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"Live life to the full" is a catchcry that's often used to encourage us to get the best out of life. Often, this translates into little more than doing your best to have a good time. So unfortunately, the spiritual dimension of life receives very little attention.
In contrast, God is interested in every aspect of our lives. Getting His perspective is the only way we can really make the most of life.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Usual concepts of life conclude that if we exist we are alive.
In contrast to this, Jesus taught that life without Him is actually death, and that His purpose in coming to earth was to bring life.
This underlines the fact that life has a spiritual dimension.
Rev 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Eternal life is not just a life that is endless, since the lake of fire lasts forever.
True life is knowing the Father and the Son.
Rom 5:21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is very interested in the quality of our lives; He wants us to reign in this life, which implies a life lived as an overcomer.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
God wants us to experience what it means to have abundant life.
1 Cor 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
No, eternal life continues beyond death and into the afterlife.
In the above verse, from a passage on the resurrection, Paul implies that life for Christians includes such sacrifices that it would be tragic if the benefits of what Christ did on the cross for us only applied to this life.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
2 Cor 3:6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Gal 6:8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
To experience abundant life, a person has to live in the Spirit and be spiritually minded; in other words, they need to set their mind on the things of the Spirit.
Doing the opposite brings about death.
2 Cor 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
A person can't really enter into the new life without first allowing the old sinful nature to die.
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
It is only possible to live the abundant life through faith in Jesus the Son of God.
1 Tim 4:8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
Godliness is an essential quality to develop if we are to experience abundant life.
2 Pet 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
God has given us everything that we need to experience abundant life.
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