So you've left the ministry. How do you find job satisfaction? I mean, as a minister, you were SAVING SOULS - well, God was actually doing the saving, but it sure FELT like YOU were doing the saving, right? So you had this sense of job satisfaction. Or rather, you probably didn't do a whole lot of saving, and you probably got a lot of criticism and almost no encouragement...but you sure THOUGHT what you were doing was important and meaningful. And now that's gone. How can you ever feel important find meaning in your work in the...shudder...common realm?
The typical answer you'll get, and it's one I've heard from a thousand sources, is that you should pour your passions into your church and into your family, but your JOB is just a means to an end, a means to support the other two. Your job is just something that ENABLES the other two. This is very typical reformed wisdom.
I'm not comfortable with this. It just didn't sit well with me. Let's bring some scripture into it.
Col 3:22 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your masters according to the flesh, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do it from the soul, as to the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are slaving for the Lord Christ.
I've made a few refinements to the ESV translation of these verses. I have to mention these.
Slaves: sorry, but it's slaves, not bondservants or some other less shocking word. A big pet peeve of mine is when people INSIST that Greco-Roman slavery was NOTHING AT ALL like slavery in America, when it was race based and very cruel. But the fact is, slavery in those days WAS race based. Everyone thought that people from their country or nation state was a higher life form than those outside the empire, the barbarians. Barbarian is an ancient Greek word for anyone who's not a Greek. And it was Aristotle who said that slaves were merely a tool, a possession. And if ancient slavery was a kinder, gentler slavery, why does Paul have to command people in the church to stop threatening their slaves in Eph 6:9? Let's just face it: the slavery that the Bible does not explicitly say should cease is exactly like the slavery of 19th century America. And every time we soften the biblical notion of slavery, we are trying to make the Bible say something it doesn't say.
Masters according to the flesh: you'll see translations say "earthly masters" here, but this is what the Greek says. I like the Greek phrasing, because it implies that you have a Master who is not of the flesh, which is to imply the Spirit.
Do it from the soul: this is the key phrase in this passage. I think perhaps a modern equivalent would be: "Whatever you do, pour your very soul into it as if you were working under direct orders from God himself, not mere men because you know that your reward from the Lord is your inheritance in the new heavens and new earth."
You are slaving for the Lord Christ: well, this is the verb it uses, the same root as the word slave. I just don't like trying to hide this word. It means Jesus OWNS us. Like Aristotle said of slaves: merely a tool, a possession. Jesus owns us just as much as I own this computer I'm typing on.
So for those who say that we should pour our passion into our family and our church, and that our vocation is MERELY a means to that end, I say, no, this is not biblical.
Col 3 says that our work should be done from the soul - that we should pour our very souls into it; not, obviously, to the exclusion of our church and family.
Col 3 also says that as we do, we testify to our hope of a reward in the age to come.
If Jesus was your boss, what kind of worker would you be? Would you render the minimum acceptable performance necessary to avoid getting fired? Would you demand that you always get your two 15 minute breaks and your hour long lunch hour? Would it be all about you? Would you say of work left undone, perhaps by someone else, "That's not my job!"? Would you be content to let the organization fail to accomplish its mission, so long as you can personally avoid blame? Would you spend half your day surfing the internet?
Or would you pour your heart and soul into your work, doing the very best job you can, maximizing your efforts, focusing on the task at hand and not letting yourself get distracted?
But Jesus IS your boss. He's the one who gives you your ultimate paycheck: eternal life, the universe, himself.
And how would you behave at work if he was always watching? He is.
No, it's not biblical to say that you shouldn't feel the need to pour your passions into your work. Now of course, we should be careful not to get so involved with work that we neglect family and church. We need to have these in balance to the extent possible.
Kuyper speaks of three spheres: family, church and state. Your work falls into the category of the state, assuming you work in the common realm rather than the redemptive realm.
If we accept this, then that means something more than that we should pour our passions into our work. It also means that our work serves the sphere of the state - or the community if you prefer; the common realm community that is. Our work in the common realm is for the common good. We are contributing to the realm of common grace, where the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and our work will benefit the just and the unjust alike.
Our work in the common realm will be more satisfying to us as it looks more like the work God intended. That is, it will be more satisfying the more it tends toward the common good of our fellow human beings in the realm of common grace.
God himself exists in community: "Let US create man in OUR image". And he did not create man alone in his image...
"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."
One man by himself cannot bear God's image. "It is not good for man to be alone." God created man in community. Male and female together are created in God's image. This short poem clarifies what it means for God to create man in his own image. It means he created him male AND female.
This does not mean, as the pagans say, that everyone has a male and female aspect to them. No, it means that we cannot bear God's image apart from how we interact with others who are different from ourselves. We cannot bear God's image apart from being part of a community, part of a family.
Gen 1:2 points out that there are three things about the creation that render it unserviceable to man. 1) it's dark, 2) it's formless and 3) it's empty. So on days 1-6, God goes about serving mankind by 1) creating light 2) giving the earth, heavens and seas forms and boundaries and limits and 3) filling these with creatures. Finally, when all is ready, God creates man in community.
God is satisfied with his work, and so on the 7th day he rests because his labor is complete. He has made the creation a perfect dwelling place for man. He is satisfied because he served man.
God himself exists in community. One God, three Persons: Father, Son, Spirit. He created us in community: male and female. His work satisfaction came in serving those in his community - because the whole point of creating was to enter into covenant with man and reveal himself to them. That was the whole point. That's the way the creation narrative is structured - with the creation of man being the high point.
So our job satisfaction will be greatest when what we do most clearly benefits others, and when this is most tangible and visible to we who are working. This is what it means to work to the glory of God, to most clearly bear his image: when your work serves others. When your work serves only yourself, this will be empty. When you cannot SEE that your work is benefitting others, you will not be as satisfied.
Many people today - as has always been the case throughout history - place a great deal of significance on politics. And politics has always been, and will always be, an arena of contest. Who gets to make the laws? This becomes a question that everyone thinks they have the "right" answer to. Being so persuaded that they are right, they work to ensure that their "team" gets to make the laws, because the laws they will make will lead to justice and equity.
Christians often become utter fools when they attempt to forcefully enter politics. Why? Because one or a small handful of issues often occupy the debate. And when we contend against the other side on a particular issue, we lose the focus on what really matters - justice - and get distracted by what doesn't: winning the contest. At some point justice ceases to matter, but only defeating the other guy. That's what happens in contests, in arguments, in debates, in fights. And then you up end losing the forest for the trees and become fools.
