Livin' Large-God's Way

Livin’ Large – God’s Way
John R. Petrilli

I used to get a real kick out of a commercial featuring M.C. Hammer. It pictured M.C. livin’ large with a mansion in the background, an Italian sports car, expensive clothing on his back, and gaudy diamond-studded jewelry covering him from head to toe. Hammer was mirroring the world’s version of livin’ large – a version that is purely materialistic, highly superficial, and temporal at best (as, in the commercial, where M.C.’s lifestyle comes crashing down in a moment without warning). What a contrast to God’s version of livin’ large found in the Gospel of John, chapter ten, and verse ten:

“I have come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it more ABUNDANTLY.”

These words of Jesus indicate that there is such a thing as a godly lifestyle that is large in character, satisfaction, and duration. So just what does Jesus mean when He states that the purpose of His coming was to give us an abundant life? Let’s examine this together, for the truths waiting to be discovered are surprising as well as encouraging.


FOR THE CHILD OF GOD, LIVIN’ LARGE HAS A PRIMARILY SPIRITUAL APPLICATION.

If you think for a moment that this article is about material and fiscal prosperity, guess again. While God chooses to bless some of His people with above average material prosperity, what He guarantees to all of His children is the blessing of spiritually abundant living. And when we come right down to it, that’s what really matters the most. Not everyone will enjoy the opulent wealth of a Solomon, or the flushed coffers of a King David. But we can all experience the best abundance of all, spiritual abundance.

While we’re told from youth up by the media that material prosperity is what life’s all about, a simple glance at those who’ve attained that status shows that it doesn’t satisfy our deepest longings. If we had to choose between having the overflowing joy of the Lord with a modest income, or being filthy rich with no sense of God’s presence or blessing upon our lives, I would hazard to guess we’d choose the former. The best things in life are spiritual…love, joy, peace… etc. They can’t be bought nor maintained with money.

Christ’s entry into the human heart commences a spiritual journey that is likened to a sheep following its owner. Whether the pathway is rife with darkness and danger, or aglow with peacefulness and provision, that sheep is in great shape because it’s under expert and reliable management. The sheep in Psalm 23 is free from want at all levels, and particularly at the spiritual level. Comforted by the shepherd’s rod and staff and encouraged by the very presence of its owner, this animal hasn’t a care in the world. In fact, its confidence in its eternal well being causes it to declare that it will enjoy this incredible prosperity as a member in God’s household forever!

Jesus is all about things spiritual. His kingdom is spiritual. His salvation is spiritual. His universal healing is primarily spiritual in nature. His subjects operate in a spiritual realm with highly spiritual values. His laws are spiritual. And His guaranteed and choicest blessings are altogether spiritual. When we come to Christ for salvation, He pours into us His life, His incredibly inexplicably abundant life.

The abundant life of which Christ speaks is a quality of life as well as a quantity of life. Eternal life is measured in qualitative as well as quantitative terms. We possess eternal life right in the here and now as the Holy Spirit infuses us with God’s powerful and purifying presence, changing the way we think, act and speak. These changes bring about a lifestyle satisfaction that far exceeds anything the world could ever offer. At the moment of salvation we immediately become possessors of three of the most sought after commodities in all of human history … love, joy, and peace. As we progress along our journey, we discover that there’s more, so very much more that God offers to a life of that is obedient to His Word and led by His Spirit, one of which is a life of liberty, of total freedom in Christ, a life lived without regrets, inhibitions, or second guesses.

It’s a quality of life issue in the truest sense of the word. We hear so much of that term thrown around today, but the fact of the matter is that God invented it! But not in the utilitarian sense that it has grown into disuse as. Professionals claim to know when a person’s quality of life is no longer sufficient to merit the sustaining of that life. But when God talks about quality of life, He’s referring to that deep inner sense of peace and joy that comes from living in harmony with one’s Creator as well as one’s fellow man. When Christ enters a life and reigns there, that life experiences a joy that’s unspeakable and full of glory, a peace that defies human explanation, and a love that can only be described as supernatural as well as supra-natural.

With regard to abundant life being a quantitative measure, Jesus makes it crystal clear that eternal life is all about being in fellowship with God and others, while eternal death is all about being completely and irrevocably cut off from fellowship with God and others. Heaven will be a never-ending experience, but so will hell. The key difference is that one locale will be a place of endless death, while the other will be a place of everlasting life.


FOR THE CHILD OF GOD, LIVIN’ LARGE IS A MATTER OF ATTITUDE.

Have you ever marveled like I have at how happy some of the world’s poorest people seem to be with the little they have, while how typically miserable some of the world’s richest folks seem to be? I think the reason for this apparent irony is found in the simple fact that, as Jesus said, “A man’s life (fulfillment, satisfaction, meaningfulness) does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses”. Though spoken two thousand years ago, we’ve still to take His words to heart here in the acquisition-obsessed west. While we may nod our head in agreement with Jesus in principle, in practice we act as if everything depended on getting the newest, latest, and greatest gadget money can buy. But as soon as we’ve opened the packaging, we’re left wondering why we still don’t feel satisfied or fulfilled. It’s because the real satisfaction we seek will never be met by things material. We are primarily relational beings, and our greatest need is to love and be loved. That provision is best and most fully met in having a right relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. Once we’ve got that squared away, our relationships with others around us begin to take on new meaning, greater value and deeper satisfaction.

Once we make that great paradigm shift away from material acquisition and toward spiritual growth our lives will begin to experience the richness and satisfaction God meant them to have, in essence, the “abundant life”.
That is what Jesus has come to give … not simply fire insurance against the Day of His wrath, but eternal and abundant life in the here and now, a life that is mightily prospering in the spirit, regardless of its external net worth.


FOR THE CHILD OF GOD, LIVIN’ LARGE HAS A DECIDEDLY ALTRUISTIC ELEMENT.

If you had to name the one individual you believe best illustrates what livin’ large is all about, who would come to mind? Elvis? Donald Trump? Bill Gates? An oil-rich Arab sultan? Who might that person be in your mind? Well, stop guessing and try this one on for size … Jesus. Yes, Jesus!

I say this because there is a definite paradox that permeates all of the Christian life. To gain you must lose. To live you must die. To receive you must give. Jesus had the giving stuff down pat. He always put the needs of others ahead of His own. He went without food and sleep to serve the emotionally, spiritually and physically ill of His day. Jesus gave up the comforts of family and home to cross the countryside with a message that would eternally save those who heeded it. He gave His best, then at the last, gave His very all when He took a death penalty we should have incurred, even the excruciating death of the Roman cross.

If we truly want to live large, we need to revisit and rediscover the role that service plays in our lives. Sacrificial service that effectively and unselfishly addresses the needs of those less fortunate around us. Livin’ large is very much about giving more as opposed to getting more. Once again, the world’s got it all wrong. Let’s try “giving large”, and as we do, we’ll start truly “livin’ large”.