The Gospel and Work

[Resource Manager]

 

The Gospel and Work

 

By G.D. Gillett

 

It is startling when people in high places are demoted or discharged. Failures or misdemeanours are exposed and sometimes their authority and power evaporates overnight. This has been happening in one way or another all down the ages and happens today. Such a case is recorded in the New Testament. The discharged ones were the rulers of Israel — the discharger was the King of the Jews.

 

Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 21, told the Jewish leaders of his day that the Kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; it marked a solemn moment in the history of the Hebrew nation, and particularly for those who had made themselves his enemies. The Kingdom of God of which Jesus spoke was something real and substantial — a kingdom to be established on the earth with divine authority and power, at the summit of which was to be the Messiah himself, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A kingdom destined to supersede the governments of men and establish finally on the earth the government of God, embracing at last not one race only, but all races.

 

The Jewish leaders to whom Jesus spoke could have been the aristocracy of that kingdom, but they had proved themselves unworthy, and now the high honour was to be taken from them and given to others whom Jesus called “a nation”. Jesus revealed that the qualification for being rulers in the kingdom of God in the age to come was a readiness now to develop qualities in harmony with that high destiny. Those who at last wield authority must be those who have first submitted to it; in the words of Jesus, “a nation bringing forth the fruits” of the kingdom.

 

The identity of that nation is revealed clearly in the New Testament. It is the Church of Christ embracing Jew and Gentile, man and women in every nation, who submit to Jesus Christ on his terms, fearing God and working righteousness. The Apostle Peter in writing his first letter to the believers called them “a holy nation”; he said that they were God’s people, chosen and sanctified. They are the Church of Christ, destined to inherit the Kingdom of God at the second advent of Jesus Christ to the earth.

[Resource Manager]

In the early church

 

Think of the men and women who comprised the early Christian Church. They were ordinary people but they did some extraordinary things. The evidence of one witness affirms that they turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). In spite of their genuine diversity they achieved a unity which has never been surpassed and rarely if ever equalled. And they were diverse, Some were rich, others poor: some were educated, others illiterate: some were masters, others slaves; some were brought up religious, others were pagan; some were Hebrews, others were Hellenist. There were plenty of reasons for disagreement and yet they were bound together by one faith, they shared a common hope and lived by one law which had love as its impelling force. What was the secret of their life? They lived in accordance with the master principles of the kingdom of God. The ethic of the gospel was their rule of life. As Jesus foretold, they were bringing forth the fruits of the gospel of the kingdom of God, even love, joy and peace. They were being prepared for positions of authority and power when the government of God is triumphant in the earth. One great fact emerges from the record of the early church in the opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles the principles of the Kingdom of God by which they lived touched every department of their lives.

 

The Gospel in every phase of life

 

Herein is a revelation. The distinction which is sometimes drawn in the realm of religion between that which is sacred and that which is secular is no longer valid in the context of the Christian faith, rightly understood. The ethic of the gospel is such that it reaches every part of human life and no part is outside its influence and jurisdiction. It is not possible to be holy in religious things and unholy in non religious things. It is not possible to be pure in public and impure in private. The gospel is a way of life which is lived on every level of human activity. The influence of God is at work in temple and in the market place. The gospel is not something to argue for, speculate upon and sing about only it is something to be lived. In a court of law a witness needs only to speak, but a witness for the gospel is more than a talker he is one who proves his words to be true by the actions of his life, and the transformation of his character, in every part.

 

To realize how this is true for individuals, recall the effect of the principles of the kingdom of God on the world when the law of God is administered in the earth. In Revelation chapters 21 and 22 the redemptive and healing forces of the kingdom of God are focussed and sharpened in the vision of a city the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. That city represents the final triumph of the government of God in the earth. It foretells the extinction of all the forces which hurt and harm humanity and the introduction of those healing forces which at last will ensure for men the blessings of purity, peace and perfection. From that city certain things are excluded tears, sorrow, pain, death, lies, impurity, violence and fear. On the other hand certain things are included light, justice, purity, healing, righteousness, the glory of God and work. Of that city, whose builder and maker is God, it is written: “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:” (Rev. 22:1). It is interesting that in a sentence which promises the abolition of all things which could be classed as cursing men. work or service is emphasized as though it were a blessing and a reword.

