A friend who serves another church recently told me about some folk who have decided to break fellowship with that church because he was not taking a public stand on the upcoming election here in Michigan. Because he did not publicly advocate for a particular issue on the ballot, they were choosing to break fellowship with that church. I was recently asked why we as a church do not take public stands on various public issues. The reason has to do with the mission Jesus has given us. Let me explain.

In the ancient Roman world most butcher shops were connected to various temples. An animal would be offered in sacrifice and much of its meat would be sold to the public. It was a bit of a “win-win” situation as various temples were supported and the general public could obtain meat. Only in large cities with a large Jewish population could meat be purchased from a “kosher” butcher shop, one where meat had not been offered to an idol. Few cities had these.

Human history has been one of idolatry. Ever since Adam chose to elevate himself above God in the garden, humanity has been worshiping various gods they have invented. Faithfulness to the one true God requires rejecting all other gods. While we live in a pluralistic world, the believer in Jesus must not be pluralistic. There is only one God and his name is Jesus. We cannot elevate anything or anyone above Jesus, nor can we worship anything or anyone alongside Jesus.

Because early Christians were so eager to avoid idolatry, they were concerned with the issue of eating meat. Remember, most Christians throughout the empire only had access to a butcher shop connected to a temple, which means if they were to eat a juicy ribeye, they knew it had earlier been offered in sacrifice to, say, Zeus. It was such a significant issue in the first century the church in Corinth wrote a letter to the apostle Paul with questions about it.

Paul responded with the letter we know as 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul is clear: an idol has no real existence, therefore meat in the shop was offered to nothing. Since the entire world actually belongs to the Lord, eat the meat. It is a good gift from God himself.

It’s not hard to imagine, though, that in the church in Corinth were new believers who were saved out of this very idolatry. Being new Christians and being immature in faith and remembering that they themselves had recently offered sacrifices to various idols, their consciences were wounded when they saw fellow believers eating meat. In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul tells the church that if this were the case, it’s better to not eat meat for the sake of your brother or sister in Christ. He writes this instruction:

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

1 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

It is very interesting that Paul doesn’t merely say meat was allowable. He says it is a right that belongs to followers of Jesus. However! Having a right does not mean one must exercise the right. He goes on to explain that a brother or sister in Christ—“the brother for whom Christ died”!—is far more valuable than meat. If eating meat offends your brother in Christ then you must reject it. Such an offense is not merely a strong dislike for a thing on the part of the other, but a genuine crisis of faith. The immature believer who is offended cannot see past the connection to idolatry and so questions his or her own faith. That’s what Paul means. Give up your right for such a brother or sister.

Then in 1 Corinthians 9 Paul seems to change topics. He explains how he, as an apostle, did not exercise his rights as an apostle. Like the other apostles he had a right to make a living from the churches he planted and served, even to the point of getting married and having a family. That would require even greater compensation as having a family significantly increases one’s expenses. Paul says he gave up that right because he believed it was better for the churches he served to see his example of selflessness so he earned a living at a regular job when he could. Rather than being a digression, Paul is explaining that personal rights do not trump the mission of God. God’s mission is greater than personal liberty. In chapter 10 he encourages the church to exercise the same concern for the mission of God when it comes to meat offered to idols. He writes this:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 ESV

Here Paul explains the reason for bringing up his own surrendering of rights. Merely having a freedom does not require the exercise of that freedom. The truth is we often forget the real purpose of freedom is to serve God and to serve others. He expresses their freedom by telling them to eat “whatever” is sold in the meat market. Go ahead, buy that meat. Throw it on the grill. Enjoy it! He emphasizes that the whole earth belongs to the Lord and its blessings are given to us.

He says if an unbeliever invites you to dinner and you would like to go, go. Enjoy yourself. He says to eat whatever is served by that unbeliever “without raising any question on the ground of conscience”. He says to not ask where the meat was from, meaning whether it had been sacrificed to an idol. However! If your host tells you it had been offered in sacrifice you must not eat it. The meat had not suddenly changed. It was still, ultimately, the Lord’s meat, so why the sudden prohibition? Paul says to be like him in refusing to exercise your freedom and your rights. He says specifically to refuse to eat it for the sake of conscience—but not your own—that of the unbeliever who invited you.

In other words, Paul says a follower of Jesus can eat meat that had been offered to an idol in good conscience before the Lord, but for the sake of the unbeliever, he should give up his rights to eat that meat. The unbeliever may get the impression that you’re okay with a bit of idolatry or that you implicitly indicate that his worship of his god is on par with your worship of your God. Either way, the unbeliever’s conscience—his sense of right and wrong—is the guiding principle. When that person directly connects your consumption of meat with his idolatry—his, not your idolatry—you must reject it. Whether one eats the meat or rejects it, he or she must do so for the glory of God. Notice closely his reason: “not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved”.

