Work and Stewardship

As any effective teacher does, the Lord urges us to test ourselves, partly so to prove the effectiveness of what the teacher is communicating.  Christian wisdom includes concepts of Scripture related to work.  We learn that the worker is to be paid fairly, for the contribution (sale of time and skill) to the objectives of an employer.  It is a needed form of rewarded servanthood, so to meet the needs and wants of mankind.  The system is first to address the needs of persons in society.  The worker needs to respect the system, and the employer needs to take responsibility for application of an ethical system that avoids misuse.  This last implies that the employer knows how to use the system fairly so to provide respect for workers, and not to take undue advantage of the creation of wealth for selfish purposes.  To the degree this last is violated to that degree the employer exploits employees.  God, who is free, will not permit freedom to be infringed without penalty in that he has made all persons to be free, within responsibility.  The Christian in a servile and abused state, if properly informed, knows that he or she is free even if that freedom must wait for death to be realized.  Freedom is not physical in origin, but spiritual.  We ought to be free in our physical sojourn, but if not in nature it will catch up to the child of God in the ultimate reckoning.  All this relates to the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, a context of life and character for the Christian person and society.

Here again is a refinement of interpretation that needs consideration.  The salary/wage issue is principally the responsibility of the employer to be accepted by the responsible employee.  Failure of the employer in the matter will be met with retribution in several ways, especially in the success or failure of the corporation, but ultimately it will be encountered in the evaluation of lives and meaning.  There will be an accounting, even for this in that it is important to life and families, and even to the prosperity of a nation.  The ideal is to work at what my conscience can support because this is what God has given me skills to do.  I tended to sign my professional contract the day I received it.  When moving from one institution to another, I pointed out to the head of the institution trying to get me to stay, that I had worked there for nine years and received a raise each year of $50.00 for the whole year, starting at $3,000.00 annually and leaving nine years later at $3,450.00 annually.  I took on a side ministry that paid me more starting at $4,500.00 annually with housing benefits, and resigned five years later with exactly the same salary.  I have no personal regrets except that I may not have communicated well to authorities the biblical concept of work employment as service to God and that related to the solidarity of the context of the institution.  My concern, if I were faithful, would be to the whole context of the social venture of which I could give myself in the belief that it was the insight that God wanted me to hold.  (Christian institutions have corrected.)

Work in the human worst context is slavery in that it does not offer to the worker adequate benefits of his or her labor; dilutes God’s offer to freedom for every person; and, creates a barrier for the practice of whatever gifts God gives to an individual for creativity and stewardship.  The violation tends to take away the breadth of free choices for recreation, education, and other features of a God ordered society.  Employers are identified with the rich, even if they are losing in their markets, because they have taken on some responsibility for the quality of life for the persons working for their goals and vision.  In this the employer takes on family duty with the employee so to determine the good required, and the continuance by mutual commitment to purpose.  There is sharing which should relate to fairness.  A study of Abraham and his servant searching for a bride for Isaac is an illustration in point.  The relationship between Abraham and the servant was of trust and respect that included love.  From that point each performed the work that God gave them to do, and it turned out well. (I wish we had more of the story of the servant, but that would take another book.  Scripture provides enough pages for purpose.)  I am warmed at this late date in my life that I never judged my work on the amount of money I was paid, or the advancements that I was given along the way, or the impression my decisions made on my family.  My decisions were made entirely on what I believed to fit my competencies, what God would have me do in the context of my life, what would meet the needs of my family, and what others of like mind with me would have me do.