[Resource Manager]

Man as a worker

 

There is an old fashioned idea that work is in some way part of the curse which descended on mankind as a result of the original sin in the Garden of Eden. It is true that as a result of sin coming into the world, in some ways work has been made more difficult and its rewards are harder to achieve, hut work itself is not a curse. It existed even before sin. The idea that work is a curse was particularly popular in the Victorian era. In those days one of the status symbols was to be free from the need to work, and those in business or in trading or in employment were rather despised by the top people and were referred to disparagingly as the working classes. Today the position is reversed. One of the status symbols now is to be a person who does important and responsible work, and the greater the impression of heavy responsibility, by so much is the image advanced. A playboy is not well thought of and work is highly respectable.

 

Man was made to be a worker from the start. It was during an idle conversation that he fell into the first sin. There is a world of difference between rest and indolence. One is a period when work ceases in order to prepare for working again. The other is habitual laziness. There is in the New Testament a story about a self-satisfied man who made indolence his ambition. He achieved it, and it is crowned by a large but premature funeral (Luke 12:16). Unemployment is not God’s purpose for man. God is a worker. He laboured, made the world and then rested on His Sabbath so He consecrated work and rest. His rest was interrupted by man’s sin and thereafter the Bible says that God rose early, sending His prophets and initiating that process which at last would repair the ravages of sin. It is a picture of one up at dawn and set on work. God cannot rest while man is harmed and lost. Said Jesus: “I am come to do the work of him that sent me.” The gospel proclaims God’s work and Jesus said “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5:17). That does not mean that God had stopped working and Jesus was carrying on where his father had left off. It means that God was always working and continues to work and Jesus was working with Him sharing an identity of purpose and direction. The gospel of the Kingdom of God reveals the work of God on behalf of men and those who are partakers of it are called in the New Testament “labourers together with God”.

 

The culmination of this argument can be stated in a few words. The principles which ought to regulate working with God and for God now and hereafter on the highest level, are the very same principles which ought to regulate working on other levels now -especially work for the purpose of earning a lining and following a profession. These principles, on levels high or low are in fact the master principles of the kingdom of God: things which are governed by God’s truth and answer to the impulse of His love, and which even now are designed to produce within the limits of human frailty the blessings of purity, peace and perfection.

 

Think, then, how the principles may he applied.

[Resource Manager]

Ambition

 

Great achievements are nearly always preceded by great aspirations. Behind every piece of good work there is a thought, an intention, and desire an ambition for something of the best. Ambition is defined as a desire for achievement or distinction, it means a desire to discover arid develop individual talents to the best possible advantage, but it is a demotion which needs qualification. The best possible advantage must always mean an advantage which is in harmony with God’s will and never against it. The best must always mean that which advances the purpose of God and never hinders it. Ambition which is selfish is ungodly and dangerous. A man driven by it will covet success without reference to who is harmed in the process; he will seek his triumph indifferent to the late of others.

 

By contrast this helps in understanding the nature of true ambition. It is not a lonely and selfish thing. It ought not to exist in isolation. Those who live in the atmosphere of the gospel must recognize that their way of life is constantly being regulated and conditioned by their relationship to others. The success of the individual is not mainly for the individual’s sake, it is for the realization of the common good. Its objective ought to be usefulness in the cause of bringing good to others, the development of ability in order to serve rather than to amass. Even when men with right ambition amass anything for themselves, the same principle applies; said Paul of one who had sought his living in the wrong way. “Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph 4:28). Gaining to give is better than gaining to keep, judged by the gospel. In the twelfth chapter of the first Corinthian letter Paul emphasizes that honours, ambitions and gifts in the church of Christ are not to be coveted for the sake of individual fame and satisfaction, but for the glory of God and for the blessing of the church in all its needs. They are for attaining the good of the whole through the capacities and abilities of each member. Consecrated ambition consists in being lured by the prospect of helping God’s other children who are in need.

