The world today is filled will all sorts of extremists focused upon a singular cause, such as the environment, a particular economic system, various religious beliefs, etc. Such extremes are manifest in various ways whether benign through activism or malevolent through violence. In seeing such extremism around us, one can begin to believe the world has become a truly polarized place.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 (NASU)
This verse describes the Word of God as being more than a mere “rulebook” or “guide” to godly living, but instead having a true living power of its own.
The world is not a perfect place, it is so ultimately because of the foolish choices of man. God created an idyllic world for man which man rejected, leading us into a world with many problems. Life can be cruel and unfair, yet it can also be rewarding and full of many blessings given by God. It is the uncertainty of the future or sometimes even the day that can cause us to stress about what will come.
In life perhaps there is nothing man understands paradoxically both better and less than sin. Man is familiar with what sin offers in the form of temporal pleasure, seemingly positive temporal benefits, etc. in a legion of ways, going so far as to actually create new and evermore depraved ways to engage in sin. Man knows sin intimately by encouraging its practice and showing wholehearted approval to its furtherance (Rom. 1:32).
In truth, it is impossible for man to fully comprehend the ramifications of eternity. We can attempt to use metaphors and illustrations to describe such a concept, but for man, who is trapped in the happenings of time, the concept of limitlessness is beyond our own experience. It is into this realm that God not only promises, but has purposed for His created beings to enter. While we are not eternal beings in the ultimate sense having had a beginning (unlike God who has no beginning), a part of us is created to last beyond the coil of this earthly frame.