Professing or Possessing

Come with me to an underpass outside of the freight yards of one of our great railroad centers. Here are two or three men – hobos, vagabonds, tramps. One says, “I hope that I will have a million dollars.” Another says, “I hope that I will have two million dollars.” A third says, “I hope that I will have ten million dollars!” The total assets of the three amount to forty-three cents!

Now go to the paneled board room of one of New York’s great banks. Here are several captains of industry. One explains that the expansion of our economy calls for the expenditure of sixty millions of dollars to build a new chemical plant. A Du Pont says that he will put up fifteen million dollars; a Rockefeller agrees to duplicate this sum; a Ford and a Mellon nod their agreement and the matter is settled. But you ask, “Gentlemen! Do you really have money like that?” They nod with assurance and say, “We know that we have it.”

“You mean that you hope that you will have it?” we question. “No,” they reply, “we know that we have it.”

The difference between a tramp and a multimillionaire is the difference between a professing Christian who hopes that he will have eternal life and a possessing Christian who knows that he has eternal life.