For example, let's take an issue that is near and dear to every Christian's heart: abortion. Though it shouldn't be the case, it seems to escape nearly everyone's notice that the right and the left are really talking past each other on this issue.
My next sentence will probably offend you immensely, whoever you are. Both sides in the debate are concerned about upholding justice as they understand it. However, both sides are only looking at one aspect of justice, to the detriment and neglect of others.
The right cares only that abortion is murder. A woman that has an abortion has sacrificed her child on the altar of convenience. She has performed a monstrous deed, and this deed should be illegal. This is perhaps the most basic building block of common realm, common grace justice: the state, from at least the time of Noah, is called to punish murder with the death penalty. God said to Noah, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
I can't help pointing out here that although Christians say they are on God's side because they are arguing against abortion, no one ever argues that abortion should be illegal AND that the penalty for breaking this law should be death. I don't see any right leaning activists in states where there is no death penalty protesting its lack. Already we see that Christians are picking and choosing which injustice they care about - but just wait - we have only just begun.
How does the right view the pro-abortion left? As unrepentant murderers, nothing more. While it's true that those who are in favor of abortion have fundamentally failed to uphold God's prohibition against murder, and in a seriously grievous way, this isn't the ENTIRE truth.
I don't believe I have EVER in my entire life heard a pro-abortion activist argue that it's ok to kill babies. In fact, pro-abortion activists tend to point to the plight of the single mother, who got knocked up by her boyfriend, who has now abandoned her to raise their child by herself.
So the right focuses on the injustice of the mother murdering her baby, and the left focuses on the injustice of the man abandoning his child and its mother. Neither one has a full-orbed understanding of the injustice of the situation.
Or for another example: gay marriage. Lots of Christians think they are nobly standing up to injustice by standing up for the sanctity of marriage by standing against gay marriage. And boy, they sure do shout loudly about it.
And yet, many of those people who are supposedly warriors for marriage are...ironically...divorced. Or maybe they're a pastor or an elder at a church where divorce isn't exactly approved, but they don't discipline the members who get divorced either. But if they really stood up for the sanctity of marriage, when someone in their congregation got divorced, they'd insist that they reconcile or else whoever refused to reconcile be excommunicated!
So instead of actually caring about the law of God, they like to APPEAR to care about the law of God by shouting loudly and making a big scene, just like the Pharisees, but they don't actually do anything to combat sin.
And if you care about the fact that the 2008 economic crisis was brought about in large part by the extreme greed of folks on Wall Street and predatory lenders, then most Christians will accuse you of being a socialist and a liberal, implying that you're actually secretly a communist (and thus an enemy of the United States) and soft on abortion and gay marriage. Because, as any modern American evangelical knows, Jesus was a capitalist, and the US Federal Republic is the only biblical form of government. After all, capitalism is the only way to ensure the state isn't stealing from anyone. Capitalism promotes justice in a way that no other system of government can. Right?
But while they're SO concerned with economic justice for those who "work hard" and "earn" all that money, they're NOT concerned with economic justice for those who are poor and exploited. They aren't really concerned about economic justice. They want to justify their greed.
Well, you say, that's quite the accusation. But have you any proof? Yes, I have.
It's a debatable point that Christians must give 10% of their income to the church. Many people argue that that's a law for Israel, and not the New Testament church. Obviously, some laws were unique to Israel, and those have ceased for the church in the new covenant. But 10% predates Israel. Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizadek. 10% may have been republished in the Mosaic covenant, but this is moral law, not ceremonial law.
But what if I can't afford 10%? Well, while the New Testament NEVER says you MUST give 10%, it actually encourages much more: selling all you have, giving ALL the money to the church, giving out of poverty and the like. There's no support for being stingy with the church in the New Testament.
But if you're truly poverty ridden, I hope you're speaking to your deacons and asking for help. Probably too proud to do that, huh? Does your church even HAVE deacons whose job is to collect money for the poor in the congregation?
So actually, you can argue that the Bible continues to command Christians to give at LEAST 10%, except perhaps in extreme situations in which that's not possible, in which case the Bible commands deacons to intervene and provide. And yet, all these Christians, who are so concerned about economic justice ignore these things.
There's much outrage about socialism and Obamacare and high taxes, but where's the outrage at the fact that almost all churches everywhere average 3% of their congregations' income collected in tithes and offerings? It's less than half of what churches are supposed to collect.
And where's the outrage at the pastor on food stamps? The recent seminary graduate with 100 GRAND in debt from going to seminary who nevertheless can't get a call to anything other than a tiny church plant with a salary of 30k a year because every church despises his youth, despite what Paul said to Timothy? Where's the outrage at the unemployed licentiate searching for a call who has to move into his parents' basement, filling pulpit for $100 a week?
You call that economic justice? You don't CARE about justice!
You know what you care about? I'll tell you what you care about. You care about LOOKING good. You care about LOOKING like you care about justice. The truth is, you couldn't care LESS about justice or the law of God. And you DON'T care about ANYONE other than yourself.
What you care about is justifying your smug, judgmental self righteousness by screaming loudly about the injustice du jour. You don't care about justice. You don't care about the law of God.
If you did, you would look in the mirror. If you did, you would stop screaming about everyone ELSE's sins and be more concerned with repenting of your OWN sins, of which there are many.
You are hypocrites, Christians! You are just like the Pharisees of Jesus' day, to whom he said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you give a tithe of mint and dill and cumin, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! ...Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
By your smug self righteousness, you shut the doors to the kingdom of heaven in peoples' faces. Yours is the GREATEST evil. YOU are why Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes - because these people are LESS SINFUL THAN YOU.
If there is one injustice that God cares about more than the others it is this: the hypocrisy of those who claim the name of Christ. It is upon the religious leaders of his day - upon the confessing church leaders - that Jesus pronounced his seven-fold woe in Matt 23, quoted in part above. This seven-fold woe culminates in him proclaiming them guilty of all the blood of all the martyred prophets throughout history. Jesus understood that their smug self righteousness was what would lead them to crucify the Son of God.
