“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

I love that verse. Paul, a prisoner in a Roman prison, waiting to know if he would be executed or not, writes to encourage his brothers in Philippi. He tells them that he doesn’t know for sure what the verdict will be, but he wants them to know that it doesn’t matter. To him, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

We can think of it as an algebra expression:

If x = life,
then death = gain

What can we substitute for x to make the expression true? Money? Power? Pleasure? Family? Work? No, none of those things work. How can we make death equal gain? By centering our life on Christ. If we try to substitute in any of the things of this world, the formula fails.

If our lives our built around Christ, we need have no fear of death. It ends up being gain for us!