The connection between picking up your room and long life

[Remember the teachings of your father] “for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.”
-Proverbs 3:2

What causes death? Every so often we get a new list of the top causes of death in America, undoubtedly topped by heart disease. But that’s not really what I mean. The ultimately cause of death in this country or any other country is sin.

“The wages of sin is death,” the Bible tells us (Romans 6:23). When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he simultaneously introduced sin and death into the world. On that day, he died spiritually, and some years later, he died physically. Without sin, neither event would have happened.

Since then, we have all sinned, and we are all deserving of death. Does that mean that when someone dies, God is striking that person down for a certain particular sin? I don’t think so. That certainly does happen, but I don’t think we could say, “If I hadn’t stolen that candy bar as a child I wouldn’t be dying now!” No, because we’ve committed plenty of sin, from lust to greed to ambition to selfishness to pride. We’re all guilty.

This verse tells us that if we obey the commands of our father, we will have a long life. This is part of what the verse is talking about. Since sin is the cause of death, if we can live without sin (which we can’t, but theoretically), we will not die. Don’t get too excited: it’s too late for that for you, as it is for me. We’re guilty. Let’s move on from here.

There is more to it. The Ten Commandments tells us this: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

Again we have this promise. We’ve already seen that we cannot be without sin. We’ve already failed at that, so what is this talking about?

In part, this verse is talking about a very practical way of having a long life: by living rightly. How many people have died because of wrong living? Certainly there are obvious examples of those who die in shootouts or from sexually transmitted diseases or drug use, or a thousand other deaths that are directly caused by behavior, but how many people have died of heart attacks because they worked themselves to death, ignoring the command of God to take a day off every week (Sabbath)? How many add stress in their lives worrying about this or that, when Jesus tells us to leave the worrying about this world to God? How many add pounds, with all the problems that come with obesity, by ignoring God’s warnings about gluttony?

This is a general statement, because so many clean-living people die prematurely for other causes, but we should be able to see that living life at peace with others and devoted to God and family will add years.

But there is a third meaning here, and it is most important. When we obey our Father in Heaven, our lives will ultimately never end.

We have all sinned and deserve death. And while we will almost certainly die physically (unless Jesus comes back before then), we do not have to remain spiritually dead.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He took on the death that we all deserved. He took our sins upon Himself and paid the price for them. That was the only way we could stand before a Just and Holy God and not be punished.

Now that the debt is paid, we are able stand before His Throne without perishing. But we have to turn away from our old lives of sin and ask His forgiveness. Repent and believe in Jesus, and He will freely give you this life.

It is a free gift, irrespective of anything you can do to earn it. Perhaps you have lived sinfully your whole life, and you don’t think you can be redeemed. But the Blood of Jesus, you can. Maybe you’ve lived a clean life, but you know that there are a few mistakes in your past that prove that you are a sinner like the rest of us. By that same Blood you can be cleansed. Repent and believe, and you will be saved.