Thursday, August 21, 2008

Minimum Wage

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"
(Luke 17:10 – ESV)

Do you have to be baptized, do you have to take Communion, do you have to give money to the church, do you have to go to church every week, do you have to read your Bible every day, how often do you have to pray, and on and on and on. How many times have you heard these or similar questions? How many times have you wondered about them yourself?

Well, we need to think about these things, not because we need the answer, but because the questions themselves reveal a wrong mindset. It is a worldly one that is reflected in the way the world thinks, you know, do just enough to make the boss happy, just enough to earn that diploma or degree, or take just the minimum amount of pills to get well, etc., etc. They just want to be done with it and get on with their lives. The kingdom of God isn’t like that, however.

Considering these things and other questions like them, ask yourself why. Why do you want to do it? Cause you have to, or because you want to be recognized? If you want to do any of these things so that you can be blessed or keep from making God mad, then I say don’t do it. That’s right I’m talking to you, don’t do it. Now if you want to do these things, not to be blessed but so that you may bless God, please avail yourself of every opportunity.

If some were to tell the truth, if they didn’t feel like they had to do it they wouldn’t do it at all, and that is the real reason for the questions. For others, it is just a fear thing, they want to make sure, but when they feel like they have made sure then they feel like they can live any way they want, they’ve done what they’ve “had” to do. It is sort of like the lawyer who asked Jesus who was his neighbor. He didn’t do that so he could find out whom he needed to love, but to find out whom he didn’t have to love. He wasn’t looking to include people, but to exclude them.

When we have this same attitude we are looking, not to include God in our lives, but to exclude Him. We may add Him to our lives in increasing ways, but only in activity not in real devotion. The minimum requirement mentality can do these things divorced from the heart. If they feel things aren’t going the way they want, to get God off their back they just add another thing to the list. They could fill up every box on this imaginary list and still God not have their heart. He wants us to want Him not to simply dispatch our duty. You could do all your duty and still Jesus says that all it means is that you are an unprofitable servant. Your faith has to go further than that. God doesn’t want us working on a minimum requirement resume.

We ought to be finding new ways to walk the extra mile, not looking for any way to get out of going the first mile. If that is the way you feel about serving God, why would you want to be in heaven? Oh, I see, you just want to find a way out of hell. Sounds to me like you already know what that is like. You have a habit of turning blessings into burdens.

One of the benefits of Christ paying the price of redemption for us is that we might be able to bless Him. When you in turn pay the price to bless Him, you are the one who gets blessed. We should see these things, things like obeying Him by being baptized, or taking Communion, living a moral, godly life, praying, reading our Bible, and yes, giving, as gifts we can enjoy giving to God, not as burdens we must bear lest we be lost. Besides, we are earning wages in heaven for such things, let alone the fact that they please God. Christ gave us many such blessings, different ways to be able to be like Him. Don’t look for a list of minimum requirements. Don’t settle for minimum wage.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Motives…

As we ponder, explore, & discover them, they reveal to our mind who we really are inside.
Felt needs, pride, fear, & love are all base motivations for our actions & they reveal our heart’s true inclinations.

Worship & service to the Lord sourced from a felt need or a fear of an alternative consequence (Hell) betrays a lesser motivation, lesser maturity, & a lesser faith. The Apostles acknowledged their lack of faith as Luke 17:5 declares; verses 6-10 are the Lord’s response. By His response, it would seem to me that pride was the stumbling block within their hearts. The twelve needed to return to the mindset of simple service to a greater authority & pride was their impediment.

But that’s what pride does- it obstructs faith & the Holy Spirit's nurturing of such within the believer.

Jesus teaches the same thing again in Luke 18:8-14; increased faith is wholly correlative with increased humility.

donsands said...

"When you in turn pay the price to bless Him, you are the one who gets blessed."

God loves to bless His children. All fathers love to bless their children, how much more our heavenly Father.

And His true children don't expect it, but are always thankful, by His grace for His grace.

Thanks for another solid teaching JD.

Anonymous said...

Hi JD. I like this teaching...sound and profound. Blessing God and being blessed in return is like having His presense when we praise and worship Him in spirit and truth. He actually shows up and honors us with His presense. Wow! He is so worthy of all our heart, soul and strength. Love and prayers, Mom

Even So... said...

Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name (Psalm 103:1)...that doesn't mean we can say, "well, I just don't have it in me to do that for God"...what do you mean, you don't have the Holy Spirit?

Even So... said...

Obedience is about as optional as tires on a car...without 'em, you may have a pretty vehicle, but it ain't goin' nowhere...why do you think we say, "nice wheels?"

Even So... said...

I feel a post comin' on...

Anonymous said...

We should see these things, things like obeying Him by being baptized, or taking Communion, living a moral, godly life, praying, reading our Bible, and yes, giving, as gifts we can enjoy giving to God,


Having the mind of Christ.

Anonymous said...

It looks like Thursday is good for me, JD. Provided that is still open with you.

Even So... said...

Okay, tomorrow at 2pm Paul...

jazzycat said...

It seems a mechanical adherance to mininum standards is nothing but legalism, while a heartfelt response born of grace is the result of a true sanctification.

Even So... said...

Yes, Jazzy...the unegenerate heart and/or unrenewed mind wants "to be free" from the shackles of restraint, per se, but when pressed to try and conform, the only answer to a heart void of grace is to, ironically, shackle itself with legalism...

Anonymous said...

“…do you have to go to church every week, do you have to read your Bible every day, how often do you have to pray, and on and on and on.”

“If you want to do any of these things so that you can be blessed or keep from making God mad, then I say don’t do it. That’s right I’m talking to you, don’t do it. Now if you want to do these things, not to be blessed but so that you may bless God, please avail yourself of every opportunity.”

Maybe I’m not understanding your thinking, I can’t say that I agree with this. Most, if not all of us originally come to Christ with lesser motives; most come at first based on a God-given fear of Hell. God recognizes our childish state at that point in our lives & responds by spurring us onward with the most primal of motivations- fear of punishment & relief from pain. As we press on in fearful obedience, He both teaches & demonstrates His love for us as we comprehend what true love is, through the Spirit’s inner leading, through other Christians’ witness & through the witness of His Word. To hear the Spirit’s inner leading to love, I have to be in prayer. To see other Christians’ witness of love (as I saw you demonstrated Sunday), I have to be in church. To daily comprehend the Bible’s witness (as in 1 John 4:10), I have to have my nose in the book daily.

But sometimes I don’t feel like doing any of these things. This demonstrates to me that lesser motives deriving from fear & need still must prompt me to “press on towards the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:8, “love never fails,” so when I fail to show love, or when the measure of love within fails to motivate me to do what I know I need to do, it only demonstrates to me that the measure of renewal is not yet complete. In years past, when I felt no desire to “do the things I did at first,” I simply didn’t do them; the result was the stench of stagnancy in Christ.

Only after this stench became greatly nauseating did I finally rebuke “quietism” within me & I return to “press on towards the goal.”

I would say to the one who does these things only for need or fear to continue doing them, but to also repent of the childish motivations.

John speaks well of His preeminent love which is our goal:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:18-19

Even So... said...

Exhortation to a more pure motive...this post is written to Christians who are wanting to be discipled..no they shouldn't "not" do things like pray, and if they need something to motivate them like duty, so be it, but we are also to move from lesser motives to better ones...I thought that might have been implicit in the message, sorry if it was not clear enough for you...we try and keep these posts as succint as possible, and some may not stand as well on their own without going into every nuance...same reason you should never read a single verse without looking at the larger context...

Even So... said...

Doing things with lesser motives is settling for minimum wage...thanks for the input Steve...

Anonymous said...

I understand the unanimity of our two discourses, & your title sums both of our messages well. That’s why I brought up the second statement I quoted; on an instructional level, it seems out of place. But maybe you didn’t mean for it to be taken on that level, maybe you meant it as an impact statement, an alarm to awake the slumbering Christian to the reality of his childish motives, as Paul was doing when he said “ I wish that those who trouble you would even emasculate themselves” (Galatians 5:12).

I comment at length for this subject has been on my mind for awhile now, especially after Sunday’s demonstrative sermon.

Even So... said...

7-18-07

Even So... said...

You may notice that we have now started our fourth section on "Why you HAVE to go to church"...61 posts and counting on this very important topic...