Paul would gladly give up his rights, whether that meant the right to earn a living from the gospel or the right to eat meat, if it meant that many could hear the gospel and believe. To say this another way, Paul’s desire to engage in the mission of God was greater than his own rights. If giving up his rights meant opportunities for mission, Paul would gladly do it.

What’s interesting here is how he connects the conscience of others to his own rights. The believer in Christ can and should eat meat without concern for conscience. It is God’s blessing to you. But if God’s blessing becomes a stumbling block to the gospel, that blessing does not need to be enjoyed.

We don’t have this exact concern today. The closest we might come would be purchasing meat from a halal butcher shop in which all animals are slaughtered according to halal guidelines, which includes uttering the words “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful” as the animal is killed. Paul says such an animal is good for food and is right to eat and one may eat with a clean conscience, but if eating such an animal might create a barrier to preaching the gospel, we must reject that good and right thing.

To connect this to my friend who is criticized for not taking a public stand on certain ballot proposals, Paul says to make use of your rights in Christ, whether that freedom is eating meat or publicly endorsing certain candidates or pieces of legislation. However, when that specific right becomes associated with idolatry, you must refuse to exercise that right publicly. Remember, Paul said to eat the meat placed in front of you but if the person serving it tells you it was offered in sacrifice you must refuse the meat. This refusal is not for the sake of your own conscience, but for the other person’s conscience. If support for a party or candidate or piece of legislation is very tightly connected to partisan political idolatry, we must not exercise the right to address it publicly. The issue is not whether you make this connection, but whether others do. This is critical to understanding how a church ought to approach endorsing or opposing any particular piece of legislation.

My friend could, in good conscience, stand up and publicly announce his support for, or his opposition to any number of issues, for he could do so without participating in the partisan political idolatry we see in our country. His own conscience is not the guide, however. If anyone, whether a fellow brother or sister in Christ or even an unbeliever makes a direct connection between his particular stance and political idolatry, for the sake of the other person’s conscience, he must not do so.

It’s fine for him to vote his conscience on the matter. Meat, even when offered to an idol, is just meat and it comes from the Lord. When that meat, however, is too closely associated with idolatry, it just simply isn’t worth eating. As Christians who are citizens in this country, we can and should vote according to our conscience. We can and should encourage one another to participate in the freedoms we have. What we should not do as a church, however, is endorse or oppose specific pieces of legislation when that legislation is perceived by others to be partisan. Vote your conscience, of course, but your freedom does not need to be expressed publicly.

In our cultural moment, partisan politics is idolatrous. It is idolatry, through and through. Men and women may not bow down to Baal or Zeus, to Asherah or Artemis, but many gladly pledge their allegiance to a political party. They put partisanship above their faith, or more subtly, they equate partisanship with faith in Jesus. Many would, of course, deny this, but ask yourself this question: do you know or have you heard of people who have left a church over politics? There are many who have broken fellowship with a church because their particular partisan perspective is not being reinforced publicly by the church. Jesus prayed in John 17 for his followers to be united, yet many are willing to break that unity in order to have their political views affirmed. That is not what Jesus prayed for!

Are we free to vote? Yes, of course. Are we free to have loyalty to a political party? Yes, of course. Are we free to hold strong political views? Yes, of course. Are we free to break unity with fellow believers over politics? Absolutely not! The mission of Jesus ought to drive our understanding of political engagement, and that includes not speaking publicly in favor or in opposition to any particular legislation when it is perceived as partisan. Again, this is not for our conscience, but for that of other believers and even of unbelievers. If we publicly endorse legislation that is widely perceived to be partisan, we would be eating meat offered to an idol but we would also be in direct violation of the apostle’s command.

Our priority must be the mission of God. Think of what we saw in 1 Timothy 2 a couple weeks ago. Paul writes to Timothy “first of all” to urge him and the Ephesian church to pray for all people, including those who are in positions of authority and who make the very laws that affect us all, and the reason they must pray is the mission of God is to save all kinds of people. God’s mission is not limited to or even focused on this nation. It is for every tribe and every language and every people and every nation. Why would we ever allow local political concerns to prevent us from faithfully fulfilling his mission when all we need to give up is the public consumption of meat offered to idols?

Paul also wrote to the Christians in Rome about meat offered to idols. He wrote this in Romans 14:

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.

