Work is a good thing, because it’s God’s thing.

In the Bible, the very first chapter of the first book, Genesis, tells the story of God creating and uses a framework of six workdays to describe its development. Then in Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, we see work, work, work.

[2:1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
The story of creation from the Jewish scriptures, believed by Christians, is that creation was the product of

God gets right to work from the beginning of time. That’s unique. Many other creation stories in other cultures start with conflict between gods. They say we and our world are products of destruction. But the Christian story says we are products of construction.

When it’s all done, God is satisfied, and can rest. He’s said over and over as he created, it’s good. When he created humans he said it was very good. And then he rested, satisfied he’d done good work.

For the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking at work and rest, and how important they are for followers of Jesus.

And it starts here, with the simple fact that God works, and is still working to provide, care, heal and sustain life for us on earth.

God and Jesus work: in John 5:17 he responded to those who objected to him healing people on Saturday, what should have been a day of rest. He said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

God didn’t stop working forever, he is still at work, including in and through his son Jesus.

Later in John 5:36 it’s clear God the Father has given him work to do…like an assignment.

Finally, work is in paradise. If the Garden of Eden, in creation, we get a picture of heaven on earth, and we see work is meant to be there, not just added in after humans rebelled against god – it was there before the rebellion. The nature of work changed, but it was meant to be there already.

Today we’ve seen, work is meant to be a good thing…something God embraces. Not an evil virus infecting life.

Question: Why is the goodness of work not more apparent in human life? What makes this so hard to believe?

 

Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest

Ryan Sim - June 18, 2013

Tuesday - Study It - The Golden Rule

Sermon on the Mount

Here's one of Jesus' most famous one-liners: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Then he went on: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:12-14 ESV) We'll look first at the first part – what's known as the Golden Rule. You may think this was nothing new. Haven't other teachers said similar things? Rabbi Hillel was once approached by a young man who asked him to summarize the whole law while the inquirer stood on one foot. He simply said, "What is hateful to yourself do to no other.” Socrates told a story of a Greek King: "Do not do to others the thing that makes you angry" Confucius was once asked, if there is one word to sum up the law of life and he answered, "Reciprocity: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." People will often repeat a similar idea today: you can do whatever you want as long as you aren’t hurting someone else. If Jesus is just saying what others have always known, it seems strange for him to pair this saying with a story about a narrow gate, and how difficult it is to live this out, and how few people will manage to do it. But in fact, Jesus isn't saying the same old thing, he says something very new! When this concept appears in other traditions, it's always in negative – do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. But Jesus says the positive: Go above and beyond. DO. He wants the motivations to be love, not fear. The object to be the other person, not self. The question to be, not how much I can get away with, but how much can I do for others. That's what Jesus was all about. We'll explore this more later this week. Question: Many have said ‘Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself” – but only Jesus gives the positive – “do to others what you would want done to yourself”. If you were to apply each of these statements to a practical situation you’re facing, would they each lead you to different responses?

Related Topics: Law, Love | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

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