Wednesday, September 9, 2015

A Biblical View of Work!

Monday we celebrated Labor Day.  A time set aside to celebrate the rights that have been restored for the American worker through the American Labor Movement and the men and women who do so much to make it a prosperous country through our labors.
Yet, I wonder how many have a Biblical view of work.  Often we hear people talk about how horrible work is like it is a result of sin, yet if we look at the Scriptures Adam was told to tend the garden (Gen. 2:15) and to name the animals (Gen. 2:19) which made for a busy day of work that first day of creation.  Sure sin brought much harder labor than it was before the fall of man (Gen. 3:18-19) but that does not mean we should whine about it. In fact as believers we are told to do all things without complaining or disputing. (Phil. 2:14)
What many do not realize is that all are expected to work.  Even some of our founding fathers used the Biblical principle from II Thessalonians 3:10 “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”  Every able bodied individual (Able-bodied opens a whole new can of worms I cannot address in this short essay…) should be doing their part to provide.  We happen to live in an area Brown/Schuyler County where the unemployment rate is the lowest in the state and likely among the lowest in the country.  If people want to work and have not disqualified themselves through character flaws or laziness, they can find work.  I understand it may not be the most glamorous or enjoyable, but it will put food on the table and some kind of shelter over the head.

The manner in which we work is addressed in a few other places.  For example, In I Cor. 10:31 we are challenged, “Whether therefore you eat or drink do all to the glory of God.”  Even more pointedly in Ephesians 6:5ff those who are working for others are challenged to work “in sincerity of heart, as to Christ:” in other words we work as if Christ is our boss.  In fact it continues “not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service to the Lord, and not to men.”  Just think of how many people work hard if the boss or the foreman are somewhere that they can see them, but as soon as they walk out of sight they go back to being lazy and their production drops.  As believers we work to please God, and I have found that most of the time if my work pleases the Lord then my work will please man as well.  I understand that occasionally there are those difficult bosses that will never be pleased, but they aren’t our concern.  In the end we do not answer to them for our attitudes and actions, but we will answer to God.  And if we are believers we are representing Jesus Christ even in the way we work including our attitudes and actions.  May Jesus Christ be praised by our work ethic!  (This article was first published as the "Feature Preacher" article in the Rushville Times)

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Walk In Love

The Bible calls us to “walk in love” by following the example of the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 5:2).  Walking in love is not about doing what feels good to me, but about doing what is best for the other person. In the face of danger, loving action may even seem harsh in the moment, such as when I remind my children to look both ways at intersections to avoid getting hit by a car while riding their bikes. 
Many would like us to believe that the only way to love an individual is to allow them to do whatever makes them happy for the moment, but God would have us understand that there are actions that are “unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).  There are actions that feel good for the moment (like riding a bicycle at high speed through an intersection), but in the end they lead to only to pain and destruction (like being hit by a car).  The Bible calls these destructive actions “sin” because they violate God’s holy law for how we as people were designed to live. Therefore, we find true love, life, and fulfillment by “finding out what is acceptable to God” (Ephesians 5:10) and avoid the things that are unacceptable to God.  This passage in Ephesians lists some actions that are unacceptable to God, such as, fornication (i.e. all sexual sin outside the bounds of Holy Matrimony between a man and woman), covetousness (greed for money and possessions), and mouths that cannot be controlled.
But wait! Isn’t listing sins judgmental and unloving?!  Certainly it is if we put ourselves in the position of the Judge – God himself. There is, however, a solemn responsible for us to loving warn others about the consequences of their self-destruction actions. We are not the judges, but God is the judge, and he will both judge and punish sin (Ephesians 5:6).
Part of loving others must include warning them of sin and its painful consequences.  Loving others means showing the way of safety and salvation. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the only remedy for sin and he is the only one who can reconcile us with God and bring us into eternal life, joy, and peace.
So yes, as people who believe in the Bible, we will continue “walk in love” warning people of sin and sharing the wonderful good news about the Lord Jesus.