In Ecclesiastes, chapter seven, verse one, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” A good name means more than good social standing; it represents genuine goodness of character. Such a person has a more lasting influence on others than one who is primarily concerned with social status.
On the other hand, the day of a believer’s death is better than the day of a person’s birth, for it marks the beginning of a far better life with God, as in Philippians one, verses twenty-one to twenty-three, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.”
However, Second Corinthians five, verses on through ten, declares, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”
“Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”