Romans 14:20–22a ESV

The faith that you have—that your conscience is clear concerning your political views—keep between yourself and God, when that freedom to hold your views is too closely associated with partisan idolatry. Paul isn’t saying you can’t “eat” in the privacy of your own home. He’s saying we do not need to broadcast our political views, our candidates of choice, our favored political party. The mission of God is more important than our right to express our opinions. We ought to be known as people who proclaim the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When making our political views known blurs this gospel by showing it through the lens of partisanship, we must deny our rights and keep Christ as our focus in our public discourse.

The next time you hear someone say that this election is the most important election ever, remind that person that the most important election ever took place before the foundation of the world when God in Christ chose to save many from their sins. And then go and live accordingly.

On Monday I was asked a very insightful question about Sunday’s sermon. In that sermon we saw that Paul urged Timothy and the Ephesian church to pray for all people without distinction. This includes praying for kings and all those in authority. This was a significant instruction from the apostle for Nero was the emperor at the time and he was known for his abhorrent, debauched, and cruel behavior, including toward Christians.

Paul gave the reason for praying for kings and all those in high positions: “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”. The question was this: does this peaceful life come because our prayers make a difference in how kings and those in high positions govern, or because the prayers for them change the hearts of those who pray, resulting in inner peace and quiet?

As with every sermon, much more could have been said about the text. To answer the question, let’s take a closer look at this particular verse (1 Timothy 1:2). Paul’s reason for Timothy and the Ephesians praying for all people is God desires to save all people. His eternal purpose in Christ is for every tribe and language and people and nation. In Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is no male or female” (Galatians 3:28).

The motivation for praying for all people is there is only one God and there is only one mediator between this one God and all humans, and that mediator is Jesus, who is God in human form. Because God desires to save and because Jesus has given himself as a ransom for every tribe and language and people and nation—all people without distinction—it is imperative that God’s people pray for all people.

Paul specifically includes kings and all who are in high positions. For the church to accomplish its mission of making disciples the church must have the necessary freedom to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. This is not an absolute requirement for the gospel is the very power of God (Romans 1:16) and therefore is not limited by laws prohibiting the proclamation of the Christian faith. Paul desires freedom of movement for himself as an apostle and he desires that same freedom for the church in Ephesus. Bear in mind that it was only a few years prior to his letter to Timothy that the city rioted on account of the gospel being preached in Acts 19.

When Paul instructs Timothy to pray for kings and those in high positions, he specifically indicates the reason: “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”. There are two parts to this. New Testament scholar George Knight helpfully points out the reason is two-fold: it is for both proximate and ultimate goals.

Prayers for civil authorities serve a very practical aim. Paul knew it was only the intervention of government authorities in Ephesus that enabled him to meet with the disciples in Ephesus after the riot in Acts 19. Those in high positions in Ephesus stopped the riot and granted Paul the freedom to meet with the believers before setting off for elsewhere. When Paul was in Corinth it was the Roman proconsul Gallio who prevented the Jews there from attacking Paul and therefore granted Paul the freedom to engage in ministry.

In a very real way, then, Paul urges prayers for government officials for this reason: that they would govern with fairness and justice and would allow Christians to go about their business of being the church and making disciples. That’s the proximate goal of praying: a peaceful and quiet life. The immediate impact would be freedom to follow Jesus and serve him. This freedom would be from government interference and from violence committed against them. It is quite probable that Paul has in mind Jeremiah’s instructions to the exiles in Babylon.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:4–7 ESV

Notice the Lord calls upon his people who are living in a strange and foreign land to live at peace in that land. They are to work and play. They are to marry and have children. What they are not to do is huddle up and withdraw from the broader society. They are to participate in the life of the city in which they find themselves. They are also to seek the welfare of the city and to pray for the city.

The “welfare” of the city is its shalom—its peace and its wholeness and its well-being. They are to pursue what benefits the city. They are to be intentional to live in such a way that they encourage human flourishing. Let me give a personal example. When I was a much younger man I voted against every tax increase the City of Grand Rapids proposed. I didn’t ride the bus; why should I vote for more funding!? Then I realized just how many are dependent on public transit, and how selfish it was of me to deny them greater access in order to save a few bucks a year. I resolved to “seek the welfare” of my city. This was God working in me to bring about my growth in sanctification.

When Paul tells Timothy to pray for those in authority, the proximate or immediate goal is for good governance, or for those in authority to govern in such a way that encourages human flourishing. This applies to everyone, not just the Christians in Ephesus. Paul surely has Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in mind when he writes this. The peaceful and quiet life Paul mentions should come about, at least in part, through the prayers for those in authority.

