This week in the United States we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian minister and civil rights activist who was instrumental in helping black people to be treated equally in society. Although we have made progress, our country still has a lot of room for improvement regarding racism. But today I wanted to talk more about a quote from Dr. King regarding taking initiative. The night before he was assassinated, Dr. King spoke to a crowd in Memphis, Tennessee who gathered in support of treating sanitation workers throughout the city honestly, fairly, and justly. Dr. King said the following which struck me,
“The question is not, ‘If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?’ ‘If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?’ That’s the question. Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”
Each of us has been blessed by God with various time, talents, and treasure to make life better for others. We should not waste them. We shouldn’t view work as a necessary evil or merely as toil. Discover purpose in work or school beyond earning a paycheck or gaining a diploma. Utilize work, school, and opportunities for action and for intervention to invest your resources. Use them to proclaim truth, to love, to serve, to administer justice, and to extend mercy.
You Were Created to Work
When God created humankind in his image he designed them to be productive, creative, wise, and caring. The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, experienced supreme joy in working as they cared for the garden of Eden and fellowshipped with God. Tragically, that changed when they chose to disobey God. Their rebellion separated them from God and brought about toil in their work which they hadn’t faced before (Genesis 3:1-24). All of their descendants including you and me have inherited a self-centered waywardness which separates us from God (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 53:6). In addition, we also experience toil in work. Fortunately, in his love and mercy God, has provided a remedy in Jesus. Anyone who trusts Jesus to save them can be reconciled with God (John 3:16-21). Believers experience new, abundant, everlasting life with God. Even though they are still in a fallen world, the restoration God brings enables them to approach work with a different attitude—one that finds joy, peace, and purpose even amidst the toil, unrest, or triviality of work. Yield to and rely on Jesus and he’ll guide and empower you to work well and to carry out all your responsibilities successfully.
Work as Unto the Lord
Life’s greatest and most fulfilling adventure is becoming like Jesus as you discover who you are meant to be in him and what you are meant to do as you follow him. Your life and work should not be for your glory, but rather for God’s glory and the benefit of others. Join with other believers working as one body united in Jesus to accomplish his will (1 Corinthians 12:12-30). The apostle Paul encouraged believers, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). Work out what God works in. Love with his love. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Comfort with the comfort you’ve received from God. Serve as Jesus serves you. Seek and save as you have been found and restored. Give away the time, talents, and treasure that you have been given in order to help others come to know God.
Be Intentional About Reaching People
When a person comes to trust Jesus to save them from their sin and give them new life as a part of God’s family, God could immediately take them from the earth to be present with him in heaven. But he doesn’t. In God’s perfect way and timing, he allows believers to continue on this earth in order to train them to become like Jesus, to prepare them to reign with Jesus throughout eternity, and to reach other people with God’s truth, love, and salvation. There’s a reason you are here now. It’s to come to know God through Jesus, to grow in a saving relationship with him, and to share him with others through your words and actions so they can become children of God also. Given that glorious purpose, be intentional about your relationships at school, at work, and in every endeavor. Jesus, God the Son, didn’t come to earth to be served, but to serve and to lay down his life as a ransom for many (Luke 19:10). He taught and showed people how great God is and how they can live rightly with him (Colossians 1:15-20). As a devoted, loving, and obedient son, Jesus wholeheartedly carried out the mission God the Father gave him. Jesus explained to his disciples, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Jesus taught those who struggled to believe him, “I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say” (John 12:49-50). Later he taught, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves” (John 14:10-11).
After Jesus rose from the dead and before he returned to heaven, he passed on his commission to his followers. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Later he told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Anyone who trusts and obeys Jesus is a new creation in him. They are no longer a slave to serving themselves. Rather their joyful work is to serve God and others. They have a new role as ambassadors of God’s love and salvation—ministers of reconciliation so as many people as possible can come to know God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
Conclusion
View work as an opportunity, more than an obligation. At work, at school, in all your endeavors use the resources God has given you to draw closer to him and to help others do the same. There are only two ways to travel life’s journey—either trusting Jesus or rejecting him. Your choice determines the quality of your life, your impact on others, and your eternal destiny. I pray that you choose Jesus and then work toward helping others choose him also. Working intentionally for the salvation of others requires sacrifice, but as Dr. King put it, our question should not be what will happen to me if I help, but rather what will happen to others if I don’t help? However, with that said, don’t act out of guilt. Respond to the reconciliation task at hand in joyful love like Jesus did (Hebrews 12:2-4). Paul exhorted believers, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). So strive for excellence. Work diligently. Speak truth and encouragement. Model integrity.
That’s what Dr. King advocated. He had been ridiculed, threatened, beaten, imprisoned, and stabbed nearly to death for working to help others. But suffering and difficulty would not deter him from the important work God called him and enabled him to do. Even though he knew that he might be killed soon, he continued to teach people how to be saved and how to peacefully unite and confront injustice. Here’s how Dr. King, concluded what would become the last speech of his life.
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
I also look forward to Jesus returning. When he does he will reward believers, judge unbelievers, vanquish evil, and establish righteousness (Revelation 19:11-21:8). In the meantime, by God’s grace and power, I want to redeem work and use it to proclaim truth, to love, to serve, to administer justice, and to extend mercy, knowing that through that people can become saved in Jesus (Ephesians 5:15-16; Colossians 4:5; John 9:4). Will you join me in working intentionally to reach others?
Note: In case you are interested, I’ve also mentioned Martin Luther King, Jr. in two previous posts–Note #010 Rise to the Mountaintop and Note #098 Make Peace.