The Protestant Work Ethic and You

"Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ. Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart. Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord." -Ephesians 6:5-8, HCSB

I have issues with authority. Anyone who knows me will tell you that while I generally do as I have to, it isn't always with a good attitude or in the exact manner that my superior wanted it done. I am independent, stubborn and tend to think that I know the right way to do things. I find trivial tasks stupid, and dislike being put in a box, given parameters in which I must accomplish my goal. In a sentence, I like to be my own boss.

Yet, I am not. I have a job at Kroger, a grocery store chain in the United States. I am often responsible to do certain tasks, and do them with a smile. Yet, menial tasks (which are common in a grocery store) irritate me. I don't like to do them, and if I have to do them, it will be in my own way or I will dislike that. I'm guessing many of you probably feel the same way in your jobs-- you do you job because you have to, but it isn't because you want to.

This is not how Paul says one should work in Ephesians. The context is that of a slave and a master, but if a slave should reflect this attitude, how much more should a paid employee?! Colossians 3:17 talks of doing everything as if for Christ, which is almost the same message here: we work as if for Christ Himself. Think about your job: if we did our jobs for Christ, what would that look like? If Christ wanted me to clean the floors, how would I clean the floors? How would I cashier or push carts or stock milk? I'd wager my work ethic would look much different.

There's an old phrase called the "Protestant work ethic." This concept probably came from people living out this passage. They served with a good attitude. They didn't work only when watched, but even harder when not watched. They did everything out of an overflow of their heart, a heart that loved Christ and wished to do the will of God.

We must bring this back. We must, as representatives of Christ in this world, show His heart in the workplace. We must work with a good attitude. There is no qualifier; we don't do this "if our boss doesn't suck." No, we do this as evidence of the new heart Christ has given us. Let us show this! Let us prove our remade selves in the workplace!

The End is Coming

"While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached Him privately and said, 'Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?'

Then Jesus replied to them: 'Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines [and epidemics] and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of birth pains." -Matthew 24:3-8, HCSB

Headlines on CNN, from the moment I am writing this post, include:

 

Nation mourns Boston bomb

 

Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas

 

U.S. intel works on new N. Korea nuke assignment

 

Casualties mount in Pakistan quake

 

China bird flu count rises to 83

In the context of that passage I started with, these headlines should get our attention. Wars? Um, dozens were just killed in an Iraq bombing today. Syria is still wracked with civil war. Israel and Palestine are fighting, as usual. Rumors of war? The US and North Korea are currently looking to negotiate some peace, as escalating threats from both sides over the past month have threatened the safety of citizens in both nations, as well as anyone near them. Iran is constantly releasing threats of war.

China and the United States, the two biggest "kingdoms" on the geopolitical map as of today, are not the best of friends. A war with Chinese neighbor North Korea could be all it takes for these two "kingdoms" to rise up against each other.

Famines? Ever seen a picture of Somalia, or Sudan, or North Korea? People in these countries are starving. Literally. 

How about epidemics? Bird flu is slowly spreading in southeast Asia. Tuberculosis has developed incredible resistance to antibiotics in parts of Russia and Peru, among other places. Other killers, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and cholera, are claiming lives daily.

Earthquakes? Pakistan has 35 dead from a quake a few days ago, with several more in Iran dead from the same quake. Need I even mention the Japanese or Sri Lankan tsunamis, or the Haitian quake a few years back?

The fact is that these things are coming true, and have been for quite some time now. These are, as Jesus says, the "beginnings of birth pains." Creation is groaning for the return of Christ (Romans 8:22), waiting for all to be made right again. If you read further in Matthew 24, you'll see that persecutions will come for those in Christ. Guess what: that's happening all over the world, and will only get worse. Just look at the United States over the past few years: the Christian faith has gone from a primary belief in this nation to a source of jokes and outrage. We are marginalized, mocked and ignored. Christians in Western culture are deemed ignorant and stupid. Things are not getting better; Jesus said so Himself.

