How should the reality of God’s future judgment affect my life now?

John 3:16“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 8:35Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

1 John 4:10This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

We can know for certain of God’s great love for us because he allowed his Son to die in our place, to take the punishment for our sins so that we could be free from eternal death. Knowing that God loves us that much should fill us with gratitude and motivate us to live for him.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15No one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

The promise of salvation does not eliminate our responsibility to live rightly now. God has given us all that is necessary to lead a meaningful, spiritually productive life.