Work and Embodying Truth
(The following is the text of the video, “Work and Embodying Truth,” found HERE.)
Suppose--after Jesus had died, risen, and returned to heaven--God had simply installed an orbiting PA system to announce the gospel from space in every language to every nation.
No, this was not God’s way of getting the gospel into his lost world. He had a better plan. God’s gospel plan involves stationing whole human bodies in all walks of life throughout his earth. Bodies, of course, come with multiple parts--hands, feet, mouths, and so on. Each part of the body fits proportionately into its place.
But many Christians seem to think that at work and elsewhere, the mouth is the witnessing part. Witnessing, then, is all about talking--talking people into following Jesus.
Yet when God sent his Son into the world, he sent him as an EMBODIED human being. Yes, from the time he was born, Jesus did have a mouth, but he also had eyes . . . hands. . . feet . . . ears . . . a brain--and so on.
The embodied Jesus had eyes. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them.”
The embodied Jesus had hands. “Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.”
The embodied Jesus had feet. “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. John 12:3
Because he had ears, the embodied Jesus could hear: “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.”
The embodied Jesus came with a brain that could outthink the Jewish religious leaders. “Some of the teachers of the law responded, ‘Well said, teacher!’ And no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
And, of course, the embodied Jesus had a mouth. “Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus spoke of his body, with all its parts, as a temple--a house on earth for God to live in. And just as Jesus was embodied, we too are embodied--with all the same body parts. And for those who follow him, our bodies--like his--are also temples.
As with the old Tabernacle, our bodies are portable temples. So when you go to work in your body-temple, God’s life inside you goes right with you into the shop, or office, or classroom, or hospital, or field as well.
Picture your body-temple as God’s command panel for a virtual orchestra--with him seated in the director’s chair. Your role: “offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” Then, as he directs the orchestra of your body-temple instruments, they work together to see that, within your area of responsibility, his will is done on earth as in heaven.
• How will you think about your work if he is directing your brain?
• Under his control, what will your eyes focus on?
• How will you listen if you offer him your ears?
• Responding to his baton, what will your hands do?
• Your feet: where will they take you if he guides them?
• When led by him, what will your mouth say and how will you say it?
Your witness, then, becomes not only a matter of telling but also of showing. As you work, your body language will bear witness to how God expresses himself in real human life.
Yes, God wants the gospel spoken. But Jesus did not teach his disciples to pray, “your will be spoken on earth as it is in heaven.” Instead we are to pray that God’s will “be done on earth.” For God’s will to be done on earth takes doing. And doing takes bodies and body parts.
That’s why we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices . . . our true and proper worship. In the Sunday meeting, an amplified mouth typically plays the most prominent part. But in the Monday workplace, all body-temple parts go into action. As they do, others can see what it looks like when God’s will is being done on earth.
We hear a lot about the need to bring people “under the sound of the gospel.” The sound is vitally important but is not enough by itself. People also need to be within the sight of the gospel--the sight of temple-bodies living it out. Demonstrating its reality day after day.
Whatever your work, wholeheartedly put your entire body into it. Embody the truth of the gospel in your work. Another Kingdom-of-God answer to the question, “Why work?”
From Chapter 11, “Embodying Truth”:
“Embodying Christ, the Truth, fits the workplace—because the work we do gets done by means of our bodies.”
