WORK LEGALISM
I got this e-mail from our church's WorkLife ministry. It was written by Dr. David Scott of HisChurchatWork.org and I thought it was pretty good.
My brother Larry works as a financial planner. He is a committed Christian, is actively involved in his church, and ministers to his clients as opportunities present themselves. Larry and I were discussing how individuals like him who are not in "ministry" often still question the worth of their jobs in the kingdom of God even though they are otherwise deeply committed to Christ and his cause.
Larry made a very perceptive comment. He observed that one of the reasons that we are constantly searching for quantification of the worth of our work is our flesh's natural bent toward legalism. Legalism is the need to measure our spiritual value in terms of things that we can check off. The people in Jesus’ day ranked themselves based on their adherence to the letter of the law. By this standard the Pharisees were "super spiritual." The common folk, on the other hand, were resigned to the role of acquiescent "wanna-be's." Their legalism said that only Pharisees were in a position to cut it spiritually. At best, your everyday Israelite had to be content with second-class status. The realities of their daily economic struggle for survival limited their ability to keep the letter of the law.
We do the same thing. Our version of Pharisaical legalism says that my job only counts spiritually if it can be quantified in ministry results. A carpenter's day of sweating over the workbench working unto his loving Heavenly Father does not qualify. It is not countable in terms of souls saved, ministry done. It does not check off the right boxes.
It is as if our value system were saying to Jesus, "Too bad Jesus that the first thirty years of your life was a waste. Thank goodness that you saw the light at age thirty and finally 'surrendered' to the ministry." In case you did not notice, that is the voice of legalism speaking. Unfortunately, it is a voice native to the fallen flesh we all carry in these mortal bodies of ours.
There is one antidote to this all-too-familiar line of flawed thinking. Its name is grace. Grace is the truth that I am valued no matter what I do. My worth is not established by any measure of my actions. My career can never make God love me any more or any less than He already does. Legalism is something we strive in, but grace is a radical reality that we live in. Grace is a critical foundation of a Christian work life.
That is exactly what Paul wrote to the working Christians in Ephesians 2:8-10:
My brother Larry works as a financial planner. He is a committed Christian, is actively involved in his church, and ministers to his clients as opportunities present themselves. Larry and I were discussing how individuals like him who are not in "ministry" often still question the worth of their jobs in the kingdom of God even though they are otherwise deeply committed to Christ and his cause.
Larry made a very perceptive comment. He observed that one of the reasons that we are constantly searching for quantification of the worth of our work is our flesh's natural bent toward legalism. Legalism is the need to measure our spiritual value in terms of things that we can check off. The people in Jesus’ day ranked themselves based on their adherence to the letter of the law. By this standard the Pharisees were "super spiritual." The common folk, on the other hand, were resigned to the role of acquiescent "wanna-be's." Their legalism said that only Pharisees were in a position to cut it spiritually. At best, your everyday Israelite had to be content with second-class status. The realities of their daily economic struggle for survival limited their ability to keep the letter of the law.
We do the same thing. Our version of Pharisaical legalism says that my job only counts spiritually if it can be quantified in ministry results. A carpenter's day of sweating over the workbench working unto his loving Heavenly Father does not qualify. It is not countable in terms of souls saved, ministry done. It does not check off the right boxes.
It is as if our value system were saying to Jesus, "Too bad Jesus that the first thirty years of your life was a waste. Thank goodness that you saw the light at age thirty and finally 'surrendered' to the ministry." In case you did not notice, that is the voice of legalism speaking. Unfortunately, it is a voice native to the fallen flesh we all carry in these mortal bodies of ours.
There is one antidote to this all-too-familiar line of flawed thinking. Its name is grace. Grace is the truth that I am valued no matter what I do. My worth is not established by any measure of my actions. My career can never make God love me any more or any less than He already does. Legalism is something we strive in, but grace is a radical reality that we live in. Grace is a critical foundation of a Christian work life.
That is exactly what Paul wrote to the working Christians in Ephesians 2:8-10:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We were not saved so that we could then go out and prove ourselves worthy. Instead, we were saved and given the gift of worthiness by grace so that we would be freed to fulfill the workmanship that God intended all along. Our work has nothing to prove. We work under grace. Our work is good not because of what it does, but because of who designed it. My competencies are God’s workmanship in me. He wants me to use them. He expects me to "walk in them." Doing that is a "good" even if it does not fit into our warped legalistic preconceptions of spiritual significance. That last thing He had in mind giving them to me was to put me under a guilt trip. Larry is right; grace - not legalism - should define our work.
We were not saved so that we could then go out and prove ourselves worthy. Instead, we were saved and given the gift of worthiness by grace so that we would be freed to fulfill the workmanship that God intended all along. Our work has nothing to prove. We work under grace. Our work is good not because of what it does, but because of who designed it. My competencies are God’s workmanship in me. He wants me to use them. He expects me to "walk in them." Doing that is a "good" even if it does not fit into our warped legalistic preconceptions of spiritual significance. That last thing He had in mind giving them to me was to put me under a guilt trip. Larry is right; grace - not legalism - should define our work.
posted by BAS at 10:16 PM
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