Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No. 35 – September 1968

 

The Christian View Of Work: God-Service

 

Sermon by Rev. C. Larsen, Th.Grad. on Colossians 3: 23

SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 8; Colossians 3
                                    Law & Summary: Deut. 5:6-21; 6:4,5

PSALTER HYMNAL: 298; 55:1-3 (after Law);
                                    391; 462:1-3,5,6; 490

 

Congregation, beloved of our Lord:

Psalm 8 speaks of the majesty of our Creator God.  It tells of His wonderful creative works in the universe, and in man.  It asks, "What is man?" (vs.4).  "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth!"

These words are a clear reflection of the first chapter of Genesis and of the divine commission to man to subdue the earth and to have dominion.  Let us consider one aspect of this commission – to subdue.  This has been called the scientist's mandate.  It is certainly a charge to mankind to be busy amidst the creation of God, to be a caretaker in God's world.

The charge to labour or work is to everyone.  The Bible itself has numerous accounts of God calling specific people for various kinds of work:

In Exodus 3:7-14; 4:1, 10-13 – we have the account of how God called Moses.  Moses was working as a shepherd away out in the back country.  But this was not the work which God intended him to do.  So Moses was not left in peace to vegetate.  He was called by God to be the leader of the people, to be an administrator, a lawgiver, a religious leader, and a general.  We see that Moses was like many of us: not anxious to leave the comfortable job he was doing, and to undertake the difficult and heart-breaking work to which God called him.  He tried to make all sorts of excuses.  But eventually the shepherd answered the call, and became one of the greatest men of ancient history.

In Exodus 35:30-35 we read how God called two men, Bezalel and Aholiab, for a special work.  These men were skilled craftsmen, and God called them to the work of using their talents in the building of the Tabernacle.  God, we are told, inspired them for all kinds of workmanship.  We are also told in Chapter 36 verse 1, that God gave wisdom and understanding not only to these two men who were outstanding, but also to every workman who was employed on building the Tabernacle.

In Judges 6:11-16 we read how God called Gideon.  Gideon was a young farmer who did not seem to be particularly courageous.  But God called the young timid farmer to be a general, and to lead his people against the Midianites.  Later he became the ruler of his people.

In 1Samuel 10:20-24 we read how God called Saul to be a king.  Saul was also a young farmer.  He, too, had no confidence in himself.  He tried to hide when he found what was going to happen to him.  But he finally answered the call.  He could have made a good king if he had not gone off the rails.

In Mark 1:16-17 we read how Jesus called Peter and Andrew.  They were fishermen plying their trade on the Sea of Galilee.  Suddenly came the call of Jesus to them, to leave their fishing and to follow Him.  "I will make you fishers of men,” He said.  So they left their work, and their security, and answered the call of Jesus to a life of adventure for the Kingdom of God.

In Acts 13:1-3 we read how God called Barnabas.  Barnabas was a wealthy landowner who had enthusiastically thrown in his lot with the early Christian community.  He became a leader in the Church and was working in the Church at Antioch.  Then came the call of God for him to become a missionary, and as a result he and Paul set out on the first great missionary effort of the early Church.

There are many other accounts of God calling men and women in the Bible, but these are sufficient to show us that God does call us, and that He has work for each one of us to do.  God has a special purpose for each one of us.

To subdue means, among other things, to "work".  It means work for the student at school preparing to fill an important place in a world of challenge;

It means work for the father who has the responsible task of winning the bread for the family, a wife, and a new generation of citizens;

It means work for the mother, who has to manage and keep running the institution that nurtures and trains and provides an environment for valuable citizens of today and tomorrow – the home.

Here is an important part of the life of each person – WORK – for father, for mother, for son and for daughter.  Here is the prospect for this year and for the next, and for the years that stretch ahead.  Now this is not said maliciously, for this is our common calling in this world.  It is not a matter of penalty but opportunity.

Let us discuss this a little further.  Work is honouring to God, for it is an aspect of obedience to God.

We have only to look at the Ten Commandments – the fourth says, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day.  Then it goes on to say, "Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work."  This commandment is, in part, a commandment to work.

