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Better Yet

READ: Philippians 1:19-26

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. —Philippians 1:21

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Sir Francis Bacon said, “I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.” Woody Allen said, “I’m not afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

It’s not death that’s so frightening. It’s the dying that scares us. As Paul faced imprisonment and the prospect of dying in a jail cell, he shared his view about life and death: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). What a perspective!

Death is our enemy (1 Cor. 15:25-28), but it does not possess the finality that so many dread. There is something waiting for believers beyond this life—something better.

Someone has said, “What the caterpillar thinks is the end of life, the butterfly thinks is just the beginning.” George MacDonald wrote, “How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.”

I love this paraphrase of Philippians 1:21, “To me, living means opportunities for Christ, and dying—well, that’s better yet!” (TLB). During our physical life, we have opportunities to serve Jesus. But one day, we will actually be in His presence. Our fear will melt away when we see Him face to face.

That’s the “better yet” the apostle Paul is talking about!
—Cindy Hess Kasper

Death?—Christ said not death;
He called it sleep;
A vast awaking, a new day breaking,
A bright way taking, with visions deep. —H. Frost

For the Christian, the fear of death will give way to the fullness of life.