God dwells in unapproachable light. 1 Tim. 6:16. Just as no one can see God fully as He is, in all His holiness, without having to die where he stands that very second, neither can he truly (only in his imagination) face a divine light without something in him dying correspondingly. Therefore we can see God in part and still live, but not unless we die in part. However, in general it is not true that something dies in believers, precisely because they do not face God—or God’s living Word—in truth (with the utmost seriousness). They understand it in their own way, thereby removing the tip as well as the edge of the sword. Consequently, they can continue to live for themselves for the rest of their lives. People, including believers, are extremely superficial; they are almost unbelievably superficial! There is very little of what we could rightly call utmost seriousness, and rarely even that! It is easy to speak and dream about going the way of death. Yet how many people have gone this way in truth? How many wives with unconverted husbands have taken this word about winning their husbands without words seriously? If they had, it would have worked a death in their lives—a real death! They would have experienced it as a literal death! Even though they want to win their husband very much with all of their heart, yet they should not lecture him in spite of all the light they have—not even say a single word! This also applies to all the words concerning life itself. For example, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Tim. 6:6. Who has really faced up to it with the result that he is content with purchasing very little of different things (new clothing, new things for the house, etc., etc.) so that death over all vanity, worldliness, and pride of life has entered, in reality??? Or, for example, “Gladly stay in the lowly place . . . .” Rom. 12:16.NKJV: Associate with the humble. What have you done with this, dear brothers and sisters? Has death entered in? Has the word “gladly” killed all reluctance to staying in the lowly place in every sense of the word?Elias Aslaksen