Dear Elim Grace, if all we had was the Old Testament, and we were to read through Ecclesiastes, we might conclude nothing we do matters. But we have the New Testament that gives us the complete picture. It shows us the return of Jesus, the coming new heaven and new earth. It gives us the parable of the faithful steward and those eternally rewarding words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Ecclesiastes alone might lead us to believe nothing we do matters. But the New Testament leads us to believe that everything we do matters. Everything we do here on earth and in this life matters and will somehow carry over to the next. This life we’re given is not all there is, but only the beginning of the beginning. Our eternal life in Christ and because of Christ will be the perfection or completion and fulfillment of all this life should have been had sin not entered the world. In other words, the new life of the world to come has broken into this life—the life of Christ now living in you through the Holy Spirit.
This means that your gifts and skills matter. Your money and resources matter. Your stewardship and faithfulness matter. Your work and your rest matter. Your fun and your play matter. Your fight and your convictions matter. You matter. Your life matters. That we are “storing up treasures in heaven” points to the connection between this life and our eternal life.
Everything you do matters. But far from being a crushing burden to live perfect and earn the next life, it is the stunning realization that the perfect obedience of Christ is already yours by faith in Him. You are declared righteous before God. But not only that, the perfect obedience of Christ living in you is now working in you to transform you, to sanctify you, to remake you into His image. No, you will not be perfected in this life, but, yes, you are being perfected.
So when Paul says, “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17) and “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31), He means Christ is at work in you and through you and for you in “whatever” and in “everything”. Nothing—no inch of space, no second of time, no season of life—is inconsequential to God, no matter what it seems like to you. Nothing in your life—no milestone, no disappointment, no smile, no tear—is more nor less important to God, no matter what it feels like to you. Everything matters, because everything matters to God. And everything matters to God, because you matter to God—you are a new creation in Jesus Christ!
Solomon preaches to us in Ecclesiastes that this life alone is “vanity”. We should listen. But one greater than Solomon is here—Jesus Christ—preaching to us in the New Testament and by His Spirit that this life is not all there is, that, “Behold, I am coming soon…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:12-13) We should listen to Him. In Him is the first and last words of God.
Moments come and we taste a fulness in life, and then moments come and we taste an emptiness in life. But in Jesus Christ, present now to us, with us, and in us, we can abundantly and everlastingly “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Everything we do matters and is infused with His glory.