The ultimate goal of their prayer, however, is to live “godly and dignified in every way”. The end result Paul has in mind is the transformation of the Ephesian believers. Everyone in Ephesus should be able to live a peaceful and quiet life—all people, the very people for whom they are to pray. The believers must also live godly and dignified lives. The peaceful and quiet life is to be the setting for them to live as followers of Jesus. A significant means of bringing about Christ-likeness in their lives is prayer. I shared this Tim Keller quote in that sermon:

Prayer is the way that all the things we believe in and that Christ has won for us actually become our strength. Prayer is the way that truth is worked into your heart to create new instincts, reflexes, and dispositions.

Tim Keller, “Prayer”

This means that the peaceful and quiet life Paul mentions as the outcome of praying for those in authority over us is intended to bring about real, actual peace and quiet in our lives, that we may be free to pursue the mission God has given. It also means it brings about an inner life that is at peace and filled with quiet before the Lord. This is how, even in the midst of turbulent and oppressive times, God’s people can remain faithful to him, unmoved by the shifting of everything around. We must pray for the well-being of our city and we must pray that we would be transformed in the midst of whatever our circumstances may be.

Last Sunday we looked at 1 Timothy 1:12–17. To encourage and strengthen Timothy for the work he was to do in leading the church in Ephesus, Paul shared his own faith story telling Timothy how it was that the Lord strengthened him to endure suffering and to remain faithful. He shared how he was “the foremost” sinner, yet God poured out on him his super-extra-overflowing grace. This grace is why he, formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, was appointed as an apostle by the Lord Jesus.

What is amazing to me is Paul says the Lord judged him faithful. When Jesus appeared to Paul as he was on his way to Damascus to continue persecuting followers of Jesus, Jesus appeared to him and interrupted Paul’s rebellion against him. It is at this point that Jesus judged Paul faithful—declared him righteous. It was also at this point the Lord Jesus appointed Paul to his service as an apostle. Jesus told Paul to enter the city of Damascus where he would be told what he is to do.

When he arrived in Damascus he was met by Ananias. The Lord had revealed to him in a vision that Paul would be an apostle to the nations. Now that Paul, too, was a witness of the resurrection and having received his appointment to the office of apostle by Jesus, he was to fulfill his role as apostle.

To understand the significance of this we must know something of Paul’s personal timeline. He was probably born in the year AD6 in Tarsus (modern-day Turkey). He was a Roman citizen by birth. Sometime between the years AD20–30 he studied Judaism in Jerusalem under the famous rabbi Gamaliel and became a Pharisee. Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead in the year AD30 and ascended into heaven. Shortly after this Paul began persecuting Christians, beginning with approving the execution of Stephen in Jerusalem. About three years later Paul was on his way to Damascus when Jesus appeared to him, declared he was righteous, granted him faith and repentance, and appointed him to be an apostle. For nearly three years he had angrily and with great passion persecuted Christians, and now he was a Christian and appointed to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus.

As an apostle to the nations Paul was to travel to the nations and proclaim the gospel of Jesus and establish churches. For the next three years, however, he remained in Damascus and engaged in ministry there. After three years his life was in danger and he escaped from the city by being lowered down the wall in a basket. He fled to Jerusalem and tried to join the church there but many remembered him as a persecutor and struggled to accept that he was now a follower of Jesus. He was sent to Tarsus for his own safety. He spent the next eight years engaging in local church ministry in Tarsus. Then, around the year AD44, he was invited to the church in Antioch by Barnabas. Finally, in the year AD47 or 48, the church in Antioch commissioned Paul and Barnabas as apostles and sent them out to proclaim the gospel and establish churches.

Let me summarize that timeline. Jesus appeared to Paul in the year AD33 and appointed him to the office of apostle. Then, at least fourteen years later, the church in Antioch sent him out as an apostle. Jesus appointed him to be an apostle and it took fourteen years for him to do the work of an apostle. Was Paul being disobedient to Jesus’ commands? Was the church being disobedient for waiting so long to send Paul as an apostle?

No, they were not, for when Jesus called Paul to be an apostle, he knew Paul was not ready to actually do the work of an apostle. Jesus had some work in Paul to do. Think of Paul’s life. He was a go-getter. He was aggressive in pursuing what he believed to be right, which had included approving the public execution of a man. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians that he stood out even among the Pharisees. At the time there were only about six or seven-thousand Pharisees, and they were highly regarded among Jewish folk, for they appeared to have incredible zeal for the law of Moses. Having that same zeal Paul going to do the right thing regardless of what others thought—and regardless of who he hurt.

Had Paul been sent as an apostle immediately after Jesus appeared to him, the results would have been disastrous. It was great that Paul was a go-getter. It was great that Paul could determine to do the right thing even if it made others angry enough to hurt him or even kill him. It was great that Paul could serve the Lord with single-minded devotion. However, if that spirit of being a go-getter was not brought under the Holy Spirit’s control, Paul would have harmed many. If Paul’s determination to do the right thing regardless of the consequences were not brought under the Spirit’s control, the results would have been horrific. And can you imagine Paul’s self-righteousness early in his walk with Jesus? Yikes!

