As if that were not enough, he wrote many of the letters of the New Testament (some of which were written while in prison), which expressed and crystallised the doctrine of being righteous before God by having faith in Jesus Christ.
There will be other
Christians, whose work we may admire. Some of these may be historical figures,
who took Christianity to a new land or founded an order.
They may still be
alive, perhaps people from our own church or simply well-known Christian
figures. We admire these people. They might be given as example of lives to be copied
and we may have been encouraged to emulate them.
Most of our lives are
much more humdrum. Families, spouses and partners, children, mortgages, jobs, money,
children’s education, trips to doctors and so on. We feel disheartened when we
simply do not have the time, energy or motivation to do what is necessary to
emulate these examples that have been given to us. Perhaps we even feel a sense
of guilt that we should be doing something else. Or perhaps we feel that we
should be sacrificing more time and money to God’s work and we stand accused by
our consciences and by the Bible, the very book that is meant to encourage us.
I am not sure exactly
how we arrive at this point. The Old Testament lay very few obligations on the
People of Israel, except to love and obey Him, although, having said that, they
were largely incapable of doing even these two things.
The New Testament
seems to lay more specific obligations on Christ’s followers. Go and spread the
Good News is a command of Christ to his followers, and the Letters of the
Apostles lay down a number of regulations for Church and Christian life.
We take these to heart
and feel the constant inadequacy of our own efforts, through the distractions
of daily life, despite the knowledge of forgiveness.
I am not sure why
feelings of guilt and inadequacy form such a large part of the thinking and
emotions of the Church or at least the protestant church. I suppose as sin, judgement
and repentance forms such a large part of the protestant church’s message and
teaching, it is hardly surprising that we regard ourselves in this way.
So how is all this
measured “at the end of the day” (as footballers say as a standard phrase) and anyway,
does God regard work done in His name more highly than that done by, well, a
Banker?
As a different but
related question, is the relationship closer between God and one of his people where
that person is doing God’s work?
I need to declare a
personal interest here. I am from the banking profession, which is now regarded,
with some justification, by the general public and press, as something not far
removed from the mafia or prostitution. Being concerned solely with money, the
very substance of the “world”, it is about distant from God’s work as can be
done, even when it is being done legally.
So after all the weighing
up and “refining” has been done, how does God assess the value of work?
Certainly the work done processing banking customers’ orders and improving the
operational flows of my area doesn’t seem to score highly on this score.
Perhaps the purpose of
our secular lives is to provide context in which we find God. We find Him in
the humdrum or at least, Gods reveals himself to us in the humdrum. If this is
the case, then this humdrum stuff is pretty important. We can look for God in
the day-to-day. God is to be found in the “world” (perhaps even in banking).
Finding God in the
world has one major difference over finding Him in religious activity. It is
just you and Him. There is no “spiritual” noise or second hand religious views.
But exactly what He
says to us is for us to find out, but only if we listen.
