Uselessness

“These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.”
2 Peter 2:17 NLT

Still referring to false teachers and false prophets, Peter defines them as being “useless”. Harsh words perhaps? But words that describe the pointlessness of being someone who is preaching against God’s plans and ways or distorting His message. In the context of God’s kingdom, they add little that is positive and much that is negative. So Peter describes them as being “useless“.

A big question sometimes asked is about the purpose of life. What are we humans here on Planet Earth for? Are we here, as some will claim, by accident? Are we too just the useless result of our circumstances? The product of a mix of chemicals formed by chance on a lump of rock that happened to end up at just the right distance from a source of light and heat, creating an environment conducive to the formation of life? That is what many evolutionists would have us think. Unfortunately for them, the facts don’t fit in with their theories. We pilgrims know how we got here, because the Bible tells of how it happened. The Genesis account describes the formation of our planet, and then there is the verse, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7). And the man, Adam, ‭‭was given a job to do, “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it” (Genesis 2:15). He was useful, and, better, he was being useful in a way that aligned with God’s desires for him. We can read on in Genesis, and find that farming for food to live on was the first physical priority. So mankind had to be useful in the sense that if they weren’t then human beings would probably have died out through starvation. And we can see that even us pilgrims have to be useful in our societies where keeping alive is the main requirement. Of course, this is a simplified picture, but it doesn’t answer the question, why are we here? Or, what is the purpose of life? 

We turn to the Bible for meaningful answers. Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, concluded after wrestling with these questions, “That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Another perspective we must consider is that we pilgrims, Christian believers, are assured of a future beyond the grave. One day, our physical bodies will die. This wasn’t God’s plan, because He originally created perfection, but through sin, our bodies will be corrupted and will die. But because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, He has granted us eternal life. When we die, our spirits will live on with God in Heaven. This will be the time when we will receive a new body. We read in Philippians 3:21, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control“. 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands“. 

So we can see that to be useful, we have to have a relationship with God, and work to provide for both ourselves and our families. Those false teachers were going to find, according to Peter, that their uselessness will lead to an end of the “blackest darkness”. The Westminster Shorter Confession says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. So in whatever we think or do, is our main focus God, or our own selfish desires? Do we align ourselves to God’s ways, or get absorbed into a society where the main driver is sin? There is no middle ground.

Today we pilgrims have an opportunity to shift our focus from the natural to the spiritual, as we do every day. From our mundane existence into something so amazing and wonderful that it is breathtaking in its implications. We don’t have to wait until we pass over the Great Divide into God’s presence before we can “enjoy Him forever“. He is with us now. We can reach and touch Him. He is that close. There is a poem, which includes, “Two men looking through prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars.” Where are we looking today? A useless life will only find mud, but those who are useful will find the stars. Let’s embrace the Creator of those stars today while we have the opportunity.

Dear Father God, our amazing Creator. We reach out to You today, and pray that in whatever we are doing, we will be useful to You and Your purposes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.