We must not be surprised that this world kind of sucks. We should not be surprised about the death and dying that is going down, and we should not be surprised by the escalating hostility to the Way. We should expect it, and be watching for the return of our Savior. Let us groan alongside Creation, as our Lord is coming to make all things new. Oh, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

Jesus Believed in Hell

"And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!" -Matthew 18:9, HCSB

I chose the picture above for a reason. So often, when people think about Jesus, they picture happy Jesus. Soft Jesus. Lovey-dovey, gentle Jesus. And He certainly is loving and happy and gentle, do not hear me wrong. I'm simply stating that He wasn't like that at all times.

A common claim against Christians who are "hardcore" or "fire and brimstone" is that they are not loving. If you preach a gospel that includes a literal Hell for the person outside of Christ, you will be considered unloving by many. After all, it isn't loving to tell people they are headed to Hell, right?

Jesus did. In fact, Jesus spoke of Hell more than any other person in the New Testament. Not that He wanted people to go to Hell; Matthew 18:14 clearly states that God does not want any to enter Hell's gates. Instead, Jesus preached a literal Hell because He actually believed in it.

Jesus actually believed that if someone were to sin and never repent, that person would be in Hell upon death. He believed in a literal, fire and brimstone Hell. This belief, this knowledge of the very real punishment of sins, is something that propelled Him to preach repentance of sins and salvation in Himself. This compelled Him to look upon crowds with compassion, knowing their status before God and thus their eternal fate if nothing changes.

And we don't ever mention Hell.

We have become so afraid of talking about the punishment of sins that we won't hardly mention the fires of Hell. We don't want to seem mean or old-fashioned or weird, so we just leave that part off. We don't ever discuss the extent of punishment for sins, that Hell is a place of eternal darkness and flames (not sure how that works, but it sounds horrifying), a place of gnashing of teeth. Sometimes, people will make Hell into a place of temporary punishment, like time-out for a toddler.

We've lost our belief in Hell. If we actually believed in this Hell, a literal place of eternal suffering and punishment, then we would do something with that belief. We would not sit by, afraid to saying something to the person outside of Christ. We would preach the gospel to all we could, fueled by the desire to see people escape the punishment.

Our indifference towards Hell and those headed there is at best unloving and lazy, and more likely hateful and damning. We quite literally hold the gospel of Christ in our hands, the way out of eternal punishment, and we never preach it. Our silence will be paid for by our friends for eternity, as they cry out our names, wondering why we didn't care enough to share the gospel with them.

Jesus believed in Hell, and did something about it. Do we?

Are You a Wisdom Seeker?

"My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
listening closely to wisdom
and directing your heart to understanding;

furthermore, if you call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it like hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lordand discover the knowledge of God."

-Proverbs 2:1-5, HCSB

A few years back, I listened in on a conference via livestream. The speaker at this conference spoke on this passage, and he made an excellent observation. So today, I will share it with you.

Observe that I colored the "ifs" in the passage yellow, and "then" in lime. I want to draw you attention to these "ifs" and the "then." Perhaps you have heard of an if-then statement; if ______ happens, then ________ will occur. It is a pretty standard feature in philosophy and in creating formal arguments.  If Kentucky scores the most points, then Louisville will lose the game (I may be a bit bitter about Monday's game...). If I fail to water my plants, then they will likely die. If President Obama speaks, then Fox News will probably have something negative to say. All of these have been if-then statements, showing that a preceding event leads to a following event.

So, in Proverbs 2, we see a series of "ifs" followed by a "then." In fact, there are a lot of "ifs" that this passage implies that we should follow:

-If we accept His words
-If we store up His commands
-If we listen closely to wisdom
-If we direct our heart to understanding
-If we call out to insight
-If we lift our voice to understanding
-If we seek wisdom like silver
-If we search for wisdom like hidden treasure

That is a lot of conditions, right? There are quite a few "ifs" there, and usually, the more "ifs," the lower the chance of a "then" occurring. But, these "ifs" are all pointing to a similar thought pattern: "if you desire wisdom...." I didn't list a bunch of unrelated conditions; they are all extensions of a wisdom-seeker's heart. The wisdom-seeker accepts that God knows what is best, listening (not hearing, but hearing plus processing) to what God says and acts on the wisdom that they discover. The wisdom-seeker isn't passive, but instead is an explorer, traveling far and wide in search of wisdom. And this seeker is rewarded.

