“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” – C.S. Lewis

 
Paul says that to live is Christ, but to die is gain (Phil. 1:21).  Death can only be gain because of the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, Christ has secured eternal life for those who trust Him.  Paul knows that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).  Because of this fact, we know that there is at least one thing more valuable than survival: trusting in the cross of Jesus Christ.  But does this promise of eternal life make this life not worth living? Does this mean that there is no value in this life? Certainly not. Paul even says “to live is Christ”.  So what does give value to survival? To answer this question, we can continue to look at the full context of Paul’s statement “to live is Christ”, as well as other parts of Scripture.  There are three things, I think, which God has given to us that can help us find value in this life: service, little gifts, and our character.
In Philippians 1, Paul goes on to say that to live in the flesh means “fruitful labor” for him. He says that to remain in the flesh is “more necessary on your account.”  He tells the church in Philipi that he will remain for their progress and joy in the faith – so that they will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus.  In other words, Paul’s great joy and purpose in life is very outward focused. It looks up vertically, and it looks out horizontally.  Paul longs to continue living this life because in the name of Christ he can serve those around him.  Our ability to serve others is the first thing that gives value to the Christian life. We are here for God’s kingdom. It should be the prayer of all Christians that God use us up and wring us out for the advancement of His kingdom. Once our role in the kingdom is over, it will be time to go home (see here).
When speaking of these kinds of things, it is easy to “over-spiritualize” the discussion.  Of course it is the “Christian” thing to say that serving Christ through serving others is what gives value to life.  As Christians, it’s easy to miss the simple things.  James 1:17 says,

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“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

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When God created the universe, He said it was good.  There are good things in creation that God put here for us. Let us find joy in the little things that God chose to give us, when He could have chosen not to. The taste of a delicious steak. The smile of a little infant. The laughter of a friend. The fellowship of family. The beauty of a sunset. The mystery of space. The fascination of mathematics. A hug from someone who cares. The excitement of a good story. The music that we listen to. The people who we love. So often it feels like Christians have set their standards too high for things we are allowed to enjoy. Yes, God is the source of all our joy. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the little things too. In fact, the little things point us to the great joy we have in Christ. God loves us. He loves to give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:11, Luke 11:13).  Only an ungrateful, stuck-up child would refuse to enjoy a gift that is intended for our joy (Luke 15:25-32). These little things are what give value to survival. These little things provide us with just a taste of the joy that is to come in the next life when we see our Savior face to face.

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“I do believe that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry, and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better of the two.” – Charles Spurgeon

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The third thing that gives value to survival, or rather, is more important than our survival, is our character. Life is good.  We are all made in God’s image, meaning our lives are of infinite worth. However, Scripture calls us to a life of holiness. In the history of the church, this holiness has oftentimes cost life. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells His followers that they are to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. Notice, he does not say, “seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, unless it will cost you your life.” Our character and our moral standards should not be compromised. Our character should not be something we are willing to sacrifice for our survival. We must follow the standards of God’s Law, even if it costs us our life.

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 “This world, what it is now, this is where you belong. And I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that’s okay. ‘Cause at least I can say when the world goes to s***, I didn’t let it take me down with it.” – Dale, The Walking Dead

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In modern day America, however, it seems unlikely that any of us will have to choose between survival and our character.  It’s possible, and it’s happening all over the world, but right now in the United States it’s just not likely.  However, there is another type of “survival” that we face everyday: the survival of our emotions. Everyday throughout social media I see posts about needing to protect ourselves from heartbreak.  Song after song is written about how someone has betrayed us and broken our trust, and how we are not going to make those same mistakes again.  One time I even saw a picture on Facebook of a hand that was tightly holding on to a rope, causing damage to the hand. Then, below that, there was a picture of the hand letting go of the rope, and that hand was uninjured. The caption read “Sometimes holding on does more damage than letting go.” It’s true that sometimes holding on hurts worse – much worse – than letting go.  But what the photo fails to realize is that sometimes it is worth taking damage, depending on what’s on the other side of the rope. And if we as a culture were not so concerned with making sure our emotions survive – that we remain unhurt – then maybe we could see that. There are things in life worth making sacrifices for. This attitude of emotional survival has lead many of us into skepticism and doubt when it comes to the people around us. We are afraid to trust, because we may be hurt in the end. We are afraid to care, because they may not care about us. We’re afraid to get close with anyone, because if we lose them, it will feel like we’ve lost a part of ourselves (here is a good song describing this situation, and the type of sacrificial love Christians should have). Scripture does not allow for this kind of fear based living.  In fact, God commands us to “not be afraid”. And apart from that, He tells us that He is our hope and our fortress (Psalm 91:2; 18:2). We can find refuge in the Lord, so we have no need to find “refuge” in our relationships. This should not cause us to back away and say “screw people I don’t need them. They will only hurt me in the end anyways.” Rather, this should give us confidence that we can trust and we can love and we can care because in the end, we have the greatest relationship known to man which we can fall back on: our relationship with Christ- the One who will always love us despite us (Rom. 5:8, 8:31-38; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:4-5; 1 John 3:1).
As long as we continue to live in fear of being hurt, we will continue to miss out on some of the great things that life has to offer. Granted, there are some people we need to stay away from. The Bible does speak of being “wise as serpents” (Matt. 10:16) and tells us to stay away from fools for the sake of our own moral integrity (Prov. 14:7, 1 Cor. 15:33, Ps. 26:4-5). But this does not necessarily mean we should enter every situation with doubt, cynicism, and skepticism. Notice Scripture speaks not of being afraid to enter relationships. We should not seclude ourselves because we are afraid of getting hurt.  The only reason we should disassociate from others is for the sake of our moral integrity. We are called to enter into joyful relationships with those around us. The people in our lives should bring us joy as we enter into trusting, loving relationships with them. We cannot keep living our lives in fear of emotional “death”, because if we spend too much time focusing on how to survive, we will forget how to live.