 

What is true on the highest level is true also on the lower level of daily work. If there is no love in ambition it is a perilous thing. If it is motivated by a desire to achieve the best in order to confront the worst: to equip in order to sustain: to gather in order to give, then it will stand the test, measured by the Word of God. Such ambition will become an inspiration: an inspiration to work for others and for God. The ambition which is selfish, ruthless and loveless is a curse - deadly and destructive, utterly out of harmony with the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The ambition of Jesus Christ, the King, is the establishment of God’s Kingdom in the earth. For those who have committed themselves to his cause and given him their allegiance, all smaller ambitions ought to be dominated by the ambition of the King.

[Resource Manager]

What kind of work?

 

For those who are faced with the problem of choosing or changing a career there is a little proverb in the Old Testament which gives some general advice: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6 ). Notice again that this drives home the lesson that there is no part of human life which is outside the realm of God’s interest and judgment.

 

Whatever compromises men may invent to ease their embarrassments and to justify their indifference. the Bible gives no encouragement to those who wish to he satisfied with an occasional acquaintance with God and a capricious selection of His commandments. “In all thy ways acknowledge him ...” The word acknowledge means to know through recognition. It calls on men to see God in all their ways - worship, recreation and work. It means that God is to be recognized by submitting our ways to His will by making out decisions in the light of His purpose, by controlling our choices in accordance with His Word. So He directs the path.

 

Acknowledging God in the choice of a career certainly means praying for guidance that talents may be discovered and gifts realized, that forces which are within may be brought without. Praying and toiling are not contradictory, they are complementary and sometimes talents are released by toiling. Mountains are not scaled by praying alone - they have to he climbed. Part of I lie guidance from God is already inscribed in His Word. In 1 Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul reveals some principles which need to be accepted when choices have to be made and decisions taken in respect of daily living. The particular application in this case was a matter of eating and drinking, but the rules are timelessly true and perpetually applicable. Paul said: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me but all things edify not” (1 Cor 10:23). This shows that there are some things legally permissible for some people but at the same time morally unwise. This is true of work, the range of work which is legally permissible is vast, but some or it might nut be at all expedient in the Christian sense. The dictionary meaning of the word expedient is that which is advantageous on the must convenient terms - that which is politic as distinct from being right. The New Testament is different. The word simply means the opportunity to make progress along a pathway - the things which advance a pilgrim on his journey are the things which are expedient. Paul is really saying that the lawfulness of anything to last is to be tested by its capacity to help a disciple forward on his journey to the kingdom of God. If it halts, hinders or endangers that journey, it is best avoided. This is true of a career.

 

Paul’s second principle was this: “All things are lawful, but all things edify not.” Notice the resemblance between the word “edify” and the word “edifice” - it shows that the words have their origin in the art of building. To edify is to build up. Again Paul is saying that the lawfulness of anything is finally to be tested by whether it will build up character — mine and other people’s. If there are lawful things which have the effect of lowering the standard, diminishing the ideal, dishonouring the cause — then those lawful things become unlawful. So for those living by the principles of the Kingdom of God and looking for the establishment of purity, peace and perfection at the second coming of the Lord, there are pertinent questions to be faced when choosing a career. Will it strengthen faith or will it weaken it? Will it help or hinder in the practice of Christian living? Will it relax or enforce the struggle for righteousness? Will it enlarge or wither reverence for God’s word? Will it bring unnecessary exposure to the occasions of sin? Will it sap courage, create obstacles, demand overworking, cause ill health?

