The Word Before Work

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 4 Biblical Ways to Escape the Comparison TrapDevotional: 1 of 4If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else. (Galatians 6:3-4)Today is my 37th birthday. I don’t know about you, but for me, birthdays are the perfect trigger for falling into the comparison trap. Because birthdays offer us a “scorecard” of sorts—especially in a world that is obsessed with success at an early age. If we’ve made more money than our peers or parents have by a certain age, we can feel proud and arrogant. Conversely, if we have failed to sell a company, reach the C-Suite, or achieve some other goal before someone else, we can feel jealous and bitter like we’re “falling behind” and “life is passing us by.”How can you wage war against these feelings? How do I plan to escape the comparison trap today? By confessing and repenting of my pride. Because as Paul makes clear in Galatians 6:3-4, pride is the root of all comparison.Save Paul, nobody has articulated this better than C.S. Lewis who said in Mere Christianity: “We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”It’s easy to see how pride is the root of comparison that leads us to feel superior to others, but it is also the root of us feeling inferior to others. If I feel jealous that someone has accomplished more than I have by a certain age, that is ultimately rooted in a feeling that I deserve the good gifts God has given them, but not me. And that is pride.So, if you find yourself falling into the comparison trap today, start your escape here: Confess your pride to the Lord in prayer and ask for his power to “take pride in yourself alone, without comparing yourself to someone else.”

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Working in ExileDevotional: 5 of 5I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:22-23)Today concludes our five-week series exploring biblical principles for working in environments that are increasingly hostile to the ways of the Lord. Today’s passage contains the final principle I want us to explore:Principle #5: Christians are called to become all things to all people for the sake of the gospel.One of the reasons why God has you working “outside the camp” is because it is through the work of mere Christians—not primarily pastors and religious professionals—that God will save the lost in our "post-Christian" context. But to make disciples at work you, like Paul, must “become all things to all people”—doing everything you can (other than sin) to build relationships with non-believers. This could look like having lunch with a different co-worker once a week to get to know your colleagues personally or following your office’s favorite sports team so you have something to talk about on Monday mornings. There are a million practical outworkings of this principle. But let me draw out one more—a controversial application that, if you haven’t already, you will certainly have a chance to practice soon.Let’s pretend that a woman you work with shares that they’re now identifying as a man, and they ask that you start referring to them by the male pronouns “he/him.” As a Christian, you hold to a biblical stance that sexuality is defined by God alone (see Genesis 1:27 and Matthew 19:4-5). So, what do you do?Some faithful Christians I respect argue that you should refuse to use your friend’s chosen pronouns, as doing so would give the appearance of condoning sin. But according to one of the more serious studies on this topic, one Christian researcher found that “None of my interviewees were inclined to interpret a…Christian’s pronoun hospitality as an automatic indication that this Christian agreed with everything about the way in which the trans person expressed their gender.”Conversely, another expert has found that “people typically view using their pronouns and chosen name as a basic act of courtesy and respect that’s necessary for continuing relationship” (emphasis mine). With all that in view and with the principle of “becoming all things to all people…for the sake of the gospel” in mind, I would encourage you to practice “pronoun hospitality” in the workplace and use your friend’s chosen pronouns. Now, that doesn’t mean you never confront their sin! But I pray that we, like Jesus, would be relational first and confrontational second (see John 8:1-11), “so that by all possible means [we] might save some.”My friend, I pray that this series has been incredibly encouraging and helpful to you. Your workplace is likely to become less and less friendly to the ways of Jesus. I pray these principles will help you be faithful to Christ and his mission as you work in exile.

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Working in ExileDevotional: 4 of 5You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5:13)Last week, we explored the biblical call to “live such good lives” amongst our non-Christian co-workers that they have nothing credible to say against us (see 1 Peter 2:11-12). And we saw that that includes our submission to all authorities—even bosses who are antagonistic towards Christianity (see 1 Peter 2:13-22). But we are only obedient up to a point. In the rare instances in which an authority explicitly asks us to contradict the Lord’s commands—when they ask us to lie to a co-worker, embellish the truth to land a deal, or stop talking about Jesus—we are free and obligated to dissent. We choose to obey God, not man (see Acts 5:27-32), otherwise our “salt loses its saltiness” and “is no longer good for anything.” That brings us to our fourth principle for working in exile:Principle #4: Christians are called to disobey directives that contradict God’s Word in a distinctly God-honoring way.Why a “distinctly God-honoring way”? Because even when we refuse to obey an earthly authority, we can do so in ways that do and do not glorify God.There are a number of case studies for what God-honoring disobedience looks like in the book of Daniel (see Daniel 1:5-14, Daniel 3:1-18, and Daniel 6:6-12). Here are three characteristics of godly dissension that we see in these passages.First, we disobey respectfully. When Daniel was asked to eat defiled foods from the king’s table, he didn’t just say “no” to his boss. “He asked the chief official for permission” to abstain (Daniel 1:8). Now, we can assume that had Daniel not received “permission,” he still would have obeyed God and not man. But by asking for permission, he disobeyed respectfully.Second, we disobey constructively. Instead of simply refusing to adhere to the Babylonian diet, Daniel offered a creative alternative aimed at blessing the very employer that was asking him to disobey the Lord (see Daniel 1:12). Daniel understood that he (and we) are called to “seek the peace and prosperity” of the non-Christians we work for and this shines through even in his disobedience (see Jeremiah 29:1-7).Finally, Daniel and friends show us that we are called to disobey resolutely. When Daniel’s friends were asked to bow down to a golden idol, they refused in no uncertain terms saying, “we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:18). We must do the same, trusting that regardless of the consequences, God will work everything for our good and his greater glory (see Romans 8:28-29).

