What is at Stake?

Thinking about the value of a soul gives my life passion and influences how I think about people.

What is at stake concerning the souls of people?

C.S. Lewis said, “Nations, cultures, arts, and civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Galatians 5:22-23 states that God’s Spirit brings love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 says that those who never come to know Christ are cut off from God’s presence. This means after death they do not experience anything that comes from the Spirit of God. Zero, nada, nothing, not even the circumstantial aspects people experience without God in this life. This experience will be so horrible that Jesus said, in Matthew 5:29-30, that it is better to pluck out your eye or cut off your own hand if they keep you from God, than to keep them and enter into an eternal existence apart from God.

Much is at stake. People’s souls in Heaven or Hell.

The value of an object is seen in how much one is willing to sacrifice to obtain it.

Gold is more valuable than other metal, and diamonds more than glass because people are willing to pay more for them.

We are so valuable to God that He was not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance, be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He wanted this so badly that He put His words into action by sacrificing His precious son, so that we could be restored to a right relationship with Him.

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The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. – 2 Peter 3:9

God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. – 1 Timothy 2:4

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? – Romans 8:31-32

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We are so valuable to Jesus that He was willing to sacrifice His riches and become poor in order to seek and save those who are lost and ultimately give His life as a ransom for many. Our salvation is free, but not cheap. The payment was Jesus’ precious blood.

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I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. – 2 Corinthians 8:8-9

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. – Luke 19:10

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. – Mark 10:45

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. – 1 Peter 1:18-21

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Paul saw people as so valuable that he became all things to all men so that by all possible means he might save some. In fact, everything he did was for the Gospel; even losing His life for people’s souls.

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For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. – 1 Corinthians 9:19

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:22-23

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. – 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. – 2 Corinthians 6:3-10

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When I remember souls are valuable, I too will be willing to sacrifice my time, possessions, and money to influence friends and family to be with me for eternity. People’s souls are great investments, providing an inheritance which can never perish, spoil, or fade away.

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And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. – Luke 16:9

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:19-21

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:3-5

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When you interact with people look beneath the veneer to see their value and what is at stake. Let this value dictate your actions, not convenience, popularity, or what is comfortable.