Simple philosophical question: What’s the point of Christian life in this world if it’s really all about the next world?

Actually, that's a bit terse. When I say gratitude, I mean a grateful soul also wants to love others and to share in their blessings and to see the good in life, and creates more occasion for others to be grateful as well. It has a chain effect. In the end, we become one in knowing who is the ultimate source of our blessings.

But when someone breaks or ignores this chain, that's when things go wrong.

No one said you can't try to make the world a better place for your children and their children. But the next world, heaven, will be objectively perfect. Far better than this world.
When I say "embracing this world" it means "falling for worldly desires" like lust, greed, etc. Only through God will this world be perfect, but the world definitely aint making it easy.

We are called to be in the world but not of it, meaning there is a body and soul. There is no contradiction there. In fact it is in the soul where morality exists. Talmudic Judaism is a worship of man, Buddhism is a philosophy not faith.

Sorry, I'm the user who just quoted St. Luke and talked about gratitude above. VPNs switch my ID.. but let me just agree with this user and add more to this distinction:

St. James starts off his Epistle with this:

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." -James 1:27

Notice how he couples helping the material needs of those less fortunate, yet also being unblemished by the world (of sin)? So yes, this user is right. There's no contradiction here. James further on distinguishes what a worthless religion looks like:

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." - James 2:14-17

I would paraphrase that further. "What does it profit to wave away the hungry and naked and tell them meaningless platitudes about the afterlife.. and then not helping them in the here and now? Your faith is dead in that case." And that person too is breaking the chain of Gratitude which I mentioned above. They've only created more emptiness in the world instead.

So then, missionary work? Not so satisfying an answer, because I’m asking what is the message that we’re spreading in the first place.

Is the point of life to “know God,” then? To know true righteousness, that is what everything is all about?

You didn’t answer the question you quoted. I agree with “in the world but not of the world,” that is orthodox teaching.
Can you elaborate on this? Talmud is supposed to be the interpretation of God’s laws, not worship of man. E.g. It’s not humanism.
“Buddhism is a philosophy not a religion” is a meme. It’s fully a religion, one of the world religions, but more to the point, there is Christian philosophy too which is what the question is about. I’m not asking about any point of doctrine.

Would you paraphrase by saying the point is simply to enjoy the Christian life which means to revel in the intrinsic rewards of Christian morality?

It is not. It's to live for the glory of God, both in this life and the next. If you live in this life for a long time, then it's to glorify God. If you die suddenly and move on to the next life, you will glorify God there as well.

I like that. I also just found this:

“The point of the spiritual life, on the Biblical reading, is to surrender in faith to the purposes of God and to accept from God a mission to incarnate his love in the world.”

Earning the afterlife.

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You can't earn your way into heaven, if God gave us what we deserved we'd all be going to hell.

That’s unChristian m8

Ooga booga. Where da white woman at?

Because it tells us to do good in this world?

Both Heaven and Earth will be destroyed and remade as one place.

I think Christ made it pretty clear that in order to go to heaven, you have to do things with heaven in view "don't store up treasures where moth and rust corrupt etc."

I think this is distinct enough from the faith and works versus faith alone controversy, because no matter which theological view you take, it basically amounts to the same thing

So would we say that the point of a Christian life is to preview Heaven, or something like that?

Will our spiritual state change dramatically before and after death/resurrection? Will there be a sense of spiritual “relief” after judgment where before there was a degree of suspense and tension?

To love God and be loved by Him in turn I think.

Salvation does require effort

If you think that Buddhism is only about the here & now, I suggest you spend some time reading the devadutta sutta,

It's Buddha's description of hell.

accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.130.than.html

You gotta love Jesus and I mean love him both mentally and physically. Practice giving your body to Jesus.

Found the hellbound “faith alone” heretic. read James 2 before you burn in Hell.

The purpose of religion is to control the masses. The promise of an afterlife merely reduces (or even eliminates) the qualms of death.

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Galatians 2:21
Galatians 2:16
through works one could never be worthy. so if faith is dead without deeds, would it not still be dead with deeds?
do you suggest God not already know your faith/heart/being without deeds?
James 2 seems be echoing an old testament type of law, which Jesus put an end to with His sacrifice.
Galatians 3:23-29
Romans 10:4
Ephesians 2:14-18
it is through the grace of God and the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus Christ that offers us salvation, not any ritual or deed. here is wisdom: do not deny His suffering and sacrifice.
John 3:16

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One way to do this is with the time honored (and biblical) tradition of fasting. By denying the passions of your flesh you are able to conquer your vices and cultivate a hunger for God.

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palagian heresy

I guess one way of thinking of it, is we're here to both discern and pursue the right thing. Other than that, we are here to work, eat, and have a family.

[Ecclesiastes 2:24]
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

Only thinking about the afterlife and metaphysical subjects is akin to Gnosticism. The Church never taught this. It doesn't neglect one for the other. If anything, what is central to Jesus' teachings is bringing Heaven on Earth as much as we can. Not simply going to heaven, but also spreading it here. Via the Gospel and our conduct.

"Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

"You are the light of the world."

In addition to that, he knew that we had material needs, along with spiritual ones. He didn't tell us to starve ourselves and wish for death. He said to ask for your daily bread, but don't let your life revolve around it. He taught us to live without worry, but that God knows we have need of some things and will provide. If he wanted us to think none of this mattered, he wouldn't have even mentioned it.

If the world weren't meaningless, He wouldn't have felt the need to visit to make it less so.

Real Buddhism is not about the here and now at all. It's just as afterlife focused as Christianity is. The goal is to completely break out of the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) by removing all attachments to this world.
encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Samsara

Lmao, religion is about union with God either in this life as for the mystic or the next for the commoner, same for Buddhism in the sense that nirvana becomes god.