Paul had to deconstruct his former beliefs. He had seen the world through very specific lenses about righteousness and God’s plans and purposes for the nations. He had been filled with a strong sense of cultural superiority that needed to be rooted out of him if he were to fulfill his calling as an apostle, particularly his calling to the nations.

We see what “angry Paul” looks like in his letter to the Galatians. These churches he planted were flirting with abandoning the true gospel and so Paul told them that if anyone preached “a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). To put this in more vulgar terms, Paul said if anyone preached a different gospel, that preacher “can go to hell”. This is angry Paul, but Paul’s anger is under the control of the Holy Spirit. If Paul had been unleashed on people earlier in his walk with Jesus, the damage of an out-of-control Paul would be enormous. It took fourteen years of preparation and growth in spiritual maturity for Paul to be ready to fully engage in the work Jesus appointed for him. It took fourteen years for grace and love to replace his former self-righteousness.

When we look at Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, it is clear that Paul understood the importance of character. The qualifications for the office of overseer in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are all character qualities with the singular ability to teach as the only “job qualification”. Think of what was going through Paul’s mind when he wrote in 1 Timothy 3 that an overseer must be “self-controlled” and “not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome”. He was probably thinking as he wrote these qualifications, “pretty much not me when I was in my 20s as a young follower of Jesus”.

One thing I’ve emphasized over the years is God uses means. God can work directly in this world but most of the time he chooses to work through people. He worked directly to call Paul to faith and repentance and to appoint him as an apostle, yet he worked through the church in Antioch to determine when he would work as an apostle. Luke makes this point in his account of the sending of Paul (then called Saul).

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Acts 13:1–4 ESV

The church was gathered together seeking the Lord. The Lord made it clear to them that now was the time to send Paul as an apostle, along with Barnabas. Luke says “they…sent them off”—the church in Antioch sent them. Then he says they were sent out by the Holy Spirit. Wait a minute. Who sent them? The Spirit of God, acting through his people. God uses means.

The church, being led by the Holy Spirit, determined the time was right for Paul to assume the office of apostle, as the Lord Jesus had appointed for him, and for Barnabas to assume the role of apostle, as the church appointed him. (Remember that only the Twelve plus Paul held the office of apostle while many were in the role of apostle, which is quite like our concept of “missionary” today.) It is important that the church recognize the necessary qualifications in Paul for such a heavy responsibility.

Whatever your responsibility is, God has called each one of us to a life of faithful service to him. For some, that means vocational ministry or leadership in the church. For others, that means serving behind the scenes. Regardless of the nature of our service to him, the church should play a role in this. For years the apostle Paul’s ministry was under the leadership of others in the church, serving as he had opportunity.

Can you imagine how Paul must have felt, knowing from the beginning of his salvation that he had been appointed as an apostle yet not serving as an apostle for fourteen years? He must have been frustrated, particularly as Paul was energetic and very task-oriented and wanted to be productive. It’s important to note that not functioning in his office as an apostle did not keep Paul from serving the church. Whether he was in the church in Damascus or the church in Antioch, he was involved in ministry, even if that ministry was not the role Jesus had appointed for him.

It is not uncommon for people to question God’s timing. We long for answers to our prayers, whether for healing or for a material need, for victory over sin or for someone’s salvation. We long for God’s promises to be fulfilled. We long for better days. It can seem that God is just delaying but what Paul’s example demonstrates is God is not delaying but working. He had to work in Paul to bring Paul to the point he was ready to do what he was appointed to do. So God is also at work in us—and in others—to prepare us for whatever it is he has promised.

One of the most difficult things for us to do is to exercise patience. The tried and proven method of creating patience in us is making us wait. God’s timing may not be our timing, but God’s timing is always perfect. We need to recognize that God is not just sitting around doing nothing. He is at work behind the scenes getting everything ready. One day soon he will make it clear that the time has come. Until then, let us be faithful and serve the Lord, trusting his timing.

Vocation is a subject that often comes up in the minds of those who are serious about serving the Lord with their whole lives. A follower of Jesus wants to honor the Lord in all things, and this includes work. Too often, however, we separate work into two categories: work for the Lord and work for, well, money. Work for the Lord may well result in money, but it’s easy to claim a higher motive for ministerial work than it is for selling widgets, knowing full well that the more widgets you sell the more money you get. Is this the right way to think about work? No.

