He had just come off a year in which he paid himself $36 million. He spoke about having reached that goal only in passing, as we shared a meal, but he spoke at great length about how he was going to reach his new goal of paying himself $360 million a year. In fact, he spoke of little else the entire three-day weekend.
A wonderful businessman, generous with his time and experience, he encouraged me to follow his career path to wealth and “rewards.” Unfortunately, our paths never crossed again. I got a call a couple years later letting me know he had passed away. As I reflected on the time spent with him, I wondered if he had lived an abundant life? He seemed so restless, so uneasy about his accomplishments, that I couldn’t help but wonder if he had ever enjoyed peace and contentment in his success. I will never be sure, but I never had the sense that he felt he was living an abundant life.
An abundant life. Can I have one without being redeemed from sin? No, so death, burial and resurrection are more than necessary for that abundant life to be available to me. Can I have such a life without the Holy Spirit indwelling me? Not in my opinion, so we have a need for a personal relationship centering us on Him, and the Body of Christ in the form of other believers. So, can we have that abundant life without church fellowship? Again, I don’t think so, because if we fail to come together we are not fully building up one another, and we can’t do that without the provisions made by Christ coming to be our Savior.
But what about the way God made us? It seems that when I read His Word there is little doubt He endorses hard work, planning, thrift, ambition, and being compensated for our work (Proverbs alone covers all of these and more.) The Proverbs-31 woman is legendary in evangelical circles, right? He made us in such a way that we are fulfilled when we are in pursuit of improvement, whether it is in our spiritual or our financial lives. Isn’t this a message that God intends for us to be striving in all areas for the abundant life?
I must confess I’m not sure. I remain a work in progress regarding all the elements of the abundant life in Christ. I don’t subscribe to the “prosperity gospel” or what some call the “name it and claim it” doctrines of some preachers. But neither do I agree with what one fellow believer told me about the wealthy, “if you’re making millions of dollars you simply can’t be close to God”. I guess that is the real point of this verse, it encompasses so many aspects of our lives, and does so in so few words, that we can spend our entire life peeling back the layers of exactly what an abundant life in Christ is.
My hope and prayer is that the joy, contentment, peace, and encouragement I experience as I meditate on His Word is a kernel of this abundant life. I hope that the fact I want to understand Him pleases Him. I know that I am grateful for already having what I perceive to be an extremely abundant life, all because of Him, and look forward to what He has in store for me going forward.