To Despise this Present Life

I don't quote John Calvin much, pretty much because I have read very little of his work. But I came across an article and I really appreciated it. Here is a portion of it.


"Our mind never rises seriously to desire and aspire after the future until it has learned to despise this present life. For there is no medium between the two things: the earth must either be worthless in our estimation, or keep us enslaved by an intemperate love of it... If heaven is our country, what can earth be but a place of exile? If departure from the world is entrance into life, what is the world but a sepulcher, and what is residence in it but immersion in death? If to be freed from the body is to gain full possession of freedom, what is the body but a prison? If it is the very summit of happiness to enjoy the presence of God, is it not miserable to want it? (2 Cor. 5:6). Thus when the earthly is compared to the heavenly life it may undoubtedly be despised and trampled under foot. We ought never, indeed, to regard it with hatred, except in so far as it keeps us subject to sin; and even this hatred ought not to directed against life itself. At all events, we must stand so affected towards it in regard to weariness or hatred as, while longing for it's termination to be ready at the Lord's will to continue in it, keeping far from everything like murmuring and impatience. For it is as if the Lord had assigned us a post, which we must maintain till He recalls us.

Paul indeed, laments his condition, in being still bound with the fetters of the body, and sighs earnestly for redemption (Rom.7:24). Nevertheless he declared that in obedience to the command of God, he was prepared for both courses, because he acknowledges it as his duty to God to glorify his name, whether by life or death, while it belongs to God to determine what is most conducive to His glory. Wherefore, if it becomes us to live and die to the Lord, let us leave the period of our life and death at His disposal. Still, let us ardently long for death and constantly meditate upon it, and in comparison with future immortality, let us despise life and on account of the bondage of sin, long to renounce it whenever it shall so please the Lord.

--Excerpted from The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, Book 3, Chapter 9: "Of Meditating on the Future Life."