In the opening pages of Scripture we’re greeted with the declaration—and introduction—of the Creator God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” After describing the process of creation we’re told that God created humans a bit differently than he created animals.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 ESV

In the Ancient Near Eastern world, a god’s spirit resided in an image—often a statue or other physical representation of that god. The image represented the god and the god’s authority. Kings were also image-bearers of a god or gods. Thus a god’s spirit resided in the king, granting the king the right and authority to rule on the god’s behalf. Through Moses, however, God—the only God—declared that all of humanity was created in his image, after his likeness.

This means each and every human being represents God. Each human being, regardless of ability or aptitude or even spiritual status, represents God. Some clearly misrepresent him while others represent him poorly, yet every human life is valuable and carries inherent dignity and worth for being in God’s image.

God also said he would create humans “after our likeness”. That is, humans may represent God, but humans are not God. There are merely like him. This distinction was highlighted in the singular prohibition given to them in the garden of Eden: they could eat from any tree, save for one. This lone tree was to stand as a reminder to Adam and Eve and their offspring that there is one God, and they are not him.

In Genesis 2 the narrator has stepped back a bit and zooms in on the creation of humans. The Lord God forms the first man from dirt:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The world is perfect at this point. There are no thorns and thistles. There are no natural disasters. There are no diseases. The man is placed into this garden paradise and given a job to do. He is alone at this point. The job is given to him. That job is to work the garden and to keep it. Here we see work is a gift. It is not the result of the fall of man. In a perfect world God placed the man in a perfect garden to work. The word for “work” here has the basic sense of serving in the sense of tilling the ground. Think of that. In a perfect garden with no weeds and no damaging insects and with a perfectly fertile soil, Adam was to till the ground. For what? The garden was already full of trees!

Adam was to improve the garden. He was to cause it to expand. He was to make the world a better place. This is the intended outcome of work: we must strive to make the world a better place. Adam was also “to keep it”. He was to keep watch over, to protect the garden. Protect it from what, though? One obvious answer is to protect the garden from the serpent who is introduced in Genesis 3. The serpent poses a danger, but the serpent is not the danger we think—at least not yet. Adam has full authority over the creatures in the garden. If Adam were to order the serpent to leave, it must obey Adam, for Adam’s authority was still absolute, save for that lone tree.

The real danger to the garden, the danger that could bring death and ruin into God’s good and perfect world was Adam. Adam must serve the garden by working to improve it and expand it, and Adam was to protect that same garden by not allowing sin to invade it and bring corruption into it. Adam must protect the garden by resisting the serpent’s temptation.

Later in Genesis 2 God shows Adam that he is alone and being alone is not good, so God causes him to sleep and takes one of his ribs and forms a woman—Eve. God brings Eve to Adam to be his wife and says Eve is to be “a helper fit for him”. This means she was created to be his equal, unlike all other creatures on the earth. None of the animals were fit for Adam. The idea behind being “fit for him” is that she is his opposite, strong where he is weak, capable where he is lacking. Together they would accomplish the work God had given them to do. Together, man and woman, they would work the garden and keep it. This was their vocation, their calling in life.

There is no indication their work would be easy work; it was manual labor, after all. They did not have the problems that later gardens would offer, yet they would work. In their work they would be productive. Their effort would be fruitful, even if difficult. We see from this that work is good. It has inherent value. This value is found in what work does. If work makes the world better, it is good work.

We don’t live in the Genesis 2 world. We live in Genesis 3. Adam failed to protect God’s good world and so death has come and with death has come disease and destruction. Now, rather than tilling fertile soil, we must deal with thorns and thistles by the sweat of our brow. Work has become more difficult, for the earth itself resists us. Yet, work is inherently good, provided it helps human flourishing.

If your work—whatever that work is—makes the world better, your work is good work. There are those, er, jobs that do not make the world better and so can never be good. I’m thinking of the so-called “world’s oldest profession” here. If your job provides a valuable service or product, you are making your “garden” better, which means your vocation is good!

Whether you’re building widgets or selling them, whether you provide insurance to protect against the thorns and thistles that can destroy a home or car, whether you provide medical assistance or dig ditches that protect roadways, whether you teach Scripture or you teach math, whether you sell products online or you sell them in a retail store or out of your garage, whether you program computers or configure network infrastructure, whether you manage people or handle logistics, whether you change diapers or run a corporation, whether you earn a paycheck or not, whether you work a literal garden or a metaphorical garden, you are working as God’s image-bearer, which means you bear God’s authority over creation. You represent God in your work.

This means your work matters to God. God has placed each one of us in a garden. That is, God has given each one of us a sphere of influence. We are to work that garden and to keep that garden. We are to seek human flourishing in all we do. In some jobs this is more directly recognizable while in others we may toil away wondering if we’re having any positive impact on anything at all. The truth is that even if your job feels like a dead-end, if you recognize that you are created in the image of God, after his likeness, you will see that your job is important because you are important.