I don't envy you on judgment day, hypocritical Christian. FYI: the fact that you married someone of the opposite sex, lost your virginity on your wedding night and never had an abortion will not save you. Your abstaining from alcohol, tobacco and drugs will not save you. Your refusal to say certain four letter words or tell dirty jokes will not save you. Your righteousness is like used toilet paper to God. Worthless, disgusting, worthy only of being flushed down the toilet.
Aristotle is fascinating. Unfortunately, for most people, his writings are almost completely inaccessible. One theory for this is that only some of his works survived. The works that survived were more or less someone's notes of his lectures, but he probably wrote some better stuff (similar to Plato's Republic) that read more like a story, and would have been much more accessible. That's possible, but seems to me to be wishful thinking. People want to admire Aristotle. They don't want to believe that he really is all that dry. I also think this is a theory they use to apologize to undergraduate philosophy students, to soften the blow of the awful boredom produced by slogging through the Nicomachean Ethics. It truly is dry as a bone. Nonetheless, there's a lot to learn from Aristotle.
Just because I like Greek, I have to say that Nicomachean comes from Aristotle's father's and son's name: Nicomachus. The name comes from the Greek words for victory (nike) and battle (mache). Some theories are that Aristotle wrote the book in dedication to his father, or that Aristotle's son edited his lecture notes. I suppose it's also possible that the title means something like the ethics of battle winning, or the victorious ethics. Who knows?
There is a special word in Aristotle that takes on special significance. It's another word that's hard to translate, and is therefore debated endlessly. Eudaimonia. The highest good. Human flourishing. Good spirit. "Eu" is a prefix meaning basically "good" in Greek, and "daimonia" refers to a spirit or spirit guide, and it's where we get the English word demon. It's important to note that the Greek word doesn't have anything like the evil connotations like the English word demon.
The point is, eudaimonia is the highest good. This is the best thing for human beings. This is the greatest thing to be accomplished, the greatest thing to be possessed, the quality of a happy and fulfilled life. So what is this eudaimonia?
The first question is, what do we mean by "good"? This can be a confusing concept. In English, we're used to the word "good" as an adjective. "This pizza is GOOD!" In Greek, however, it's common to simply use adjectives as nouns when it suits your purposes. In English, we do the same thing, but we usually add the word "thing" for clarity. So in Greek, it's very common to say "a good", and the best way to express this in English would be to say "a good THING". We do use adjectives this way, like when we talk about "goods and services", but it's rare these days. Because it's rare, it's unfamiliar, and because it's unfamiliar, it requires a bit more brain power to figure it out.
Now I'm not a very good writer, but I do know one thing about good writing: the best writing requires as little brain power from the reader as possible. Effortless reading should be your goal for your readers. Unfortunately, when translating ancient Greek, it's nearly impossible to attain this goal without really departing from what you're translating and expressing things VERY differently. This is the biggest reason why it's hard to read Aristotle, Plato, or any other ancient text for that matter.
So when Aristotle speaks of the highest good, we're talking about the highest good thing.
There are two types of good things:
1. Instrumental goods
2. Inherent goods
Explanation:
Instrumental goods are good things that are pursued in order to achieve something else.
For example, work is an instrumental good. Just about everybody works, and they do so voluntarily. This indicates that most people are convinced that working is a good thing. And yet, there are many people who work who also hate their jobs. So why do they work? They work because working earns a paycheck. The paycheck is the good thing they're actually interested in. So work is a good thing, but for these people, it's an instrumental good, it's something pursued to gain some other good: money.
Inherent goods are good things that are not pursued to gain some other good thing, but are good in themselves. Work doesn't fit the definition (at least not as described above), because it is pursued to achieve something else, namely money.
So perhaps money qualifies as an inherent good? No, it doesn't. After all, what do people want money for? Why, it's only for what money can BUY! People want money because it can buy things: food, clothes, shelter, etc. Some people want to gain a large amount of money because it will allow them to buy power.
So perhaps power qualifies as an inherent good? No again. What do people want power for? Why, to exercise that power, of course! They want to have power over others, and force others to do what they want them to do. And this too is to accomplish some other goals, whatever they may be.
So what is a good example of an inherent good? What is a good that is pursued only for its own sake, and not to accomplish something else?
Aristotle wants us to wrestle with this question. Part of what makes this concept very difficult to understand is that you can't just throw out a simple, easy example of it like you can with instrumental goods. Any example you can think of, someone else can probably figure out a way to convince you that it's actually an instrumental good.
This is actually why so many people turn their nose up at philosophy. Abstract concepts are hard to understand. It requires a lot of brain power to wrap your mind around it. That's why we like examples. Examples are much easier for us to understand.
For example (ahem), let's take the color "red". It's very, very easy for you to know what I mean by "red" when I say, "red balloon" or "red barn" or "red fire engine". These things refer to common, ordinary, everyday things that you're very quickly familiar with. But when I begin to speak of the concept of "redness", that mysterious something that all red things have in common, suddenly your eyes glaze over, your eyelids get heavy, and your mind wanders to contemplate what you will do when you are done politely pretending to listen to me.
So when you're talking about something like inherent goods, and every example you can come up with becomes debatable whether or not it actually IS an example of the concept you're talking about, the conversation quickly becomes frustrating for everyone involved, and it's nearly impossible for communication, much less learning, to occur. So rather than give easy, familiar examples, we must be content merely to describe what we're talking about. But that description is necessarily abstract and therefore unfamiliar. And we have a hard time grasping the description, because it never crystallizes easily in an example. And this is pretty much why, after an entire semester long Aristotle class, you still have no idea what inherent goods actually are, or what eudaimonia actually is.
Eudaimonia is Aristotle's answer to the inherent good. Because it's not a concrete word, nor even an English word, there are many levels on which to debate its meaning. You can debate what an inherent good is - you can debate even the idea Aristotle has in mind, because it defies examples. You can debate specific proposed examples of inherent goods. You can debate how to translate the Greek word "eudaimonia". You can debate the concept behind "eudaimonia". The list can probably go on and on.
This is what makes studying Aristotle so maddeningly frustrating.
However, Aristotle's use of the word "eudaimonia" is actually telling in some ways. If we understand the "daimon" part to refer to a spirit guide, then Aristotle is at least suggesting that if we can understand what this inherent good is, then this will GUIDE us in life. This will tell us how to live. It will shape our every action. We will have guidance for every decision if we just know whether or not what we are about to do with lead toward the inherent good, whatever that is.
