“My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” Thus spoke Jesus of his Father, the great Creator and sustainer of the universe, whose manifold works are evident on every hand, and of Himself.
With David, we can stand in awestruck wonder considering the work of God in the heavens or marvel at the riot of color and variety in a garden of flowers, remembering the words of Jesus that “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”. The vastness of the seas, and the majesty of the mountains—all these are the works of the Creator. How humbly can we repeat the words of the Psalmist, “What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?”
Jesus spent His entire life working at the task appointed Him. He gave up the comforts of a home and family and traveled when He was weary, healed the sick and preached the gospel when His flesh cried out for rest and a little time away from the crowd that followed Him. It was no idle statement when Jesus said “I work.” Often He did not take time out to eat or sleep. Knowing that His time was short, Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work.”
Jesus is our example and, though we can never attain to His standard of righteousness, we are definitely expected to make the effort to come as close as possible.
The popular belief that all that is necessary for salvation is to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour, tends to lead to a do-nothing philosophy, which is the direct opposite of the commandments as stated in the Bible.
In Philippians 2:12 we are exhorted to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and in Luke 13:24 Jesus says, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able,” while Matthew 6:33 admonishes us to “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” Work, strive and seek are not passive verbs. They indicate action—strenuous action.
James covers the matter rather thoroughly when he warns, “But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed . . . Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
The works which we are expected to do are all for our own benefit. God is all sufficient in Himself and does not need anything from man. We need something uplifting to do to develop character, and let us never underestimate the therapeutic benefit of work. A life without work is an aimless existence, without goal or satisfaction.
A person who has too much to do will dream of a life of idleness, but, after a short time, when he is rested, he will find himself completely bored. There is no more frustrating occupation than trying to “kill time” instead of using it.
God always knows what is best for man for He created man in the first place and as the Psalmist phrases it, “He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” All the intricate workings of the human body, which men of medicine are just beginning to understand a little after centuries of study, are an open book to God. “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” “O, Lord, thou hast searched me and known me, Thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but Lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.” In our present circumstances, we are happiest if we are engrossed in work, and God, knowing our needs, has arranged that there is plenty to do. As we sing in our hymn, “This is not our resting place.”
Paul’s exhortation in Philippians to “work out our own salvation” does not indicate that salvation is a thing that can be earned, for our best efforts fall far short. Luke explains in the 10th verse of chapter 17, “So, likewise ye, when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.” Eternal life is the “gift of God”, who knows us altogether, and who looks on the heart and not on the outward appearance. If He finds we have been faithful in a few things, He will make us ruler over many things and we will hear the coveted words, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
No one is exempt from the obligation to work in some way. Even if we are handicapped in some way, there is something we can do, and the popular excuse that we are too busy will not be acceptable in the day of judgement. No person is too important or too insignificant. The words of Peter in Acts 10:34-35 demonstrate this. “Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.”
Let us then work, strive, seek, fight the good fight, putting on the whole armor of God, and knowing, as Hagar expressed it, “Thou, God, seest me.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One