We’ve seen how the author of Ecclesiastes is searching for the meaning of life under the sun, but we’ve also seen how the answer is actually to live life under the Son, under Christ’s rule.
The reason for this is that you don’t exist only under the sun: Life isn’t limited to what you can see and touch and do. There is a supernatural, spiritual reality that you need to get to grips with.
In particular, the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead means that the reality around us is far from restricted to what you can see and touch and do.
And without Christ in your life, you’ll never find meaning in life. But if you live life under the Son, everything has meaning.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered in December 2025 at Bromborough Evangelical Church, Wirral. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Love others with your money (8-12)
The Teacher makes insightful observations about the world around us. Read Ecc 5:8-9.
The Teacher (the author of Ecclesiastes) makes the point that money goes up the food chain, not down. A hired hand picks a product in a field, and everyone up the chain makes a little money – all the way up to the top. And the Teacher says that’s how the system works because it’s in everyone’s interest to get further up the line.
Think of a large supermarket with products from small producers and farmers: Most of the big money goes to shareholders. It’s the same in government (as the Teacher tells us). There’s a very close relationship between government ministers, lobbyists, and big business. It’s not healthy.
But we’re actually all part of the problem, wanting cheap products.
It’s worth asking those ethical questions about where your money actually goes, when you spend it? Does your money go mostly to wealthy shareholders, or to the poor and needy? Do you shop mostly in designer outlets or charity shops? It’s not a question of wealth – it’s about deliberately spending your money in ethical ways. Tech, cars, holidays, food, clothes.
It’s somewhat related to how you view poverty-stricken immigrants crossing the channel in small boats. Maybe you don’t want them coming over here, sponging UK wealth? But what if there are Christians among them, what then?
James 2:15-17 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?
Or who wants to hear Jesus say this on the day of judgment: Matthew 25:31-46, esp 42-43 I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in…
You are to love people with your money. Don’t love money. Read Ecc 5:10-12.
The Teacher has a knack of pointing out the obvious that makes us realise how empty some things really are: “what, then, is the profile to the owner except to gaze at them with his eyes?” Look at my great car / carpet / ornament / collection.
Wouldn’t it be better to consider the things you own in terms of their usefulness to the kingdom of God? For the benefit of others? There’s no sin in being wealthy. The Bible is clear on that. But God is abundantly generous and open-handed. So his people should have that same heart.
Think about who benefits from the money that you spend: Is there a way to extend God’s love – even in some small way – to someone else? Will you think about that, and be ready to change?
Store up treasures in heaven (13-17)
The Teacher is still thinking about wealth in a little scene: Read Ecc 5:13-14.
It’s a realistic scenario. Imagine someone in East Ukraine. They’ve built up a thriving business, maybe opened a small chain of shops or restaurants. But they’ve lost absolutely everything, and receiving meals as handouts.
The Teacher can only see this for the desperate human condition it is: Read Ecc 5:15-16.
As Isaiah 40:6-7 would put it, All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade… And for many people, economic disaster means that life isn’t worth living. They become bitter: Read Ecc 5:17.
A study was done in 2011 looking at suicide rates in America between 1928 and 2007. Suicide rates in people aged 25-64 (working age) rose during recessions. The rates went down during economic expansions.
It’s so desperately sad that some people would choose to end their lives over money – but it wouldn’t surprise the Teacher.
We could compare that with Job chapter 1. Job lost all his wealth and all his sons and daughters in a moment. It broke his heart, but it didn’t break his faith. Job 1:20: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.
He uses similar words to the Teacher (Ecc 5:15), but his heart is in a totally different place.
The thing is, when you strip everything away from a Christian you still have everything needed for life and eternity. In 1 Cor 4:11-15, the apostle Paul wrote Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; we labour, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it… I urge you to imitate me.
This is not life under the sun. This is life with eternity in mind.
Jesus himself urges you to store up treasure in heaven: Matthew 6:19-20 Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I quoted C S Lewis last time, and it’s relevant again: “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you can lose!”
Or as Jesus put it in Matthew 16:25-27: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.
