Give Me the Key

What about keys make them so important to us? In a word: security. If we have something of import, we lock it up. We want to keep people out of our homes so we lock them up, both when we’re at home and away. We lock our cars. We have safe deposit boxes locked away in bank vaults. Not all keys are physical. There are millions of software passwords, keys used to access our phones, computers, and web sites.

Presence

What would it be like to live without keys? In the current world, scary. Foolish. Why? Because people would think, or we would think that people would think, that they could take advantage of us, taking what wasn’t theirs without our permission. We would feel a loss of privacy. Things desired to be kept hidden away might become public. Financial things. Personal things that are “nobody else’s business.” Private things.

Family

Putting aside the private or immodest things, what it would it really be like to live without keys? It could be likened to being part of an ideal family in which each person trusted the other. Think of it—we don’t lock family out. For family, doors are always open. They can know and appreciate our finances. They have unfettered access to the things we call our own. We trust them. In an ideal family the members are considerate and respectful of each other. They respect each other’s privacy.

Keys are unnecessary within the bounds of the ideal family. What about within the bounds of the entire world or, at least the entire world in which we live the sphere of our life? Could this world live without keys, as one big “ideal family?” Only if everyone’s motive’s were pure. Only if everyone perfectly loved, or at least perfectly respected each other. Taking it to the extreme, in the absence of sin, keys would not be required. While they could be existing and used if so desired, there would be no need for them.
Realistically, the question of whether it would be possible to live without keys in this present “fallen” world requires a negative response. It would be foolish and would invite being taken advantage of.

Future

But, what about a new, “un-fallen” world? The new earth promised in Scripture is “un-fallen.” The element of sin will simply not exist. It is hard for us to imagine living in an environment of sinless purity, one in which we will not even be tempted to sin! And yes, with sin banished, there will be no need for keys!