 

Because no disciple of Christ can live to himself, the same searching questions must be asked about the effect of the career upon fellow disciples and other people. Will it edify? Will it encourage to love and good works? Will it minister harm to others? Will it sustain forces in the world which the King will oppose when he returns? Will it compromise with forces which ought to be repudiated? Will it come at last to shame or true satisfaction?

 

These questions or others like them constitute a test of fire, but it ought not to cause surprise, for the gospel of the Kingdom of God is something which touches humanity in the very deepest recesses of its life.

 

It has to be recognized that the issue becomes intensely personal at a certain stage, because there is some work which is right for one man and wrong for another. This is something which cannot be discussed further save on the level of illustration. The same career brings out the best in one man and the worst in another. The outcome is affected to some extent by what a man is. Teaching may make one man sympathetic, understanding, patient; another it may make hard, overbearing and egocentric. This is but an example — it would be true of other professions as well. It shows that choosing to work is important but choosing the right work is more important if man and God are to be served.

[Resource Manager]

The quality of the work

 

When Jesus of Nazareth stood on the banks of the Jordan, just after his baptism and at the beginning of his public ministry the voice of God spoke to him from heaven and said: “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:2). He had come from the seclusion of Nazareth to commence his great mission and these words constituted an expression of his Father’s approval on the years of life spent at home — as his mother’s son, as his foster father’s apprentice, and latterly as the bread winner for the family. He was a master workman, and his work received the approbation of God. It means that he was a man who would strive for that perfection which pleases God. It is certain therefore from God’s testimony that no shoddy work came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Every plough blade was true, every tool handle smooth, every table strong and firm, every yoke so made as never to harm the oxen’s neck. Later on he is going to say “my yoke is easy”, and he knew well what it meant, for he had made yokes better than any other. He was a man therefore who was able to hold up his work in the light of his Father’s scrutiny and hear God say, “I am well pleased”. This is the pattern for all other workmen who have committed themselves to seek the Kingdom of God.

 

Since high quality is the true aim of the Christian workman, it follows that every legitimate means must be employed to achieve competence and skill. Opportunities for training must be grasped and followed with perseverance. New methods must be investigated and mastered. It means that a man’s religion ought to be seen in his work, and it follows that Christian workmen ought to be the best in the world. Jesus laid God’s measurement upon his work — and this is the teaching of Paul for the disciples of Jesus. Speaking in Ephesians 6:6 about the quality of the work, Paul says: “Not with eye service, as men pleasers: but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” The work that is done just to curry favour with the boss is not the measure for a man of God. Paul’s words flash new light on God’s part in man’s work. When it is done firstly as service to God, then as a means of gaining a living the result is, in some measure. God’s work too and becomes part of His care fur the world’s need. It follows that when a man in this position gives bad service, performs shoddy work, or neglects his duty — he has dishonoured the name of God with whom he professes to labour.

 

Christian men, like other men, have to face the problems and difficulties which arise in modern employment. Redundancy, strikes, redeployment and other issues come to them as to others. The man who really means business in his dedication to the service of the gospel will have assimilated timeless principles which can guide him in the way he ought to go and the things he ought to do. His convictions will be such as to have resolved his mind in accordance with two or three great fundamental truths — things to do with honesty, justice and love — and according to these he will meet his problems, decide his mind and take his actions. In the midst of turmoil and trouble his heart will be fixed. If he is faithful to his conviction he will act with responsibility, purpose and courage: undeviating where there is no place for compromise, firm in the face of clamour, willing to submit if God’s purpose is not hindered, and always ready to help and succour in the presence of need.