Now the law of God was given in the presence of sin in the world.  Not infrequently we hear, or read from Christian teachers that work was given as a result of, or even punishment for sin.  It was, so to speak, to be an antidote for sin or a preoccupation for the sinner, something to keep him out of sin.  There is the saying that "Satan finds things for idle hands to do."  Well, it is taught, work was given as the corrective for idle hands that Satan would otherwise use.

How many have this most inadequate view of work?  How many see work as only a penalty or remedy for sin?  How many, for this reason, live with a psychological grievance about work?  Labour is a burden!

Listen, the FALL was not where work began.  God commissioned man to work, before ever sin entered the scene.  Man was ordered to subdue the world in which God had put him.  God commissioned the astronomer and astrologer, the geologist and biologist, the industrial scientist and the physicist, the doctor and the baker, the farmer and the merchant: Subdue the Earth...!

Yes, there are many areas of knowledge and skill in which to discharge this responsibility; there are many gifts and many callings.  Let us each one, and especially our younger members, diligently search in faith and with prayer to find our own vocation according to our gifts and interests.  But remember, labour is not a burden – it is a divine charge.  It is not a penalty for sin, but an opportunity.

A young Italian migrant, in his new country, was put on the "dole", because of unemployment.  When he received the first cheque he was so grateful that he seized a broom and went out to sweep the streets!  He explained, "I think this is a wonderful country!  I will be an honest man in this country.  So I start to sweep.  My bread tastes sweet, I feel like an honest man, because I work."

But we must admit that sin has put a new element into work.  There is now associated with it pain and sweat.  There are thorns and hindrances to achievements (Genesis 3:19), although this in no way alters the original charge "to work."  From one of the Books of Wisdom comes the exhortation, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." (Eccles.9:10).

Now there is a reason for this work – it is to be done unto God.  Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Paul the Apostle also said, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God."  It is not merely a matter of how much work, but the quality – not so much of the article we work on, but of the labour spent in producing it.  In other words, the important thing is the motive.

Work designed to please man is not up to standard.  The loafer is usually the busiest worker when the foreman or boss is in sight.  He is giving eye-service.  There are those that present a good impression to the public, the men-pleasers.  In Matthew 23:5 we have a case where the motive is to make a show, to gain credit from others, to impress other people.  The standard by which we may judge the worth of our work and determine what we shall do may be the opinion of other people.  Then the objective of the work we do is not in serving God or our fellow-men, but in getting a reputation for ourselves.  This motive is condemned.  It is essentially insincere.  Do we ever choose our work from this motive?

In Luke 12:16-21 we are given a case where the motive for work is selfish gain.  Work is done just in order to gain money or possessions for ourselves.  A man chooses a particular work because he thinks that, by doing this work, he will be able to make a lot of money.  He is willing to do only those things which will bring him material gain.  Mammon is his god, and his life is an entirely selfish one.

The almost inevitable result is that such a man pays less and less attention to the ways in which he makes money.  He becomes unsympathetic, dishonest and corrupt.  He tends to look on those who work for him simply as means by which he can make more money.  So the man himself is ruined, and society becomes impoverished.

Jesus called such a man a fool.  He left God out of account: that is why he was a fool.  Do you agree with Jesus' judgement?  Is there a large number of fools in the world?  Are you tempted to become one of them?

Another motive for work is to earn a living, to get money to provide food, clothing, shelter and the necessities of life.  This motive is referred to in 2Thessalonians 3:10-12 and in Matthew 10:10.  The Bible regards this as a legitimate motive for work.  In fact, it speaks very strongly against the slothful.  "If any man provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

Every person should work, and the workman is worthy of the wages he needs to provide for his family and himself.  God intends us to have our daily bread; and to work in order to get it is right.  But the danger here is that the desire for daily bread may degenerate into a desire for far more than is necessary, and so into a selfish desire for gain.  Our ideas of what is necessary for life are apt to expand with the opportunities that come to us for making money.  By itself this motive is not sufficient.