Suppose, for example, we declare that money is this highest good, this good that is only pursued for its own sake. It's not, and we've already established that above, but suppose we pretend for a minute that we don't understand that, and we say anyway that money is the highest good, the good that is inherent, the good thing that if we get it, we will have accomplished our goal in life. How will this shape our decisions in life?
Well, if money is our highest good, then we will make every decision based on this question: "will this action I am about to undertake make me more money?" If the answer is yes, then we will proceed with the action. If the answer is no, we will not.
So suppose I place you in a room, and there is a man tied up on his knees and blindfolded, and I hand you a gun. Then I say, "I will give you $100,000 if you shoot this man in the head." If money is your highest good, then what will you decide to do? You'll shoot the man, of course.
This is why Aristotle uses the word for spirit guide. What he means is that whatever you decide the highest good is, that will guide your actions. It will be as if some little spirit is standing on your shoulder, telling you what to do, guiding your actions. Remember the old cartoons you used to watch as a kid? One thing that comes up in lots of the old cartoons is to have the little angel standing on one shoulder and the little demon on the other. The angel says to do the right thing, while the little demon suggests doing something bad, or not doing the right thing. It's the same concept. The guiding spirit.
So Aristotle speaks of the EU-daimon, the GOOD guiding spirit. What is that ultimate good for human beings that should be pursued as good for its own sake, the inherently good thing that if obtained is good in and of itself, and is not instrumental toward accomplishing something else?
There must be something. There MUST be. After all, how else could we possibly make decisions? We must have a reason for the decisions we make. We have GOALS. We have reasons for those goals. What are those reasons?
For instance, we work. Why do we work? To make money. (I am speaking in very simple terms deliberately. We work for more complicated reasons, obviously.) Why do we want to make money? To buy stuff? What stuff? Food, clothing, shelter. Why do we want that stuff? To survive. Why do we want to survive?
Oh - now THAT is an interesting question. Why is survival a goal of yours? Can you answer that question? That's kind of like asking you to describe the definition of the word "the" isn't it? Have you ever thought about why you want to survive? Perhaps your answer is that you are driven by instincts to survive, just like any other animal.
Really? Is that the best answer we can come up with? We just want to survive because we are driven by instinct like an animal? We're just animals and we don't have any reason for anything? But aren't we MORE than that? Is survival, mere survival good enough for you? Have you ever in your life been satisfied with mere survival? Is anyone?
This is what distinguishes humans from mere animals. Mere survival is NOT enough. True, we are driven to survive and don't want to die. Death makes everyone afraid. But we aren't content to merely survive. If we were, we wouldn't feel sorry for folks who eek out an existence in Africa in the jungle, wandering the earth wondering where their next meal will come from. If survival were the highest good, why would we waste time pursuing other ends?
We are not animals. Animals are content with mere survival. When did an animal ever complain about the size of their nest? Birds build their own nests and can build them as big as they want. But they build them just big enough for their babies and no more. All animals behave this way. Animals do not crave luxuries as we do. Animals do not crave power over others like we do.
So what distinguishes us from animals?
Human beings alone are made in the image of God.
We were created for a higher purpose than mere survival. We were created to bear the image of God.
We toss this phrase around, but we often don't think about what it means. "Yes, yes, we're made in the image of God. Now let's move on."
But what is an image? Suppose I took a picture of you with my camera. When I show it to you, you notice that it doesn't really look like you. Your face is distorted, the colors are all wrong, and the picture is badly pixelated. What would you say? Would you say that that picture was a "good" picture? Would you say that the camera served its purpose well? Of course not. You'd say that the picture was worthless, and probably the camera too. "But no," I'd say, "this is a very expensive camera!" Then you'd conclude that I've got the settings all wrong, and adjustments would be necessary. In any event, the offending picture would be summarily deleted. No one would question THAT decision.
The picture of you that doesn't look like you is worthless. What is the proper reaction to such a picture? To delete it from the camera.
You are a picture of God. THAT is what it means to be created in the image of God. You are a picture in God's digital camera.
Do you or do you not look like God? If you look like him, and it shows him in a good light and the picture is flattering and captures a pleasant memory, he will be pleased with the picture and frame it and put it on the wall in his house. If you do not look like God, he will simply press the delete button. It's all quite simple really.
So then, what is the highest good for a human being? Simple. You're a picture of God. The highest good is to accurately capture him in a good light. The highest good is to look like God. The goal is for people to look at you and be impressed with God.
Think of how expressive pictures can be. Think of how it sends a message about the subject of a photograph.
I don't know if you have children, but if you do, what goes through your mind when you're about to show someone pictures of your children? Which picture do you choose to show them?
Will you show them a picture of your children fighting with each other, or screaming at the top of their lungs, throwing a temper tantrum? Probably not - unless of course you WANT people to think your child is a spawn of Satan, in which case you're most likely seeking pity. More likely, you'll show them a picture you managed to get of your children smiling, playing happily, sitting properly in a carefully staged pose. Why? Because you want to send a message about your children: they are happy, they are well behaved, they are beautiful. This is the impression you want to give people of your children.
The picture of your children SAYS something about your children. You are saying, "This is what my children are like."
YOU are a picture of God. Everything you say and do is YOU saying, "This is what God is like."
So what is the highest good for image bearers? To be accurate pictures of God, first of all. But also to say the right thing about God.
When you sin, you are portraying God inaccurately, because God cannot sin. Sin is defined as that which is out of step with God's own character. For instance, the bible says that God cannot lie. And this only makes sense. After all, we're talking about the very God who spoke the universe into existence. Even if he could somehow utter an untrue statement, his act of saying it would CAUSE it to BECOME true! This is why he cannot lie. It's a logical impossibility. But it's also contrary to his character because he IS truth. Lies are antithetical to his very nature. Thus when we lie, we do not look like God. Instead, we are a distorted picture of him, worthy only of deletion.
So our highest good is to look like God. And when we look like God, we necessarily show him in a flattering light, and this pleases him, just as a good picture of you pleases YOU. This brings glory to him. It shows him to be glorious.
This is why Presbyterians have been confessing for hundreds of years that the "chief end [or goal] of man", which is to say, in Aristotle's terms, "eudaimonia", is to "glorify God and to enjoy him forever". To show God's glory by being an accurate picture of him by ACTING like him is the highest good.