If we seek wisdom, then we will find it in fearing God and learning about Him. A fear of God (as discussed in my post on Proverbs 1:7, Fearing God) and acting on that fear is the path to wisdom. Verse 6 goes on to say that the Lord gives wisdom, and this is true. If we are following God, seeking to find wisdom through a healthy fear of Him, we will find it. That will be the natural result of this pursuit.

If we seek wisdom, we will find it. The question is: are you seeking?

Rebuke and Guide: Jesus on Disciples and Their Failures

"Jesus replied, 'You unbelieving and rebellious generation! How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.' Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and from that moment the boy was healed.
Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, 'Why couldn’t we drive it out?'

'Because of your little faith,' He told them. 'For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.'" -Matthew 17:17-20, HCSB

Have you ever just wanted to smack a friend? They continue doing something dumb, and can't seem to get it. Finally, they act a fool one last time, and you tell them (rather bluntly) how they are screwing up.

Jesus had one of those moments here. Over and over He calls His disciples out for their faith, and over and over again His disciples show how little their faith is. This time, however, He goes a bit deeper.

Jesus proceeds to explain how their failure at driving out a demon is due to how little their faith is, but if they were to have greater faith, they would be able to do great things. Notice how Jesus handled His disciples in this scenario, and let's see if we can glean some guidance for our own discipleship efforts.

1. He wasn't afraid to rebuke them. How often have we wanted to say how a fellow Christ follower is not walking on the right path, but then chickened out and didn't tell them? Me too, but Jesus didn't chicken out. He saw His disciples failing in their spiritual growth, and He called them on it. We must also be willing to do this. If we are never willing to correct our disciples, then how will they ever grow?

2. He guided them closer to God. Jesus didn't stop with a rebuke, though. He followed up with spiritual guidance and pushed them closer to God. He explained why things weren't working, and helped them see how to do better.

We must be willing to do both of these steps with our disciples. We mustn't be afraid to call people on their shortcomings, but if we aren't willing to lovingly and calmly come alongside and guide them to a new understanding, what good does that do? They'll never know how to correct their actions!

Let us be willing to rebuke, and let us be willing to guide. Our disciples look to us for spiritual leadership; we must act our part.

They Can Only Kill You

"Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." -Matthew 10:28, HCSB

Jesus didn't play games. This passage comes from a speech Jesus gave to His disciples as He commissioned them as apostles, as kind of a "hey, this is going to be your life" type of deal. As part of that speech, he starts talking about how people will want to kill them for following Him. They will be hated, mocked and eventually, possibly killed. No big deal.

Then He says "oh, by the way, the people that want to kill you ain't got a thing on God, who can destroy your soul and body forever." Um, intense.

Guess what, yo: this applies to people these days, too. There are brothers and sisters in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East dying on a daily basis, all for the Name of Christ. There are siblings murdered, daughters disowned, wives stoned and husbands abandoned for following Jesus. Churches in Nigeria are regularly burned and bombed, and pastors have been skinned in India. Many nations have banned the Word of God, the sharing of one's faith,

And we fret about being made fun of because we are a virgin or don't drink. Ha.

We have to keep this Christian walk in perspective, Western Church. There very well may be someone that reads this in a country where persecution is intense. I regularly have page views on this blog from China, India and parts of the Middle East. These brothers and sisters are being bold in their faith because it doesn't make sense to claim Christ in a lukewarm fashion. Christ equals punishment and death in some places in this world. Making disciples of all nations is not a program or good idea; it is either a command of Christ worth dying for, or a cue to abandon the faith in favor of living.

These are the costs of following Christ in other places, and it isn't getting better here. I hate to be a Johnny Raincloud, but America and the West isn't getting friendlier to the Way. Christ followers are not being welcomed in a greater fashion; we're being hated more and more. We ain't headed for a bright future; Europe has already worked hard at abandoning Christ and the United States is following their cues.

Following Christ in Western culture will continue to be harder as time continues one. Are we willing to take the heat for His Name? Others already are literally dying for His gospel; would we be willing to do the same?

