What Jesus Says About Life's Main
Business
But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
What is the main business of life? A question will bring the matter quickly before us. "What is your vocation, that which you consider your main job or occupation?" Your reply may be, "I am a clerk, an engineer, a mechanic, a nurse, a teacher. I am a business man, a professional man, a student." "Mine," another adds, "is the most difficult and demanding of all vocations. I am a housewife, a mother."
Let us ask another question. "Are you a Christian? Have you acknowledged Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord? Have you received His new life within?" If so, your true vocation is not business or medicine or engineering or keeping house. These are but your vocation, your subordinate occupation. Your real call and highest summons is the will of God. The Christian's main business in life is to be about his Heavenly Father's business. Our Lord makes this very clear and leaves
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no room for equivocation. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness..." (Mat. 6:33).
This must have been disturbing to the disciples. All their lives they had labored to earn a living. Their livelihood was a controlling concern and now the Master teaches them, "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" (Mat. 6:31-33, RSV). Or as Phillips translates the verses, "Set your hearts on His Kingdom and His goodness, and all these things will come to you as a matter of course." Those who respond to the call of Christ have one vocation, one major occupation — to set their hearts on God's kingdom and goodness.
Many Christians today are suffering from a tragic divorce. In their thinking, life has been separated into two mutually exclusive areas — the sacred and the secular. These are viewed as incompatible. They are felt to require two different sets of actions. There are sacred acts such as prayer, Bible reading, worship, service in the church, and the other acts which spring directly from faith. Over and against these sacred acts are the secular ones, the sort of thing that everyone is always doing — eating, sleeping, working, and performing dull duties of the daily round. These are mistakenly regarded as without any spiritual value and are often performed grudgingly, because so much of our time is devoted to them. On the Lord's Day, we arise and put on our "Sunday best," saying to ourselves, "Today will be sacred and spiritual. Today I can worship and serve the Lord." But Monday finds us putting on our overalls or business suit in a depressed frame of mind saying, "Today
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I have to mess around in worldly things and serve the devil. If only I were a minister or missionary, I could perform some truly spiritual service and attain a truly spiritual life."
But this divorce is utterly wrong. God does not cut up and partition life into the sacred and the secular. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mat. 19:6). The man at the shop or office must have the same sense of mission as the man behind the pulpit. The teacher of children in a grade school may render as sacred a service to Jesus Christ as the teacher in the Sunday School. The soul is not sanctified by devotion to a few specialized activities in full-time Christian service. The soul is sanctified by the dedication of the whole life to God and His will.
During the last World War, thousands of bombing planes were sent on missions of destruction. After the war, a few of them were taken over for command service. They are called "converted bombers." A converted bomber is the same plane that once carried a lethal load of destruction. It has the same wings and fuselage, the same type motors, the same cockpit and instrument panel. The bomb racks are gone. The gun turret is gone. It has a new paint job, but it is essentially the same plane. It has however, this difference. It has a new owner. It carries new cargo. It has a new pilot. This is true conversion.
In Christian conversion, Jesus Christ delivers us from the old life and possesses us for God. He enters into the cockpit of the heart, takes over the controls and operates the old life on a new course, pointing us to a new and glorious purpose — "...the kingdom of God, and his righteousness..." This means, of course, that all our relationships and activities are to be converted and viewed now in the light of our new mis-
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sion. The old job, the old routine of the day, the old cargo which remains to be carried, may be lifted through Jesus Christ and moved toward God. The spiritual may invade and take over the secular through a new purpose by the power of Jesus Christ. Do you want to venture on a sacred mission and serve an eternal cause? Then turn over the controls to Jesus Christ. Recognize the fact that you belong utterly to God. Then start operating your home, your business, your job with your heart set on God's Kingdom and His goodness.