But this not only pleases God, it also pleases us. We don't just confess that we believe glorifying God is the main goal of human beings. We also add that enjoying him forever is our goal. That is to say, our goal is to enjoy that we are glorifying him. Glorifying God is what will bring us ultimate satisfaction. This is, after all, our purpose as image bearers.
Imagine that picture of you were alive and had consciousness. What would make the picture of you happy? If it were an ugly, distorted, pixelated, inaccurate picture of you that made you angry and frustrated and ready to push the delete button and possibly throw the camera away - would that picture be happy about that? I doubt it - unless that picture had some suicidal death wish. It makes much more sense to think of that picture as wanting to be the best picture it can be, doesn't it? It doesn't want to be the picture that just gets deleted, but the picture that causes everyone to gasp at its beauty, to frame it and put it on the wall and gaze at it for hours. This is the goal I imagine a picture would have if it were conscious and alive.
But we sinners are like a picture that WANTS to be ugly and distorted. We WANT to be a picture that gets deleted. We WANT to be as ugly and as distorted as possible, because we want to increase our chances of being deleted.
This is the folly and madness of sin. It makes literally no sense. To pursue sin is to pursue the opposite of the ultimate good. It doesn't make God happy, and it doesn't make us happy. It doesn't satisfy.
If you aren't pursuing looking like God, there is no possibility of satisfaction. There is no possibility of happiness.
"Charm is deceitful, and beauty fades away."
"Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough?" "Just a little more."
"The eye is never full of seeing."
Ask an alcoholic how much alcohol will satisfy him. There is no end to it. He drinks until he runs out of alcohol or passes out. And when he wakes up, he must drink again. There is no point when he says, "Ahhhh. Now I've had enough."
Magic Johnson was said to have slept with something like 10,000 women. Or I may be getting him confused with Gene Simmons. Whatever - ask the sex addict if they've ever been satisfied. Or ask the porn addict if he has ever found the perfect picture of the perfect woman. Every porn addict I've ever known looks at thousands of pictures. Those who pursue power can never have enough. Every man who has ever been President of the United States, arguably the most powerful position that has ever existed for any man, has always sought to INCREASE the amount of power the President wields. This is a well known reality to political scientists.
Satisfaction is only found in pursuing the highest end: looking like God. This brings glory to God. Whether you pursue the glory of God as the highest end, or your own satisfaction as the highest end BY pursuing the glory of God is of course a matter of debate for theologians. But you cannot have one without the other. To glorify God IS to be satisfied, and to be satisfied is to glorify God. If you want to be satisfied, glorify God. Why? Because glorifying God is inherently good, because he is your God, and that is what he made you FOR, that is your purpose. Serving him is inherently good.
"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done."
Work is clearly, very clearly and very obviously important in the Bible. In the very beginning of the Bible, we are told that God himself works, and that we are made in his image. In fact, it wouldn't be an outrageous thing to say if we said that working is the single, most basic, most fundamental thing we can do to look like God, to reflect him, to manifest what it means to be made in his image - which we are also told right there in the beginning.
Think about it. In the very first chapter of the Bible, we're told that God created all things, that he created us in his image, and that he WORKS. The most obvious take away from this is that we are to WORK.
However, being the foolish sinners that we are, we manage to get confused even about something so painfully obvious as this.
There is a problem inherent in the doctrine of vocation. It's actually a pretty significant and glaring problem, but it's also so painfully obvious that it's often a matter of failing to see the forest because you're too focused on examining the veins in a single leaf.
The problem with the doctrine of vocation is that it is formulated and articulated by theologians - most of whom have never experienced what it is to NOT be a minister for a living.
Now don't get me wrong. There have been many ministers - and still are many ministers - who have had jobs at various times of their lives. But they even have a special name for this: tent-making. By this they mean that this job has a very specific purpose: it is a means to an end. Its only value is in enabling their ministry.
Work has its own inherent value. When we work, we image God. We manifest God. We LOOK LIKE God. God's work in creation was to impose order on chaos. When we work, we do the very same thing. We impose God-glorifying order on chaos, taking dominion over the creation.
In order to clarify all of this, we need to make several distinctions.
1. General Revelation vs. Special Revelation
Special Revelation is today equated with the Word of God. The Word of God, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testament = the totality of Special Revelation available to us today.
There were other times in redemptive history when Special Revelation came in other forms. Prophecies, miracles, tongues, etc. When God had something new to say to his people that was above and beyond what he had revealed before, then he bore witness to it with signs and miracles, so that we would know that it really DID come from God.
For example, when God wanted to set Israel apart for himself and turn a bunch of slaves into an independent nation, what set that apart from just a popular slave revolt?
It was the 10 plagues on Egypt, of course, culminating with the crossing of the Red Sea, in which Pharaoh and his army drowned. Why did God do that? So that no one could ever say, "This was ONLY a slave revolt. This was just about political power. This didn't actually come from God. Moses was just a populist leader who wanted power for himself." I think we all know that if the plagues hadn't happened, that'd definitely be easy to say.
But since the miracles happened, it's impossible to say that this was about political power. The slaves didn't just overthrow the Pharaoh. They didn't stay in Egypt. They never fought a battle. The Israelite slaves were quite passive in the whole affair. In fact, God dragged them kicking and screaming the entire time.
It is further illustrated by the woman whose son was raised from the dead by God working through Elijah. After her son was raised, she said, "Now I know the word in your mouth is from God." That's the point. That's why God does it.
So the New Testament that we currently have was attested by signs and miracles. The fact that salvation extended to the Gentiles had a new and special miracle, in which the people of God began to prophesy, uttering God's special revelation, in different tongues - namely tongues/languages OTHER than Hebrew, the holy language of the holy people in which the Old Testament was written. Special Revelation itself was taking on new languages and doing so miraculously. The point was that the Jews no longer had a monopoly on God - salvation belongs to the Gentiles now too.
But now that the New Testament is completed, there is no more need for these miracles. We need only to preach the Word - which has already been proven to be God's Word through the miracles performed at that time - and that will be the only proof we need that what we say comes from God.
So that's Special Revelation. Now what's General Revelation? General Revelation is how God reveals (that's why it's called revelation) himself in the creation. You look up at the sky at night and see all the stars and you marvel at the vastness of the universe. What's next? To marvel at the God who created it all. That's the purpose of it in fact - for you to marvel at God. It's to make you understand a bit about what God is like. You're supposed to hear scientists say that they have found a star 14 billion light years away and say, "Wow, the universe is HUGE, so huge I can't even comprehend it!" And if that's true, how much more is it necessarily true of the God who spoke and the universe came into existence?
