Why Make the Effort?

1Cor 15:30-32 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day— I mean that, brothers— just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Why

"fight the good fight of the faith." 1Tim 6:12a

if it's just about this life? Why

"take hold of the eternal life to which you were called" 1Tim 6:12b

if there is no eternal life?
Our battle is in three arenas - the world, the flesh, the devil.

The World
The world pressures us with temptations outwardly. But

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1John 2:17

Thus Paul asks,

"pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith." 2Th 3:2

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Rom 12:2

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

The Flesh
The flesh works evil in us.

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh (sinful nature)." Rom 7:18

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." Col 3:5

The Devil

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Eph 6:12 "and do not give the devil a foothold." Eph 4:27

As for the phrase

"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

, it comes from Isaiah 22:12-14 which says,

"The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink," you say, "for tomorrow we die!" The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for," says the Lord, the LORD Almighty."

God has made no provision of atonement for people who don't respond to the gospel message in repentance from sin. And

"everyone must die once, and after that comes judgment." Heb 9:27

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