Baptist City Blog

Spiritual Retirement Age

Isaiah 62:1  

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."

Have you retired on God?  It seems as I travel that there are more and more people who have spiritually retired.  What I mean by this is that they are still faithful to church, but they hardly do anything in the church.  Many of these who have spiritually retired rely upon their past spiritual accomplishments as their basis for justifying their spiritual retirement.  

According to the verse above, until righteousness reigns supreme, there should be no spiritual retirement. You will notice it says, "I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." Apparently, in God's eyes there is no spiritual retirement age.  The only time God justifies anyone spiritually retiring is when righteousness rules in everyone's life.  Micah 2:10 says, "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest..." God commands every Christian to arise and keep building and restoring lives until righteousness reigns.  

As I think about this verse, several thoughts come to mind.  First, you should not rest until you have conquered your own sin. Spiritual retirement is not an option until all sin has been conquered in your own life. Christian, one of the reasons you should not spiritually retire is because serving God is how you conquer sin. You will not conquer sin by sitting on the sidelines watching others serve God.  Being that you are a sinful human, that would mean you have no business spiritually retiring because you still have sin to overcome.  

Second, you should not spiritually retire until every person has conquered sin.  I think you are starting to get the picture, spiritual retirement will not happen until we get to Heaven. As long as people continue to sin, it is your responsibility to help them overcome their sin.  There is no time to rest when sin is destroying lives! It is not time to spiritually retire until righteousness reigns in the heart of every person.  

Last, you should not spiritually retire until every person on Earth is saved. The greatest reason why you should cancel your spiritual retirement plans is because people are still dying and going to Hell. Christian, Hell is a real place; and people are still dying and going there. How can you enjoy your spiritual retirement while people continue to slip off into a burning Hell for all eternity? It is not time to spiritually retire, it is time to grab your Bible and go tell people how to be saved. It is not time to spiritually retire while thousands of cities have no church to tell them how to get saved.  It is not time to spiritually retire while the world goes without a clear presentation of the Gospel. Until there is no fire in Hell, and until there is no person who is not saved, you should stay busy trying to reach every lost person with the Gospel of Christ.  

Have you spiritually retired?  What do you do for Christ other than attend church? It is time to get busy serving God and realize that your rest will come when you get to Heaven.  Until then, cancel all of your spiritual retirement plans.