Confining Faith to Compartments
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
Ephesians 6.4 commands fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
While this verse is geared toward fathers and their role as spiritual leaders of their home, the commands can be applied more broadly to both our personal lives and the work all Christians are to engage of disciple making.
Specifically the disciplines and instructions we are to live and teach others. What does the discipline of the Lord even mean? Most of the current conversation around the christian life tends to center on freedom rather than discipline.
The Bible makes clear Christians are free from condemnation by God or others if the works of Jesus are what we rely upon to get to heaven. In the same vain, Christians are free from performance requirements either to get to heaven or to remain on the road to heaven. Freedom is a major Biblical theme.
Discipline is too really but we don’t discuss it much. Like diet, we are free to eat whatever we like, but to stay healthy we need discipline to eat better. So what are the Christian disciplines?
First, is to lock in on focus of Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. This is mainly accomplished through regular reading, meditating, studying and hearing the Scriptures. The discipline to ‘eat’ regularly the bread of God which is His Word, the Son revealed in all of the Scriptures, is necessary for proper Christian development.
Other disciplines that Jesus modeled or specifically commanded are prayer, giving, and serving. These things require our effort and focus for they are not natural to us. We do not come into this world seeking God or giving first and most to others of our time, talent or treasure. Likewise we must work to have Jesus’ attitude of not living on earth to be served but to serve even giving our lives for others.
Discipline is required for doing certain things we don’t naturally want to do in order to get better at the things we should do. Discipline is also not doing certain things in order to reach our goals. Back to the diet analogy, it is not eating a fourth piece of pizza or a late night bowl of ice cream if we are trying to lose weight.
So too the Scripture commands we no longer gratify the desires of our sinful nature, that is the ways of men that are the reason God had to provide a sacrifice for our salvation in the first place. All those things from which we are commanded to repent and turn away from require the discipline of our lives to no longer return to them.
All of these disciplines, what to do and what not to do, are clearly recorded in God’s instruction manual for living – the Christian Bible. If we will but read it, study it and meet to discuss it we will find our lives are better today and guaranteed better tomorrow.
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MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
October 9, 2017
Confining Faith to Compartments
by Robert J. Tamasy
Compartments can be useful. We have “glove compartments” in our vehicles, even though hardly anyone uses them for gloves – instead, we keep flashlights, maps, repair receipts and other things there. Toolboxes and craft cases have compartments to keep things separated for easy access. But should one’s spirituality – faith – also be kept in a compartment, taken out only for special occasions?
Recently a friend who seeks to encourage and challenge business and professional people to consistently and effectively reflect Jesus Christ in the workplace made this comment to me: “I try to help my groups to integrate their faith in their business and within their sphere of influence in the marketplace. Unfortunately, they are very compartmentalized and are righteous on Sundays and holy terrors the rest of the week.”
This statement is strong, but also sad. It seems these businessmen and women have failed to grasp the connection between biblical truth they are being taught and its proper application for the work they do throughout the week. Since its inception, this has been a goal of “Monday Manna” – to show the practical relevance of what the Bible teaches to how we conduct ourselves on the job every day.
There is an adage, “East is east, and west is west – and never the twain shall meet.” However, when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says His presence and influence in our lives should be evident everywhere we go, in everything we do. Consider:
Who are we called to serve? Typically, we go to work believing we are there to serve our company, organization or immediate superior. In one sense, that is true. But the Bible says we have a higher calling than that. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:17,23-24).
We share in a unique partnership. It is tempting at times to question the value of our work, the significance of what we do each day. But according to the Scriptures, we are to understand we work in concert with God and His plans. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).
Work fulfillment ultimately comes from God. We often look to our work for meaning and fulfillment, but it can be even more meaningful when done as service to God and others. “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, comes from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?”(Ecclesiastes 2:24-25).
We represent Jesus through our work. Many outside the family of God will never venture into a church on their own. Our work provides a built-in network through which we can represent Him to others. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
© 2017. Robert J. Tamasy has written Business at Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Tufting Legacies; coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring, and edited numerous other books, including Advancing Through Adversity by Mike Landry. Bob’s website is www.bobtamasy-readywriterink.com, and his biweekly blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com.
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