Unless You Believe in Vain

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Introduction

When I was younger the meaning of life and what my stamp on this world would be was something I thought about from time to time, and as a young twenty something year old the meaning of life became a question I went about through living to try to figure out. It became quickly apparent that working 40 plus hours a week just to go to the movies and out to dinner on the weekends was not a fulfilling way to live. Having a child brought about purpose, and then came the issue of how to raise a child. In church was the most important answer to that question and purpose found more of a place in my life. Some are more intelligent as they have a solid relationship with Christ at a younger age than I did and the direction in their lives takes a more direct route to a Christian life.

Although even the Christian life never strayed from can present existential questions of purpose and direction. Even the Christian worldview without a focus can leave one asking the question, Okay what now? Even the life devoted to Christ can feel like a record that keeps repeating as it turns around and around, skipping and playing the same lyric over and over.

Vanity is a theme we see in Ecclesiastes where Soloman states that all of life is vanity, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:2 warns the Corinthian church that unless they believed the Gospel he shared with them in vain they have been saved by what he taught them. In Ecclesiastes we get the idea that human endeavors are vain with a definition of fruitlessness and a persons natural life is fruitless. As we examine what life is, what our walk with Christ is, how our Christian life should look choosing the starting point of being sure we did not believe in vain and moving onto how we walk in our ordained works as born again believers in opposition to a vain life without purpose.

(We have what we want to see as the purpose of our life, and God has his purpose in our life)