If you clean toilets, then do so as God’s representative! If you toil away at spreadsheets all day, then do so as God’s representative! If you repair things, then do so as God’s representative! If you run meetings all day, then do so as God’s representative! If you pull levers and turn knobs in a factory, then do so as God’s representative! Your job matters because God matters, and God has determined that you will represent him in whatever capacity you find yourself in.

If you only work for money, it probably isn’t the work that is wrong, but your motivation. We need a paycheck in order to live, but it is important that we do not live for a paycheck. The work we do must not have money as its primary purpose. In all things our motivation must be the glory of God, and God’s glory is revealed when we represent him well in the work he has given us to do. This is why preaching a sermon is no more holy than plowing a field.

It is very significant that in the garden, the very garden in which God himself would walk with Adam and Eve, the job that was given to Adam was not preaching a sermon, but plowing a field. Each day Adam’s high and holy calling ended with dirt under his fingernails.

Whatever your calling is, whether it’s caring for young children or working in a factory or sitting in an office somewhere or the busyness of retirement, you represent the Lord. There is no higher calling than that.

Imagine the scene with me. Your nation is under constant threat from a violent and aggressive nation that seeks to invade and steal your nation’s wealth. That wealth is not merely your nation’s material wealth, but its “elite” citizens—experts in their fields, whether doctors or scientists or craftsmen or businessmen. The danger is that the aggressive enemy wants to invade your land and take your treasures—including your fellow citizens—back to its own land and force them to produce even more wealth for the conquerors.

Your people have been in the land for a very long time. You have a long history in the land. Your very identity as a people is tied up in the land. Then one day the Lord God appears to you and calls you to be his prophet. Prophets spoke on behalf of God and the message was usually not good. Your mission is now to call your nation to repentance, for they have wandered far from the one true God who gave them the land in the first place. Early in your prophetic ministry you speak this message from God:

Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”

Jeremiah 2:5 ESV

Though God had given them the land and had blessed them by bringing them out of Egypt and out of slavery and blessed them with every good thing, they rejected him and served false gods and pursued evil rather than righteousness. Jeremiah’s ministry among them was to call them into repentance. Over and over again the message from the Lord was to repent, and if they would repent he would bless them and give them security and prosperity. They refused to repent.

Jeremiah continued calling upon the people to turn from their idols and worship the one true God who had revealed himself over and over again. Though he warned them they would be destroyed as a nation if they would not repent, there were false prophets claiming God would never allow his people to be harmed by foreigners. It was as if they had completely forgotten their own history from the time of the judges!

The Lord told Jeremiah, and therefore Jeremiah told the people, the time was coming when even Jerusalem would be destroyed. For seventy years the people of Judah would be taken into captivity and the land would experience God’s anger for their sin. It’s not hard to imagine the people taking issue with this. Jeremiah was, essentially, threatening their livelihood and their prosperity and the ease with which they lived. He was threatened with death and abused for his message. Then Nebuchadnezzar showed up.

Babylon had become the dominant superpower in the Ancient Near East. King Nebuchadnezzar took many of the cultural elite captive back to Babylon, along with much of the material wealth. Through Jeremiah God told the people who remained in the land they were to serve Nebuchadnezzar. If they would serve him God would spare the city of Jerusalem. They chose to listen to false prophets instead.

Jeremiah told them of God’s promise for a new covenant, one that would not be based on their performance and ability to obey God. Instead, this new covenant would involve a great transformation in his people. The law of God would be written on their hearts rather than on tablets of stone. God himself would fulfill the new covenant that was coming, and therefore his people would receive its blessings.

The people did not like this and imprisoned Jeremiah. They hated him for speaking the truth. Then Nebuchadnezzar returned for while the king of Judah had paid tribute—what option did he really have?—he rebelled against the king of Babylon, and therefore against the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar showed up in force. In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign over Judah the siege began. It lasted for two years. Finally, the walls around Jerusalem were breached.

Zedekiah tried to escape into the night, leaving his people at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar. He and his guards were caught, however, and brought back to the city. All his sons were slaughtered in front of him, along with all the nobles left in the city, and then they blinded Zedekiah so that the last thing he saw was the deaths of his sons. The city was burned and destroyed, along with the temple Solomon had built.

After being released from jail by the conquerors, Jeremiah was set free. He was allowed to live wherever he chose, and with Babylon’s blessing, for he told the truth about what would happen. Shortly before being freed the Lord spoke to him again, this time concerning a court official who had rescued Jeremiah’s life during one of his imprisonments. We read this in Jeremiah 39:

The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard: “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD.’”