Persecutors on earth have nothing on God, though. I mean, the worst thing that could happen is another human can kill you. God can destroy your body and soul. You tell me: which side is scarier?

We must all decide, at some point in our lives: are we going to fear people on earth, whether they kill us or simply make fun, or will we fear God, who will judge the entire universe. Let's think about this, and live out what should be the natural result of this truth.

Fearing God

"The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge."

-Proverbs 1:7, HCSB

This idea of "fearing God" is something I have just recently started pondering on. It is a foreign, understudied concept for many of us. I mean, doesn't Jesus want to be our Friend and Father? Why does the Bible encourage fear of God?

It all lies in our definition of fear. When Scripture talks about fearing God, there is more to it than the quaking, trembling sensation that we feel when a wolf is bearing down on us (what, that's never happened to you?). Instead, it is a far larger concept.

Robert Strimple described it as a "convergence of awe, reverence, adoration, honor, worship, confidence, thankfulness, love, and, yes, fear." C.S. Lewis described a person who fears the Lord like this: "...one filled with awe, in which you feel wonder and a certain shrinking or a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant of or prostration before it."

I have been reading R.C. Sproul's book The Holiness of God, and a large focus of this book is the fear of God. You see, God is holy, and holy is a big descriptor. Holy means more than just pure, although that is certainly part of it. Holy literally means "separate." God is separate from everything and everyone else. There is nothing like Him or even close to being Him. He is completely separate and set aside from the world, so there is no sin in Him. He is an entity that we cannot even fathom, and even to say this has really been a bit of a struggle for me. God's holiness isn't just hard to define, though; it is even harder to approach.

In Isaiah 6, we see the prophet Isaiah before the throne of the Lord. The angels and other beings are flying all about, praising God and His holiness. God is in His full glory, beaming in holiness on His throne. Isaiah, the prophet of God, responds to this immersion in holiness by dropping to the ground in worship, and yes, fear of the Lord.

Isaiah, when confronted by the holiness of God, didn't have any other response other than "woe is me!" He was overcome with everything Robert Strimple mentioned in his definition of fearing God: he was filled with awe, reverence, honor, fear and worship to start, and once he realized that God wasn't going to smite him on sight for his sin, he experienced adoration, confidence, thankfulness and love. Isaiah feared the Lord.

I've gone through all of this to get back to my focus verse for today, Proverbs 1:7. This verse is considered the theme verse for the book of Proverbs, and it is huge. If fearing God is the beginning of knowledge, then we need to fear God. We need Isaiah's approach to God. We need to look at God with awe, worship, adoration, confidence, love, honor, thankfulness and even an element of fear. He may be our Father and Friend, but He is also our Creator God.

Sovereign Lord.

King of Kings.

Ruler of Everything.

Punisher of Sin.

Holy, righteous, pure.

This is the God we serve, this is the God that has saved us from our sins. Let's look at Him through the lens of all that He is, not just a portion of it. He's a holy God; let's live lives that reflect a fear of the Lord. He commands no other response.

Our Silence Makes No Sense

"Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'Let it be done for you according to your faith!' And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them sternly, 'Be sure that no one finds out!' But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout that whole area." -Matthew 9:29-31, HCSB

So, one day Jesus was walking around when a pair of blind guys walk up to Him, wanting to be healed. They had heard, no doubt, of His healing abilities. Perhaps they even heard that He had healed other blind people. Regardless, they walked up behind Him and yelled for Jesus to have mercy on them.

His response? "Do you believe that I can do this?"

Their answer: "yes."

A repeating theme in the Gospels is faith. Almost anytime that Jesus healed someone, it was a result of their having faith in Him to do what they believed He could do. And really, the same should be true for Christians.

We were once blind when Jesus, by grace through faith, opened our eyes to Him and our salvation in Him. When we are awakened from our sin-induced death and brought into the new birth in Christ, we are healed by Him, like the blind men here, "according to our faith." With that, our eyes are opened.

 For both us and the blind men, Jesus made a command and that command was/is disobeyed. And that's when the similarities disappear.