In Ephesians 4:28 we are given a higher motive for work, namely the desire to serve.  We are to work in order that we may be able to help those who are in need.  This is a motive which takes us away from ourselves and fixes our attention on the needs of others.  Paul obviously had in mind that we should work in order to earn money which we may give to those in need.  But experience teaches us that there is also a danger here.  А man may set out with this worthy motive, but the temptations that come with the possession of money are so strong that it is very easy to forget the original motive.  But there is another sense in which this is a good motive.  We work so that, by the work itself, we may be able to serve others.  It is not merely the money which we may earn, but it is by the work itself that we help to meet the needs of others.  A doctor goes to work where there is a need, not where he can earn most money.  When we are moved by this motive, we take up work because of the service which we can render by our work.  This is a high motive, and often involves real self-sacrifice.

But the highest motive for taking up a particular work is that we are constrained by God's love for us, and by our love for Him, to do the work to which we believe He is calling us.  We do this work because we cannot help doing it.

The deepest meaning that work can have is in this motive, that it comes from a heart desiring to glorify God.  "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men.  The work must be orientated on God, as must the whole of life.  This gives to work its deepest dimension, its truest character.  It must be God-service.

How true were the words of the Christian teacher, who said that even street-sweeping could be a noble employment, "when it was performed for the glory of God."  Without this motive work will be a burden and not a pleasure, a hardship and not a blessing.  It may become a drudgery; it may lead to revolt.  If you go into the world with your eyes fixed only on the pay cheque, your work will bore you, you will loathe it.  When your work is eye-service or man-pleasing it will return a poor reward.  But work that is God-service will be truly rewarding.

At an establishment producing stone monuments, the leading mason took ill.  A younger man was instructed to take over a special task of stone sculpture.  He knew nothing of the purpose of the commission, but he painstakingly followed the drawings and specifications.  On completion, the work was approved and freighted away before the date agreed upon.  It was some months later that the young man was walking through a great and beautiful civic building which had just been opened.  He came to the foyer and to the focal point of the building, and was amazed to see that a feature pillar was crowned by his work.  He removed his cap and prayed reverently, "Thank God, I did that job well!"  He realised that his work had been a holy employment.

This was the case with Jeremiah.  Jeremiah did not want to do the particular work to which he had been called.  But so strong was the sense of God's call on him that he could not help doing the work.  We find the same sense of compulsion in Jesus' life.  Work that is taken up because of the compulsion of God's love for us and our love for Him is work done from the highest motive.  In fact, work then becomes indistinguishable from play.  The writer writes because he must.  The craftsman creates because he must.  They work because the hand of God is on them, and because of the overmastering impulse to do this work that comes to them from God.  When we do this we have truly found our vocation.

Those 40 hours that you did on the job – how did you do them?  The many hours in the house – why did you do your work?

Our work can be our witness to Christ as He told us in the Sermon on the Mount.  The way in which we work, the kind of work we do, our conscientiousness, our carefulness, our enthusiasm, our self-sacrifice, our attitude to our work, whatever we are doing, shows the presence of Christ in our lives, and is a witness to His power and presence.

People watch the way we work, whether we are teachers, artisans, mechanics or anything else, and by what they see they judge what Christ has done for us.  The follower of Christ at work in any task will show by the quality of his work that, because Christ is his Lord, he has got something which others have not got.  Our work and the way we work should be a concrete demonstration of the result of the Lordship of Christ in our life.  So we can witness to the Master we serve.  Do our young people mean this when they sing those words in their Federation Youth Anthem "Christus Regnat.' (Christ reigns).

One problem remains – how can we do God-service from hearts that are in rebellion to God?  We can only give God-service when we recognise that God IS, and that He is known to us.

When we acknowledge this, then we must also understand that we know Him only because He has shown Himself – and this He did in the most wonderful way in Jesus Christ.  We can know God only through Christ.  We will give God-service only when we have submitted our lives to the reign of Christ.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ, old and young, remember that you stand in the service of the Lord Christ; therefore let your work be hearty service unto God.

As we go to our tasks of the coming week, we should seek in them an opportunity to serve God.

Our work is – obedience to God – and God-service.

AMEN.