Buyers must not count on keeping what they buy, nor those who use the world's wealth on using it to the full. For the whole frame of this world is passing away. 1 Cor. 7:31, N.E.B.

This text states that the "frame" or the "fashion," the whole outward aspect, the external side of life, is fading away. Hence the importance of not fixing our affections on shifting forms but on eternal realities. What would happen if you no longer could believe in your doctor, your banker, your employer, your government? Or if you lost all your money and property, the things that you count essential to life? The moment we are threatened with the loss of them, our security tends to collapse.

The sweep of change is rapid. Much of what we live by is in perpetual flux. This creates anxiety and uncertainty for many. What do you think will happen to us when there is no value to the money we have, and little or nothing to buy?

Paul urges us not to count on keeping what we can buy, or to set our affections on such things, or to consider them indispensable for our happiness and peace of mind. We can count on God, His truth, His righteousness, His love. We are to use the world as long as we can. But let the uncertain nature of the things of the world teach us that they cannot possibly satisfy us and meet the needs of the soul. Do not try to live your life on wealth that has wings, on pleasures that are here today and gone tomorrow, on worldly achievements that are as clouds in the sky. Learn that all the world offers us—its art, beauty, science, labor—serves only to prove the vanity and frailty of them all. Invest your life in fellowship with God and in service to man.

Businessmen thank God they are not unskilled. Doctors thank God they will always be needed and never out of a job. Lawyers thank God they are not politicians running for election. Professional men thank God they are not running a store. Yet even the professions do not offer ultimate security. To Christ alone we owe the way, the truth, the life that never changes and never passes away. We have eternal life from Him who is our life, a divine possession that is beyond all rank, wealth, culture, profession.