 

There is a principle of the gospel which has a telling significance in the realm of work. It is contained in the words of the master workman in Matt 7:12: “All things therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye also to them.” Where this principle is followed it means that no workman can seek his own advancement at the cost of another workman’s disadvantage. No workman can seek to enforce his will at the cost of his brother’s violated conscience. No bargain can be struck which enriches a few and robs many. If an employer believes he has a right to do well out of his business, he must concede the same right to his employee who makes it possible. Oppression is a tyranny whether it comes from the employer or the employed. The arguments which make it wrong are true for both. Monopoly which holds to ransom the many for the benefit of the few is out of harmony with the ethics of the gospel. The principles of the gospel demand that I put myself in my brother’s place and urge every argument in his defence that I would claim for myself. Jesus said: “Love thy neighbour as thyself”, and because we desire the best for ourselves, if the principle is followed, the best will be desired for our neighbours also. The outcome will be good service, honest trading, high quality produce and purer commerce. There is joy in this kind of service and true satisfaction in its fulfilment.

[Resource Manager]

The intensity of the work

 

Those who seek to live in accordance with the gospel’s principles soon discover it is a way of life which often requires keeping a balance between one demand and another, or fulfilling one command in the light of teaching enshrined in another. For example, disciples are commanded to obey every law of man for the Lord’s sake — but that has to be qualified by the need to fulfil the law of God above all else, so that if man’s law conflicts with God’s law, the disciple is free from the necessity to obey the human ordinance. Balance is a great thing, for it ensures the harmony of all related parts and makes for perfection in the whole. So it is with the human body. Let one part grow out of proportion and the whole is dislocated, the body is ill. Balance is important in the realm of work.

 

In the New Testament the need to work is categorical. Paul hays in 2 Thess 3:10: “This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” Work is a means of providing a livelihood, and of those who will not, Paul says this: “If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim 5:8). Self-chosen laziness is a denial of the faith, but willing toil fulfils it. Work, then, is an elemental thing for man, hut there are some who work too much. Work is a means to an end — God’s glory, a living for ourselves and others — but there are those who make it an end in itself — work for work’s sake instead of work for love’s sake. This kind of intensity which works on so that other things are undone and other needs neglected, is unbalanced and brings dislocation. There are some who become possessed by their profession and obsessed by its demands, and at last their lives are unhinged and upset.

 

Paul in unveiling and interpreting the principles of the gospel, gave warning of this situation. In 1 Cor 6:12, where he is speaking of things being lawful but not always expedient, he goes on to say this: “All things are lawful, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” If Christ is a man’s master, that man cannot be mastered by anything else. If he has submitted to the principles of the kingdom of God he can submit to nought else. Some men are mastered by work, and thus have they lost their liberty. Work indeed is lawful, but when it dominates and drives in such a way as to rob a man of his allegiance to the kingdom of God, it becomes unlawful and utterly improper.

 

It follows therefore that recreation is in harmony with God’s purpose for working men. It is intended to be a time of restful change to restore us and recreate us — so that we shall be able to work again, and always it should have this end in view. Recreation which weakens us, saps our strength, clouds our vision or harms our moral fibre, is wrongly named and ought to be repudiated. There is a tiredness after recreation which is a blessed thing: it makes us sleep and as a result we are stronger and healthier, but there is a tiredness which conies from burning the candle at both ends which results in frayed nerves and weak muscles. Instead of a restoration there is a relapse, and instead of being prepared for work we are unfitted and undone. The important thing is to ensure that recreation really does recreate.

 

The lesson is therefore work hard and work well, but work in such a way as to give time for rest and recreation. Work in such a way as to leave time and strength to toil for God in the bonds of the gospel and in the service of his church. Remember that the disciple’s work on all levels in response to the gospel, is a preparation for work on the very highest level in the kingdom of God at the second coming of our Lord. Good work is never lost, be it ever so small and though it may pass unnoticed. Present toil is related inseparably to future glory. Today’s labour well done is the assurance of tomorrow’s harvest. The reaping is certain if we faint not. The Apostle Paul wrote a great sentence in his letter to Titus: “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men…” (2:11). That is the gospel in its purity and Paul continued: “teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” That is the gospel incarnate, transforming human life. Soundly, righteously and godlike — that is how we should live — and work.

 

DENNIS GILLETT

 

TheGospelandWorkGillett.pdf

 

 

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