Our Lord did not divorce the sacred and the secular. Observe how all in His life was devoted to the Father and ordered by one dominating purpose, to "seek...first the kingdom of God...." Until He was thirty years of age, He labored quietly in an obscure carpentry shop in Nazareth. He was not less consecrated or spiritual behind the bench at Nazareth than He was teaching the throngs in the temple at Jerusalem. He was not less sanctified in breaking the bread to feed the five thousand than when He preached to them the everlasting gospel and fed their souls. He was not less loving and spiritual healing the sick or stooping to wash the disciples' feet than when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. No, every phase and every act of His life was performed as unto the Father. All of life was God's.
By working with His hands in the shop at Nazareth, Jesus teaches us that we may handle a hammer or a piece of wood to the glory of God. The common duties of life may be sanctified, ennobled by performing them in the light of our high calling in God. The crucial factor is not the nature of our daily task as much as the nature of our purpose; not the name of our secular vocation but the nature of our spiritual vision; not
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where we find ourselves at work but what we do with our work and why.
Moreover, in the mind of Jesus there is no divorce between professional and amateur Christians, between clergy and laity, as though one group is serving God all the time and the other group only part of the time. Jesus Christ conscripts all of the time of all His followers. We simply serve God in different ways and with different responsibilities. Why is it that only ministers and missionaries are supposed to have a definite call of God for their service? Every Christian is on a divine mission. Every believer is an ambassador of God. Dr. D. Elton Trueblood in his book, Your Other Vocation, makes a strong appeal to rouse every Christian to enter into his high calling in Christ. He contrasts the Church at Corinth in the year 52 A.D. with the First Church of Technopolis in 1953. In the modern church there are members and ministers. The members engage the ministers to do the preaching, to expound the Scriptures, to call on the people in the neighborhood. A staff is secured in some instances to carry on the many functions of church life, but the member often merely sits like a spectator at a ball game, letting the professionals conduct the show. The Church at Corinth stands in sharp contrast. To begin with, there was no church building. The congregation met in private homes. There were no professional ministers. Every member served his brother. There were no full-time preachers. All preached the gospel at every opportunity. There was no one employed to visit and make calls. All went about their community, serving in love and sharing the good news. That Church had power and a burning love for God and man. Every Christian viewed his home, his work, his fellow man as divine ministry and entered it with joy.
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The late John R. Mott, himself a powerful example of what the lay minister can be, has described the universal ministry of the early church in memorable words. "The disciple discussed with his teacher and fellow-students, the Christian truth which had laid powerful hold upon him. The slave who had fallen under the spell of the One who had come to proclaim release to captives, could not refrain from pointing to the great Deliverer. Wherever the Christian disciples scattered, the evidences of Christianity multiplied, working quietly as a leaven, for the conversion of one household after another. It is this commending by life and word, the reality and wonder working of the living Lord on the part of the rank and file of His disciples, within the sphere of their daily calling that best explains the penetration of Roman society with the world-conquering gospel."
If the Church at Technopolis in our day were to match the same mission and dedication of the Church of Corinth in its day, it too could turn the world upside down.
In the past thirty-five years, communism has swept over a third of the inhabited globe. The thrust of the advance has not been the logic of communism's ideology, but the totality of demand and dedication of life upon its followers. As I see it, the crucial issue of this twentieth century in the struggle for the loyalties of mankind, is whether Christians will bring to Jesus Christ the same measure of practical dedication to the job that millions of Communists are bringing to the cause of Karl Marx. If we would, nothing could stand against the transforming impact of a triumphant Church.
Our Lord, in His great commission commanded, "...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). He meant that extensively. We are to carry the
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saving word to all people, all nations, all races, everywhere. But He also meant the commission to be taken intensively. We are to carry His gospel into the world of education, of commerce, industry, agriculture, culture, and art. His disciple is not to separate from the common life around him, but to penetrate it and transform it for God by the power of the gospel. There are opportunities open to the layman which are closed to the minister. The layman has a position among his daily associates impossible for the minister to attain. The layman's amateur standing is a great advantage. People expect ministers to say and do certain things and are braced to withstand them. Your genuine Christian life, your loving friendship, your spontaneous witness to the grace of God as a layman, carry a far more effective and convincing demonstration of the reality of the Saviour than the most eloquent sermon. The Great Commission is directed as much to the layman as the minister. The layman too, has a field of service. Some are called to be ministers of the church, but all are called to a ministry in Christ.