2. Common Grace vs. Special Grace
Special Grace is what we typically think of when we think of grace. This is the grace according to which God forgives our sins. Of course, it's more complicated than that. God forgives our sins because Jesus paid for them on the cross. The price Jesus paid for our sins is infinite, so this could have worked whether it saved one sinner or 100 billion sinners. It's by God's grace alone that we are counted among the number of those whose sins are covered by the shed blood of Jesus.
So what IS grace exactly? In a nutshell, it's not getting what you deserve. We deserve eternal death in hell forever. We deserve condemnation. But that's not what we get. Rather than us, Christ was condemned. He is the one who died in our place. So we don't go to hell, we go to heaven to be with the Lord. It's according to grace that we don't get justice for our sins, but rather we get mercy. Jesus satisfied justice on our behalf.
So according to special grace, we are redeemed. So what's common grace then? Go back to the garden of Eden. What SHOULD have happened after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit? God SHOULD have put them both to death on the spot. "In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." They both deserved death for their disobedience to God. But they didn't get that. Instead, they got to live.
But it wasn't just Adam and Eve that got to live. All of their descendents got to live too, even though none of us should have been allowed to - because Adam and Eve should have been put to death. Had God put Adam and Eve to death as justice required, none of us would have gotten an opportunity to be born. None of us would have ever existed.
This is common grace. According to common grace, the descendents of Adam and Eve get to live - whether they hope in Christ and are recipients of Special Grace or not. Not only do we get to live, but we get to enjoy the goodness of God's creation. "The rain falls on the just and the unjust."
That everyone got to live is only because Jesus would come to die for the sake of the elect - his people. So it is the case that the reprobate (the non-elect) are given the opportunity to live thanks to the cross. If not for the cross, none of us would even have been born. This is why Paul says that Jesus is "the savior of the world, especially of those who believe". Savior here does not have a special grace connotation, but a common grace one.
It is according to common grace that all people enjoy life and the benefits of working and making a living. Cities and police forces and fire protection - these are the fruits of common grace. That we live in relative peace and safety is the fruit of common grace. Of course, common grace doesn't descend upon all in equal measure. Some are born in poverty in a shanty town in some third world nation, while others are born into wealth in a prosperous nation.
However much one is affected by common grace, according to the general principle of common grace, sin is restrained in the world, and the negative consequences of sin are restrained. Everything, literally everything could be much worse than it is. That it is not is thanks to the Holy Spirit's restraining work in the world to restrain evil. Even the hardest criminals draw the line somewhere. Everyone has a conscience, even if it speaks much less loudly in the hearts of some. And it's generally true that though we're all wicked sinners, most of the time we try to do the right thing, or at least avoid certain bad things. People aren't murdered VERY often, most people pay for items they put in their shopping cart, as opposed to just stealing it, etc.
3. Common Realm vs Redemptive Realm
Since there is common grace and special grace, it follows that Jesus, the true King of creation, rules over two realms. One is ruled according to common grace, and one is ruled according to special grace.
The kingdom which Jesus rules over by special grace may be termed the Redemptive Realm, and the kingdom over which he rules by common grace may be termed the Common Realm. Both are made possible by the cross.
However, Christ rules over these two realms here on earth very differently. In the Common Realm, the civil authorities - whoever they may be - are ministers of God's justice. Their call is to punish wrong doing (e.g., execute murderers) and ensure good is being done to the extent reasonable, (e.g., organize provision for widows and orphans, etc.) In the Common Realm, it must be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Justice must be upheld in the Common Realm.
In the Redemptive Realm, it's NOT about justice, but about mercy. The church is NOT called to punish wrong doing - which is why penance is not biblical. The church is called to forgive wrong doing: over and over and over and over and over again. As long as someone repents, they can and should be restored. Even excommunication, evicting someone from the church, is not a punishment, but a declaration meant to shame the sinner into repentance. The idea is still to get them to repent and be restored.
Which realm do we live and work in?
We, as believers, live and work in both. We have one foot in each. This is why we tend to get confused. For instance, when someone at work is a "nice" person but fails to do their work accurately or on time, we tend to confuse the workplace with church, and since at church we would forgive them, we think we should at work too. Not so. At work, we should uphold justice because we are operating in the common realm. If you can't do the work for which you are paid, you get fired. It's justice. However, in the church, you treat people very differently, forgiving them as often as they repent.
On the other hand, some people confuse the church with the workplace and only invite the financially successful businessmen of the congregation to become elders, or they insist on seeing lots of experience on a pastor's resume before wanting to call him as their pastor. And so, young seminary graduates with a ton of debt from school are forced to take a call to some dinky church with 3 stubborn families clinging to their church because they'd never accept that they should close the doors, and they offer the poor guy 30k a year, and then tell his wife she's not a good mother when she gets a part time job and sends her kids to public school. Awesome! Two thumbs way up!
4. Three ways to sin: thought, word, deed
Jesus said that it was adultery just to lust after another woman in your heart. (Notice he doesn't say this can only be said of married men. I'm not sure why, but some people seem to be under the impression that adultery can only be committed by married people. That's nonsense.) So sin can take place in thoughts only.
And of course, sin can also be a matter of words, as the book of James so eloquently points out, saying that no one can tame the tongue. The imagery is of a forest fire, and the fire is connected with hell itself. So clearly you can sin with your speech.
And obviously, you can also sin by committing deeds. If you shoot someone at random, you have committed murder.
So there are three ways to sin: by doing something, by saying something or by just thinking something, even if those thoughts are not fully formed, but are just pure desires for evil.
And when we sin, we are expressing something. We are expressing our sinful nature. We are expressing our sinful desires. We manifest our rebellion toward God.
Conversely, then, we who are redeemed are not ONLY sinners, we are not ONLY in rebellion toward God. We can express his righteousness, even if it is in type and shadow, or like looking through a very dirty window, because our righteousness is as filthy rags. Nonetheless, the righteousness that we express is REAL righteousness, even if it pales in comparison to the perfection of Christ's righteousness. And this is true because it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in us.
So then, there are three ways to express the righteousness of Christ who is at work in us: thought, word and deed.