You can use up a lifetime gaining possessions, and then face an eternity with nothing in hell. Or you can come to Jesus now for forgiveness of sin. You pray, ask for his forgiveness, and he will forgive.
You will become a cherished child of God, alive in Christ forever. If you have never done that, do it today.
It’s sometimes said that today is the first day of the rest of your life; in truth, today is the first day of your eternity. If you turn to Jesus, that can be an eternity of life with him. Otherwise, you’ll continue on your chosen path to hell.
Having an eternal perspective helps you see through the Teacher’s next dilemma:
Commit your life to God (5:18-6:6)
The chapter divisions in Ecclesiastes aren’t inspired, and they’re not always helpful. Read the opening words of Ecc 5:18 and Ecc 6:1. He’s seen something good, and he’s seen something that’s a tragedy (literally, evil or bad).
In Ecc 5:18 we get his usual conclusions [read Ecc 5:18].
Then in v19-20 he says that God gives some people both riches and the ability to enjoy them, free from life’s stresses. And he describes that as good (because it is!).
But then he hits a minor key: Read Ecc 6:1-2.
How might that happen in practice? Illness such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MND. Or fraud, theft, or pension fund embezzlement. Or it might just be someone’s miserable temperament – some people are never happy! In v3-6 he gives an example of someone with loads of blessings (wealth, children) but no joy – worse off (he says) than even a stillbord child.
Now, under the sun you can see the point he’s making: It’s daft to have all the blessings of this world without any joy.
But the Teacher is foolish to suggest that God has made it so as some kind of tragedy – or even to suggest that God has done something bad, or evil. God is good, and does good (Psalm 119:68).
The truth is that bad things do happen to godly people, but to say that God has done wrong is to have a wrong view of God.
Listen to the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27: Five times I received the forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing.
This same man could write with confidence Romans 8:28: We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
The Teacher’s false comparison and terrible conclusion about God both stem from his limited vision “under the sun.”
But Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
He has gone to prepare a place for you, if you are his. He saved you in his eternal plan, called according to his purpose. You’re a cherished child of God forever.
So commit your life to him.
Remember Jesus on the cross as he died: “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). You can do that every day. He was quoting Psalm 31, where the psalm writer committed himself to God in illness, facing opposition, in distress. He committed himself to God in grief, in loneliness – crying out to God.
No wonder Jesus quoted that as his last words.
And you can cry out in the same distress to the same Father, knowing that you have Jesus advocating for you – knowing that he knows what you’re going through.
As you learn to commit your life to God, to trust him in everything, you won’t need the Teacher’s pathetic comparisons. You’ll know that God is good, and that he does you good.
And that is meaning to life. That is hope in life and death. That is the answer to the eternity in your heart, and your yearning for life, hope, purpose, meaning. Don’t put your hand to the plough and look back. Go for Jesus.
Life life “under the Son” (7-9)
The Teacher switches his style a bit at chapter 7, giving more guidance and fewer observations. So Ecc 6:7-12 is a sort of conclusion of what’s gone, ready to hear his wisdom spout forth from chapter 7.
He repeats his themes:
- In v7 he reminds us that we’re always consumers, never satisfied (Mick Jagger would agree: “I can’t get no…”)
- Then in v8 he questions the value of wisdom again.
- Read Ecc 6:9. He means A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
- His frustration that nothing changes is in v10, not least because God is in control of things and you’re not.
- You can’t work out meaning, he says in v11, and then wonders how we can know anything at all in v12.
But the answer to all of these is Christ himself.
You might remember the rich young ruler who was urged to sell all his possessions and then follow Christ. He couldn’t, because he didn’t see Christ as worth more than his possessions. When you grasp who Christ is and what he has done for you, then there’s nothing to hold back.
When some disciples were deserting Jesus, he asked the Twelve if they wanted to go too. Peter said, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8-9 I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him…
Paul’s eternal perspective enabled him to say (Phil 1:21) For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
What is the meaning of life? To the Teacher, it was all just meaningless and futile. Maybe it is, under the sun.
But when you life live “under the Son” then you will discover purpose; he becomes your goal, your north star, your hope.
You turn to Jesus today. Love others with your money; store up treasures in heaven. Commit your life to God. Life life under the Son.