In the case of the blind men, Jesus told them not tell anyone of what He had done for them, as the time had not come for His awesomeness to be revealed. Yet, overcome with gratefulness and excitement, these men could not keep the news of their Healer to themselves. They felt an overpowering compulsion to share about Jesus with everyone that they came in contact with.

Inversely, Jesus has commanded us to "go, therefore, and make disciples," telling them all about Him and what He has done for us. Yet, we respond in the exact opposite fashion of the blind men. We hold in the news of Christ to ourselves.

Imagine if the blind men were healed, and then ran to an entire group of blind men and women. Upon their arrival at the group, they then proceed to act as though they are blind and refrain from telling anyone how they gained their sight. They have the same mannerisms, actions, words and everything that they had when they were blind. It wouldn't make sense!

And yet, this is us. We are healed of our spiritual blindness, and yet continue on in our lives as though we are still blind, keeping the news of our healing to ourselves.

It must not be this way. We must run to any and all the people that we know, proclaiming the name of Jesus! He has healed us; are we not filled with joy at this truth?! Are we content with our healing so much so that we ignore the blindness of others?!

We have had our eyes opened. It is now our job to do the same with our mouths.

Better Than A Pharisee?

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 5:20, HCSB

Yesterday I was in a discussion with a friend of mine about her weekend. She told me about how busy her weekend was, primarily because of church. Intrigued, I asked how it was that church had made her weekend so busy.

She went on to tell me how she was Catholic, and due to several factors she couldn't control, was late to mass on Saturday night. She told me that mass lasts for one hour, and after she missed the first thirty minutes, she felt like her attendance in mass "didn't count." Thus, she went again on Easter morning, to make sure that she was in a full mass service this weekend.

Now, I am not one to bash Catholics, but this conversation really got me thinking about one aspect of Catholicism that many Protestants deal with, as well: can we earn any good standing before God? This ranges from full-on works-based salvation to just improving how God sees us, based upon our actions. Is there any way to improve our standing before God on our own? Does God have a scoreboard, keeping track of our good deeds? Do we have to gauge whether or not our deeds count?

The answer is no. There is nothing we personally can do to improve our standing before God. We are all sinners, and according to the book of Isaiah, even our good deeds are merely dirty rags in the eyes of God (if you want Isaiah's version, look up the real meaning of Isaiah 64:6).

In the passage I included at the top of this post, Jesus is describing how He fulfills the law of the Old Testament. He describes how He is not the destroyer, but rather the completer of these writings, and how one must be more righteous than the Pharisees to get into heaven.

Now, let's review: the Pharisees were the group of people in New Testament Judea that held to God's law the closest. No one had all of the sacrifices and such down like these people. They gave, fasted and prayed according to the law. They practically lived in the temple.

And Jesus says we must be more righteous than that to enter heaven.

Can you see our dilemma? I don't know how righteous you think you are, but I know I have nothing on the Pharisees. When you've memorized the first five books of the Old Testament AND follow them to a T, lemme know. Until then, we're gunna operate under the assumption that the Pharisees have us beat on the righteousness scale. That is the level we must surpass to get to heaven. Seems impossible, right?

That, my friends, is Jesus' point. He knows that no one follows the law better than them. Jesus knew when He made that statement that all fall short of that level, much less surpass it. Thus, we must conclude that since no one is at a heaven-worthy level (not even the Pharisees are righteous enough), no one can get to heaven based upon their deeds. No one.

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -Romans 3:23, HCSB

Jesus was preaching Romans before it was written. There isn't a person on Earth that can improve their standing before God with deeds, since we can't get to a level to save ourselves, and even our good deeds are dirty rags to God. This is why we depend upon Jesus alone for our salvation! He alone could be the one righteous enough to earn God's favor, since He was not polluted by sin. He alone could be the spotless Lamb, slaughtered for the salvation of the people of God. He alone could earn our salvation.

"For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—  not from works..." -Ephesians 2:8-9a, HCSB

We're saved by grace, not works. We have nothing to bring to God, but praise be to Jesus that He brings it all for us! We may rest in Him, knowing that He is the one responsible for our good standing before God, washed white with His blood before the throne of God!

In Christ alone, my hope is found.

He is my light, my strength, my song!