We can do good works (such as going to church), we can say good things (such as singing hymns to God) and we can think good thoughts (such as desiring to sin less and grow in God's righteousness).
However, as James says, we SHOW our faith through good works. Our good works are a living, breathing confession of faith. Our good works confess our faith. And they do so in a much more meaningful and profound way than when our confession consists merely of thoughts and words.
And this only makes sense. It's far more meaningful if I actually strangle my boss to death than if I only joke about doing so with my coworkers or fantasize about doing so in my dreams at night. Not that I ever...never mind. The point is, we all know that actually DOING it means a whole lot more than just words or the private thoughts of the heart. As Jesus said, by their fruit you shall know them, and by fruit, he meant their deeds (as well as the results of their deeds and speech, but you get the point).
So if we in our workplace merely SAY that we have a hope of heaven, for instance, that is of some value. However, if we are treated unjustly, are underpaid, and can't seem to get ahead - yet still come to work every day on time, put in a full day's work, pouring our heart and soul into doing the best job we possible can consistently - that witness is far more powerful than mere words. That proves we REALLY believe it. We aren't placing our hopes here in this life, but in the life to come. This is why the Bible says, "Slaves, obey your masters." Such obedience is confessing your hope of heaven with your deeds, and this testimony is powerful indeed.
But so far we have only been speaking of confessing our faith in Special Revelation in our deeds.
Work = confessing our faith in General Revelation in the context of the Common Realm through our deeds.
Sure, you can confess your hope in heaven by working as a slave even when treated unjustly. But what if you aren't a slave? What if you aren't treated unjustly at work? You can still confess that you know what it means to be a human being made in the image of God by simply working to the best of your ability.
The Bible says that when you work, remember that you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And by calling him Christ, it really means King. After all, Christ is just the Greek word for Messiah, which just means anointed one, which is to say the one God has chosen to be king. Think of Samuel going through each of the 7 sons of Jesse before finally anointing David to be king over Israel. Jesus is the anointed one, the one anointed with the Holy Spirit beyond measure, the one who is king forever, God and man in one person (but two distinct natures).
Christ is your ultimate King. And he rules over both realms - the Common and the Redemptive. You bear witness to the glory of God just by being a faithful image bearer, by faithfully imposing order on chaos, just as God did in the beginning. To work, to produce, to do, to be a productive contributor to society is to contribute to the benefits of common grace, and to look like God in the midst of a dying world.
Working, therefore, is like preaching a sermon. On Sundays, pastors stand up in the gathered assembly of the people of the Redemptive Realm and they speak a Word on behalf of the King.
Then Monday through Friday, the people of the pews also go out and work, and their work is likewise a confession of what they believe it means to be a human made in the image of God.
Because it is the Common Realm governed by Common Grace - ANYONE, whether believer or not, can express the image of God! Unbelievers may also do very consistently good work. When they do, it brings glory to God. They are expressing godliness. They are showing what God is like. Now, they may be doing it out of selfish ambition, often to make more money. But what did Paul say about those who preach the gospel out of selfish ambition? What do I care? As long as the gospel is preached!
Simply WORKING is good! There is real value in contributing to the Common Realm. Without the Common Realm, there can BE no Redemptive Realm. The Common Realm exists because God didn't put Adam and Eve to death. God's desire to redeem his people necessitated the Common Realm. Without the Common Realm, there could BE no Redemptive Realm.
And yet, many in the church fail to grasp this. To the most vocal in the church, a job is just an opportunity for evangelism. That is its inherent value. You're not there to do a good job, you're there to talk to people about Jesus.
But what if you didn't measure your job performance according to how many times you made people uncomfortable with your self righteous words, but instead measured it with how much chaos you imposed order on? What if you measured your job performance according to how productive you were? What if you recognized that consistently doing the best work you can every day is not just A way available to you as an option by which you can glorify God, but is THE PRIMARY way that God calls us to glorify him?
What if, instead of feeling guilty about not doing a short term missions trip this summer because we had to work, what if instead we just worked really hard and did our best day in and day out? And what if this meant that we were successful in our careers and that it allowed us to put a healthy amount of money in the offering plate?
And what if we stopped obsessing over what KIND of work we did and just got down to doing the BEST work we're capable of, regardless of what job we find ourselves doing?
Then the light of the glory of God would shine through us - just as much as it does through the capable minister preaching a sermon.
"The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing..." Prov 13:4
"Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing." Prov 20:4
"The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work." Prov 21:5
"How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?" Prov 6:9
Laziness is sinful.
Laziness is an affront to God.
To refuse to work is to refuse to obey God.
So of course, our natural inclination is to be lazy. And when you're lazy, what reaction do you have when your boss asks you to do something? What emotions fill you?
Fear.
When you don't want to work, you squirm at the thought of working. It frightens you to think someone might force you to work because it makes you think that you'll have to let go of your laziness, your sloth.
Laziness becomes an addiction, just like any other drug or any other sin. It takes over your life and becomes your god. You become like a child with a security blanket, who panics when they are not clutching it. The idea of letting go of your sin produces fear. That is the measure of the strength of your desire.
You can see people whose desires aren't being fulfilled and the panic that results on HGTV, the Home & Garden channel. My wife and I like to watch shows where their house is getting renovated, and there's a certain budget. You can see the obvious fear response they have when the inevitable news of some structural problem needing to be fixed means that they're not going to get something they want.
At first glance, it looks like anger and outrage, but it's just fear. "It has always been my dream to have a big kitchen, and you're telling me I can't have it???!!!" It's crazy how shameless they are about lashing out to a stranger who's helping them in front of millions of people who will eventually watch the show. But they don't care about that anymore.
All they care about is getting what they want, because they're just as sure as sure can be that they deserve it. And as I've written elsewhere, they need to get what they think they deserve because this is how they justify their very lives.
Thank you, God, for the hope of heaven, so that I don't need to justify my existence with a big house, a big SUV, or whatever else my sinful heart has convinced me I deserve simply for being so "great". The deceitfulness of sin knows no bounds.
For those who are lazy, for sluggards, they don't think they deserve to work. They deserve to be waited on. They deserve a paycheck because they're awesome, not because they've earned it by DOING things. They think they deserve it for who they ARE, not for what they DO.