Jeremiah 39:14–18 ESV

There are enemy soldiers in the capital city of Jerusalem. The king’s house is burned. The Lord’s temple is in ruins. Many people of Judah have died, either by the hand of the Babylonians or by starvation during the siege. Ebed-melech, however, trusted in the Lord. Though he was but a servant to king Zedekiah and though Zedekiah was the one who allowed the people to throw Jeremiah into a cistern, he pleaded with the king for Jeremiah. A cistern is an underground storage tank for water. This particular cistern was dry and the bottom was filled with mud. Jeremiah was thrown into the cistern and was stuck in the mud. Ebed-melech—a mere servant—pleaded with the king to free Jeremiah before he died in there.

It took 30 men with ropes to lift Jeremiah out of the cistern. That’s how stuck in the mud he was! He was then placed in jail where he remained until Babylon conquered the city of Jerusalem.

Think of the Lord’s word to Ebed-melech. He was an Ethiopian serving the king of Judah. Once again we see diversity among the people of Israel and Judah prior to the exile to Babylon. The nations were supposed to come in and believe in the God of Israel. Ebed-melech did. God was honored by his faith. While he feared being killed when the Lord did as Jeremiah said he would, God promises this foreigner who believes in the God of Israel that the God of Israel would spare his life.

What really strikes me is that God says his own plans for the city will come to pass. The city will be destroyed. The people will be taken into exile. The temple Solomon had built hundreds of years before, the very place God caused his presence to be, would be destroyed. Every word God spoke about the destruction of Jerusalem would come to pass. This destruction would result in economic upheaval like we’ve never seen before. Suddenly all the craftsmen and farmers and merchants—all the producers in the local economy—would be gone. The silver and gold would be taken back to Babylon. Farm tools, which could be used as weapons, would have been taken or destroyed. Houses in the city were destroyed as part of the battle and the subsequent burning of palaces and the temple. To survive, those remaining had to start from scratch. There were no crops, for the city had been under siege for two years. They had no tools. Those who were left behind were those who were already poor, and therefore had nothing from which to start anew. It would take years—decades, perhaps—to have anything like a functioning economy again. Life was going to be miserable for the foreseeable future.

In the midst of all this tremendous upheaval and destruction, all this pain and anguish, all this death and suffering, God had another word to speak, and he spoke it to a eunuch from a foreign country. Think of that. Being a eunuch he wasn’t even allowed to enter the temple compound to worship the Lord, yet he trusted in the Lord. God himself said he did. Ebed-melech was one of many servants in the king’s palace. Humanly speaking, he was a nobody. Unimportant. Easily overlooked. Insignificant. Why, in a text that clearly implies massive destruction that neither you nor I can truly fathom, for we have never seen such, why would God inspire Jeremiah to include this promise to an insignificant foreign servant who was barred from worshiping at the temple?

With God there are no insignificant people. Each and every person, no matter how obscure or unknown they are, matters to God. As we heard in our sermon last Sunday, God is love. God wants people to trust him, to love him, to experience his goodness. This goodness is fully revealed through faith. Though Ebed-melech was a “nobody”, God knew him and God loved him and God had a word for him.

Whatever life is for you right now, whether you feel lost or alone, or you feel frightened and in danger, whether the world is collapsing around you and you have nowhere to turn, do what Ebed-melech did: he trusted in the Lord. God’s plans for Jerusalem would still be carried out and there would be widespread destruction and suffering—even for Ebed-melech!—yet God cared for his well-being. Ebed-melech, a mere servant to a fallen and defeated king whose kingdom was destroyed, would receive some of the spoils of war: his own life.

It is easy to attempt to put faith in our circumstances, particularly if things are going well with our jobs and our relationships and our finances or even with our status in the world (“I’m somebody important because…[fill in the blank]”). The problem with trusting in our circumstances is they change. All the time. What was a promising and fulfilling job can be gone due to corporate layoffs. Good health can change the moment the test results are available. The reason our circumstances are not worthy of our faith is we cannot control them. We may think we can, but that’s a lie we tell ourselves. God, however, is in control of our circumstances and even if God says he will fulfill his words against our “city”—whatever that may mean—and the result is we find ourselves in great difficulty, God is in control and he is good and therefore he is worthy of our trust.

If you find yourself in a difficult time and you feel like a nobody, like you’re unimportant and overlooked and your circumstances threaten to destroy you, remember that through faith in Christ you are God’s “nobody”. God knows you. God cares for you. God speaks to you, however unknown and unimportant and irrelevant you may feel, and God promises you are his. To the world we may all seem like nobodies, but in Christ, we belong to God and he knows us and he loves us. Whatever our circumstances, this means we can continue to trust in him.