In Christianity and in the world alike people pay more attention to great works than to the person of the worker.
With the Lord Jesus, His work was His living – there was no difference between His life and His work. He didn’t work for a while and then “took a break to live His life” – all the time, His work was His living and His life was His work.
God cares more for what we are, the kind of person we are, than about what we do or can do. To us also it should matter more what kind of person we are than what great things we can do for the Lord. The work is the overflow of the life, and the ministry is the expression of the person.
No difference between life, work, and move
With the Lord Jesus, our Pattern in working with God for God’s economy, there was absolutely no difference between life, work, and move (Mark 1:14-45).
He worked everywhere and also all the time because His life, His work, and His move were all the same. Actually, His living was His working, and He lived His work, His ministry. With the Lord Jesus there was no distinction between life, work, and move.
Just as with the Lord Jesus so with us, in our life, there should be no difference or distinction between our life, our work, and our ministry. Our living should also be our working, and our life should be our ministry (Phil. 1:20-21). For us to live is Christ!
God pays more attention to what we are
In the world and even in Christianity many times people are more impressed with the great work someone can do than with his person. People pay more attention to the work and the ministry than to the worker and the minister.
But according to the Bible, God pays more attention to what we are than to what we do or can do. God cares much more for our person, for our being, than for any kind of work that we can do for Him.
He can get a donkey to talk so that He may get His work done (see the story of Balaam), but what He really desires is PERSONS who are of life, in life, and ones who are one with Him, depending on Him in everything.
We need to be deeply impressed with this fact – God cares much more for what WE ARE than for what we do.
We cannot do more than what we are, or else it is hypocritical and fake. Our work is measured and influenced by our person. Our being should match our work, and our work should be an overflow and an accurate expression of what we are.
In the New Testament ministry of God, in God’s new covenant, the Lord is looking not for “workers who can do a lot for the Lord” but for ministers, persons, who work together with God by another life, the divine life!
The ministers of the new covenant work together with God by a life that is all-sufficient and all-matured, able to fit all situations, able to endure any kind of treatment, to accept any kind of environment, to work under any kind of condition, and to take any kind of opportunity, for the carrying out of their ministry. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 339-340)
Share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings for the Body
If we would work with the Lord for the Body, we need to be willing to make up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for His Body, the church (Col. 1:24).
The Lord Jesus lived a life of suffering on the earth, but we cannot share in His sufferings for redemption. But we can and we should share in His suffering for the producing and the building up of the Body of Christ, the church.
Just like the Apostle Paul, we need to aspire to Know Him and the Fellowship of His Sufferings, to be conformed to His death – through the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
Col. 1:24 says, I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church.
It is a such a rejoicing that we as believers in Christ, members of the Body, and co-workers with the Lord can share in Christ’s sufferings for the producing and the building up of His Body!
For the sake of the church, we need to give ourselves to the Lord to fill up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ. We may encounter persecution and rejection, but we need to follow the Lord and share in His sufferings, being one with Jesus the Nazarene, for the building up of the Body!
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see what really matters to You. May we really see and be deeply impressed with the fact that God cares more for what we are than for what we do. Lord, we give ourselves to You to be worked on by You and to be constituted with You day by day. May our living match our being, and may our work be an overflow and a genuine expression of our God-constituted being.
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians (msg. 39), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 8.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The overflow of life is work, / The work should be our living! / What we experience e’er should be / The message we are giving.
# We work together with God by a life: / All-sufficient, / All-mature;
# Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. - Picture source: Pay Attention!
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