“Question: Why doth Paul not say, I desire to be in heaven?
Answer: Because heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without Him.
All delicacies without Christ are but as a funeral banquet. Where the master of the feast is away, there is nothing but solemnness.
What is all without Christ? I say the joys of heaven are not the joys of heaven without Christ; He is the very heaven of heaven.”
–Richard Sibbes, “Christ Is Best,” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 1 (ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1638/2001), 1: 339.