Consider the poor man's resentment of rich CEOs, for example. What does a poor man think a CEO does all day? He thinks he puts his feet up, smokes cuban cigars, practices his putting on his putting green, has an affair with his super hot secretary, buys his wife fur coats so she won't be mad about it, and basically just "tells people what to do all day". They don't work, they just take whatever they want. They haven't earned this position either, they just "got lucky" and were perhaps born into wealth.
But anyone with half a brain knows this job doesn't actually exist. Men who become CEOs that get paid millions of dollars a year don't get there through luck, but through sacrificing everything for it, by being obsessed with work. This is something that lazy people can't possibly understand. They think they deserve that life, and the reason they don't have it is because they got unlucky or someone is oppressing them.
And so, they respond with anger, bitterness and resentment. But the root of it is fear. And the panic can be seen when a lazy person is tasked with something at work. And this is true of all of us by nature.
When people get overwhelmed at work, why do they get overwhelmed? It's because they feel like they'll NEVER get done with all the work, and they panic. They panic because they're afraid that there will always be work for them to do. They want to rest. They don't want to just keep working. A little folding of the hands. A little slumber. Just...a...quick...*yawn...nap...
When people feel overwhelmed, they're afraid. It's a mountain of work that causes them to react that way. That's not, of course, everything that can be said about it. Sometimes there's unjust treatment at the hands of bosses that overwork their people, but that's a separate issue.
I know about the fear of overwhelmed people, because I work in a place where everyone is hopelessly overtasked, and thus they regularly show signs of feeling overwhelmed. And one of the things I love most about my job is sweeping into a situation like that and in a few minutes, making everything manageable and streamlined and providing direction and clarification and watching those feelings of fear wash away. I live that out several times a day.
And it makes me feel like a knight in shining armor, constantly rescuing damsels - or less capable knights - in distress.
It is as if they are a group of frightened villagers, cowering in fear on the ground in the fetal position before a vicious dragon who snaps and bites at them, and they're curled up in a ball, hoping he'll just go away.
But then along comes a hero, and he is not cowering in fear. It is not that he is not afraid - he is, for it is his nature too to view mountains of unending, overwhelming work as a vicious dragon - but he chooses to stare down his fears rather than hide from them. And refusing to be mastered by his fear, refusing to give in to it, his fear doesn't control him, and so his judgment is not as clouded as those who are curled on the ground cowering. And so he is able to see that the dragon is not as vicious as he at first appeared, and that he has a weakness that can be exploited. And grasping the sword of truth in his hand, protected by wisdom like armor, he strikes at the beast, who for the first time itself is cowed, yelping in pain, and falling down before the hero's feet like a tame little lap dog, yearning for its masters affection.
And slowly the cowering villagers realize that the beast has departed, and they look around - and that's when they see him. A hero, clothed in wisdom, a gleaming truth in his hand, crowned with understanding, radiating the glory of God in whose likeness he now clearly shines. And for what is perhaps the first time in their lives they understand what it is to be a man. Christ shines through the hero, and he is glorious indeed.
And the people arise and applaud the hero, and he leads them. One to feed their new pet, one to clothe it, one to build its bed, another to get water for it. Suddenly the dragon has become the family pet, and harmony results.
Here is the mission of the man of God in the work place.
We who have walked away from the ministry may have thought of ourselves in such terms, had we dared to imagine it, though we would never admit it to anyone. But you know, you can still be that man made in the image of God. You can still look like God to a dying world. You can still radiate the glory of Christ, you can still make him attractive.
And when they ask you the source of your courage, you can tell them that Christ died for you, and you have a hope in heaven, and therefore you can face your fears and work hard to his glory, crowned with his wisdom, his truth your weapon against the forces of darkness and chaos.
And they can still marvel at Christ in you, even if you aren't in the pulpit.
For you see, there are two realms. There is the common realm and the redemptive realm.
The redemptive realm is the church. This is where Christ is redeeming his people. The church must be governed according to mercy and grace. The moment someone repents, they are forgiven. Even excommunication's purpose is to shame sinners into repenting.
But the common realm is different. It is governed according to justice. Misbehavior has consequences. If you're lazy and unproductive, you get fired. The workplace is not a charity. It's not a place for endless mercy. Show mercy if you want, but always be just. Don't play favorites. Fire those who don't meet the standard. Fire those who produce more excuses than widgets.
I recently wrote of a disappointing new hire where I work. If we're talking about the church, she can be forgiven endlessly. And if she's out of work, I'm happy to give money to the deacons to provide for her.
But that's the redemptive realm. I don't work in the redemptive realm - NOT ANYMORE. Now I work in the common realm. Justice says that if you're drawing a paycheck, it must be earned. Why should a business be forced into being a charity? The business is not the church.
You can slay monsters in the common realm to the glory of God too. The monsters are just somewhat different. You're not helping people manage their sin problems, or helping them to understand the Scriptures. Instead, you're helping them to manage their workload, to face their fears of working hard, to help them work smarter not harder, and to crush the forces of chaos wherever they rear their ugly heads.
You can glorify God every bit as much in one realm as in the other. God rules over both. Service to God in the one realm is not inherently greater than service in the other. Why?
Because you inhabit BOTH. In YOU, the two realms come together.
You have one foot in this world, and one foot in the age to come. You have one foot in this present age of darkness and one foot in the eschaton of glory.
And when you shine with the glory of God, having vanquished the forces of chaos and fear and deception with the light of truth, it is the light of the glory of the age to come and of the risen Christ that shines forth through you.
And it doesn't matter if you do that in the pulpit or from behind a computer screen or in a meeting. Either way you bring a little bit of the light of the glory of God into this present darkness, and with this God is well pleased.
Moses had to wear a veil, but you don't.
You have left the pulpit - but God has released you to shine your light elsewhere. Fine - you don't shine your light in that way anymore. There are other ways to be a lightbringer. There are other ways to reflect his glory. And that is your true purpose, man of God.
God never promised you that you could be a minister. But he DID promise that if you confess him before men - whether by word or whether by deed is of no consequence - he will confess you before his Father.
So confess him in the common realm by not shrinking back in fear from hard work, knowing that you don't deserve anything from the Lord but eternal damnation and destruction, and that anything else has been earned by Christ, who alone and exclusively makes you worthy of taking your next breath.
For the common grace that infuses the common realm also springs from the cross for the sake of the elect of whom you are part.
Go - be a hero, be a common realm dragon slayer to the glory of God.
