Most perishable products are stamped with an expiration date. This gives us the window of time in which they can be used before they go bad. Milk will spoil, soda will go flat, and medicine will lose its potency. We want to be sure to use these things before they expire.

All of us are walking around with an expiration date. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27, KJV). However, unlike packaged products, we aren’t told our “use by” date. We may live beyond “fourscore years” (Ps. 90:10), or our life may be cut tragically short like a vapor (James 4:14). “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (v. 17). When it comes to the life we are given in this physical world, the message is not “BEST IF USED BY…” but “BEST IF USED.”

If the Parable of the Talents teaches us anything, it is that Judgement Day will be the time when God holds us accountable for the use we have made of the time and blessings He has given us on His earth (Matt. 25:14-30). The life of King David is summed up with this phrase: “he had served his own generation” (Acts 13:36). Paul likened his own death to being poured out as a drink offering (Phil. 2:17). To borrow a phrase from the sporting world, they left it all on the field. They used themselves up in their service to God.  

We don’t like throwing away expired food. It was a waste of money. How should God feel about a wasted life? A life used up in service to God for His glory is a life that is well lived. We are to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16). How many opportunities have we already let slip by? Think about it.