Work and Working

It takes some doing to move from mankind’s pattern of life meaning and modus operandi to God’s context. For mankind it is better to be a prince than a pauper, a free person than an indentured person, a citizen of this country and not that one, a man or woman, to be rich rather than poor, to be educated rather than uneducated – and so the contrasts may be listed.  God does not deny that it is better for each person that this or that in the list may (or may not) serve for a better life on earth.  We work, and rightly so, to move from whatever we consider a lesser context of life to a better one.  Scripture acknowledges the point in a dramatic statement: Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that.  For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.  In short we are told that status on earth means nothing to God in the final analysis.  Life for me on earth is to be interpreted either as mankind interprets or God interprets it. I much prefer God’s context.  There are various passages of Scripture including much of this Corinthian letter (above) that discusses the large perception – including the development of vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor with the implication that those to dishonor may, with God, turn out to have the best of it.  The answers are in Scripture and in the soul of the mature Christian.

God is a person of values.  One value he expects to reward handsomely is faithfulness.  To be faithful in what I have been given in the course of the context of my life is to prove that God can be victorious in the life of a person no matter how unwanted are some of the circumstances of that context.  I am much pleased to be an American, and I would not want to trade my citizenship for any other, although there are a number of choices I would make in peace if I had to change.  I am appreciative that I have had a good life, with family, career, and the accoutrements with a little more than I needed.  My life has been exciting, fulfilling, participating worldwide, with a happy marriage and a family I adore.  I will be evaluated by God relative to the faithfulness to him and his context for me.  If all were in place for me, I could do as well, perhaps even better, if I were benighted, abused, compelled to be a cipher in the community.  All this recognizes that natural life is a transition to something else, as the life I had in the womb of my mother was transitional to the natural life I have enjoyed for many decades, but is preparatory for emerging in a new birth (context).

There is a doctrine of work in Scripture.  Like so many factors practical to natural life, it deserves some concentrated attention so to determine what one will do with his or her life, and presume something of outcomes that honor the worker and God.  The work (constructive activity) is not determined by the award (money and benefits) for the work, but by its meaning.  Its meaning is to serve nature’s needs.  Its meaning to God relates to the faithfulness and objectives of the worker – followed in faithfulness.  One of the damning features in the life of Judas was his break with faithfulness.  Even sacred contexts sometimes fall apart when faithfulness is lost or diluted.  The understanding of faithfulness carries over to much of what God asks of us.  We are to be faithful to our marriages and families, faithful to our countries, faithful to our relationships in business, in our uses of time, and in all the appropriate factors of our commitments and lives.  God means for his children to be found faithful. (Matthew 25:21-23; Luke 16:10-12)  It becomes a test I can apply to myself, so to discover the quality of my life, both spiritually and humanly.  It is also a matter of reciprocity in that God is faithful to us, so we return that faithfulness to him. (Acts 13:41)  What we do with our time is our lives.  It must be faithful work which is to say it is acceptable.  If it is of God it is to be committed to faithful persons who carry it forward. (2 Timothy 2:2)  It may be surprising that faithfulness in our work becomes motivation upon which many observers determine something about their own faith.  Our work informs us, and others, about the seriousness of our lives, and the importance of all conduct in the judgment of the truth or falsity of who this person is and what is claimed and believed.  It applies all along the line, between parents and children, supervisors and workers, teachers and students, sellers and buyers – and in like life parallels.  Mankind tends to judge on status.  God evaluates on righteous faithfulness.