If you think that the service of God is something where men are separated from ordinary occupations, then listen to what is written of the Apostle Paul. "Because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers" (Acts 18:3). Tentmaking was a laborious trade, not highly esteemed and poorly paid. Yet that Apostle Paul earned his way making tents and used the hours of labor to share with Aquila and Priscilla the truth and life of Jesus Christ.
Francis of Assisi was a soldier. John Bunyan was a tinker. John Woolman was a tailor. Charles Finney was a lawyer. D.L. Moody was a shoe-clerk, a salesman. The two men, perhaps
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most used in the last generation to advance the cause of the world mission of Christ were both laymen — John R. Mott and Robert E. Speer. Who can calculate the influence for God as President Eisenhower, a Christian layman, bowed his head to pray before his Inaugural Address. What a pulpit! How moving was the message. Our main business then as Christians is to be about the Father's business, to seek first the Kingdom of God in our personal lives, doing His will right where we are.
We are also to seek the Kingdom of God in our occupational lives. In New Testament times, the slave was treated as human chattel, bound in soul-destroying servitude, without rights or privileges. His day was a round of dull drudgery. But Jesus Christ set the spirit of the slave free and brought dignity to his work, transforming it into sacramental service. "Slaves, obey your human masters sincerely with a proper sense of respect and responsibility, as service rendered to Christ Himself; not with the idea of currying favour with men, but as the servants of Christ conscientiously doing what you believe to be the will of God for you. You may be sure that God will reward a man for good work, irrespectively of whether the man be slave or free" (Ephesians 6:5-8, Phillips).
One may go to work at times, feeling like a slave, bound to dreary, meaningless duties. But he can perform that work for the Lord, knowing that He will be pleased with faithful, conscientious work whatever may be the recognition of others. The added touch given to trivialities because of devotion to Jesus Christ, can make an ordinary task shine with the glory of God.
But let us be careful to avoid trivial or harmful employment. John Oliver Nelson has said, "Almighty God doesn't call any
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man or woman to a trivial or unimportant life work. If you can't see your job as being somehow vital and meaningful to mankind, change it or get out of it. We cannot seek the Kingdom of God in things which are harmful.
Nearly every type of work brings with it contacts with other human beings. Each contact is a door to Christian opportunity. Each person may become an object of Christian ministry. Do I see my boss merely as an employer or as the one for whom the Supervisor of heaven has a plan and divine purpose? Do I view men and women as customers or as persons loved of the Lord? Do I think of men merely as employees or those whom I may serve even as the Son of God serves me? Each person is a parish, each man a mission field, each individual a divine opportunity.
I know a business man whose day at the office begins with a prayer acknowledging God as the Senior Partner of the corporation. I know a school teacher who walks down the corridor to the classroom relying on Christ to teach His truth through her life and love. I know a doctor who calls in the Great Physician on every case to help heal the body and soul of his patient. I know a housewife who asks the Lord to have His way in her heart and in those of her household as she moves through the duties of the day. These all say, "Lord, I am Thy servant. Help me to do this work for Thee today."
My place in life must be occupied by moral power. Small though my influence may be, I must stand for the right. I must be "the salt of the earth...the light of the world." Industry today calls for integrity. The commercial world must have character; professional life, purity and selfless purpose. Wherever the Lord places me I must be "salt" and "light."
But my highest spiritual service is to bring myself to God.
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"I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1, RSV). Anywhere, at any time, I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness when I respond with all that I am and have, to all that I know of Jesus Christ.
A charge to keep I have,A God to glorify;
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.
To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill;
O may it all my powers engage,
To do my Master's will.
Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live,
And O, Thy servant, Lord, prepare,
A strict account to give!
(Charles Wesley)
Yes, my main business in life is my Father's business.
