Work to Earn
(The following is the text of the video, “Work to Earn,” found HERE.)
Working in a typical job with its wages or salary will bring you face-to-face with the issue of having money. But wait. How is having money an issue? Isn’t the real problem having NO money? Here’s the difficulty: when it comes to money, Christians risk being in two minds about it.
On one hand, Scripture warns us that “some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith.” To avoid this danger, we may want to flee from money’s pull. On the other hand, the same Bible says it is God “who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” Such an endorsement of money may encourage us to chase after it.
In some places, the Bible seems pro-money. In other places it seems anti-money. What, then, should we do? Are paychecks a blight or a blessing?
Clear thinking about money begins with the truth that money is a KINGDOM matter. Money fits into one of three kingdoms or ruling centers: Kingdom A, Kingdom B, or Kingdom C. The kingdom that rules us will determine what we do about money.
First, there’s the KINGDOM of the world. The world’s throne has its own rules about money. It pressures us to make upward mobility our goal--and to see money as the ticket for the ride up. “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” For those ruled by the world’s throne, the goal is getting.
Second, there’s the KINGDOM of self. When sin takes the throne, life is all about ME. “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves.” This inward, self-centered focus leads us to chase after all we can get for ourselves. Here, too, the goal is always more.
And third, there’s the KINGDOM of God. When we yield the throne to King Jesus, he gives us the power to want what he wants. Those selfish, get-rich drives get reversed into desires to give. As we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” we learn to pour ourselves out for God and for others. And as we pour out, he pours in: “all these things will be given to you as well.” Money, then, is no longer a matter of our getting, getting, getting, but of his giving that flows into and out through us.
So in the Kingdom of God, we need neither to fly after money nor to flee away from it. As we make God’s rule in our lives our top priority, the income he blesses us with loses its power to harm us spiritually. But does money earned by working please God? Should we get our money through regular paychecks? Or should it come like manna from heaven? Church leaders and missionaries tell stories of how God provided funds miraculously. Would God prefer that way of supplying our needs?
Although Paul sometimes saw God work miraculously, he did not depend on handouts from heaven to pay his expenses. “We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.” Paul typically earned his keep through the hard work of making tents.
When you are seeking God’s Kingdom first, how are you to use the money you earn from working? First, spend on your own real needs. No, that’s not being selfish. Airline passengers are told to use oxygen masks first so they can help others. You are to “Work with your hands . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” If you have to depend on donors to pay for your own basic needs, you’re in no position to help others.
Next, spend on the needs of your own family and those you are responsible for. “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Why worse? Because most unbelievers DO provide for their own families.
Both Old and New Testaments reflect God’s priority on giving to what Scripture calls “the poor.” Jesus was right when he said, “the poor you will always have with you.” Because God cares about their well-being, “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Scripture calls for giving to those in what we might call “gospel-extension” work. Such work is not more spiritual than other work. But support from Christians who work for wages or salaries frees gospel-extension workers to concentrate on evangelism or disciple-making. As Paul wrote, “Those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.”
Give to need-meeting organizations. Many of these nonprofits depend on the generosity of those in the regular workforce. Giving to one of these groups often amounts to giving to the poor, because they meet the needs of those struck by disasters such as storms, famines, epidemics, and political persecution. Such organizations reflect the heart of God, who “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.”
Finally, God calls for part of our giving to go as taxes to the government. Why? Because “the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.” Yes, like everyone else, government officials often fail to do what God has called them to do. But without the protections and restraints of governments--even imperfect ones--life on earth would be unbearable.
Making money, then, plays a vital part in the present form of God’s Kingdom. True, in the kingdoms of this world and self, greed turns money-making hoggish. But when God rules, our earnings serve as one of the major ways he pours his blessings into his earth. “Our people have to learn to be diligent in their work so that all necessities are met (especially among the needy).”
So, then, when God’s Kingdom is our top priority, making money becomes another reason to get up and go to work.
Christians and Money: Chs. 17-19
How can making money carry out God’s Kingdom purposes?