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Working in ExileDevotional: 3 of 5Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11-12)We’re in a series exploring five biblical principles for working in exile. Today, we come to our third principle, straight from Peter’s letter “to God’s elect, exiles” (1 Peter 1:1):Principle #3: Christians are called to live “such good lives” that non-Christians have nothing credible to say against us.Though he lived hundreds of years before Peter penned the words of today’s passage, Daniel (of lion’s den fame) offers a terrific case study of what this principle looks like in practice. Like you and me, Daniel worked in exile—specifically as an official inside the Babylonian government. And he modeled the goodness Peter describes in today’s passage on at least three levels.First, vocational excellence. Daniel 6:3 tells us that Daniel “so distinguished himself” among his peers that King Darius “planned to set him over the whole kingdom” of Babylon. Daniel was a master of his craft. That’s the first dimension of the exemplary goodness he displayed while working in exile.Here’s the second: personal integrity. When Daniel’s co-workers heard that their boss was planning to promote Daniel, they “tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel…but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy” (Daniel 6:4). Daniel didn’t just possess good technical skills. He possessed good and godly character.The third dimension of Daniel’s goodness was his submission to authorities—even authorities who hated his God. After searching for “corruption” in Daniel and any act of disobedience to the Babylonian king, finally his peers gave up saying, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:5).Next week, we’ll explore that “unless it has something to do with the law of his God” caveat in depth. But today, here’s what I want to encourage you to do: Pretend that your co-workers, like Daniel’s, wanted to discredit you and your witness. How would they do it? What would they point to?Would they point to the way you talk about others behind their backs? Or how much you drink when you’re out with your colleagues? Or the bit-too-friendly relationship you have with a co-worker of the opposite sex?Whatever it is, repent for the sake of the gospel. “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong,” no accusation can stick.

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Working in ExileDevotional: 2 of 5And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)Last week, we saw the first of five biblical principles for working in exile—namely that a Christian’s default position should be to rush into dark workplaces, not retreat from them. This is in line with Jesus’s prayer in John 17:15-18 when he asked the Father to send his followers “into the world.” But in the same breath, Jesus also asked the Father to “protect them from the evil one.” You see, while Jesus never intended for his followers to isolate themselves from the world, he has called us to insulate ourselves before going into our dark workplaces and communities.How? Through study of God’s Word (see John 17:17) and Christian community. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is urging in today’s passage: that we insulate ourselves by “not giving up meeting together” with other believers. That brings us to our second biblical principle for working in exile:Principle #2: Christians are not called to isolate from unbelievers, but we are called to insulate ourselves through God’s Word and Christian community.I’m going to assume you’re already in the Word on a regular basis. But if you’re like many modern Christians, the community piece doesn’t come as easily. I’d argue that every Christian professional needs two types of Christian communities.First, a local church. There has been a lot of debate about the importance of the local church in recent years. Personally, I can’t get around the strong biblical case for committing to a local body of believers.Second, you need a community of believers who understands your specific work and can help you answer highly situational questions such as:Should I agree to my client’s request to use pictures of homosexual couples in our marketing campaigns?How can I push back on my boss’s vision for a new product that will exploit the poor?How do I go about firing a client for the way they treat my team?Where can you find a group to help you answer questions like these? If you work at a large company, consider joining or starting a Christian or interfaith Employee Resource Group (ERG). If you’re curious to learn more about how these groups work and why they’re so effective, listen to my interviews with the leaders of Amazon’s and PayPal’s faith-based ERGs. If you don’t work at a large company, but still long to insulate yourself with a community of Christians who share your vocation, consider joining The Word Before Work Community led by yours truly.If you want to serve as a faithful ambassador for Christ in your post-Christian workplace, being in Christian community is not optional. Find one to get plugged into today!

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Working in ExileDevotional: 1 of 5The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. (Hebrews 13:11-13)Chances are that your workplace feels increasingly “post-Christian.” The HR department is now encouraging employees to customize their gender pronouns; talk of religion is quietly discouraged; and your employer is making headlines for their support of pro-choice causes.In the face of these trends, it’s natural to wonder whether you should quit your job and find a new role in a ministry or a business led by a fellow Christian—a workplace that is “better aligned with your values.” God may be calling you to do that, but I seriously doubt it for two reasons.First, Jesus himself worked in dark places. As we saw in today’s passage, he “suffered outside the city gate.” Most literally, this phrase refers to the fact that Jesus was crucified beyond Jerusalem’s city walls (see John 19:17-20). But theologians agree that there’s another meaning to these words. You see, while it was perfectly within God’s power to give Jesus a vocation inside the city gate—in the Temple, “the Most Holy Place”—he chose for Jesus to spend the majority of his life working “outside the city gate” as a carpenter where he undoubtedly suffered more blood, sweat, tears, and temptation than the average priest. Commenting on this passage, one group of theologians say that “to follow Christ fully is to follow him to the places where his saving help is desperately needed, but not necessarily welcomed.”Jesus’s example is the first reason to stay in your increasingly “post-Christian” workplace. Here’s the second: Jesus calls his followers into dark places. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus cried out to his Father on behalf of his disciples saying, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world…As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:15-18). Here, Jesus is reiterating what he said in the Sermon on the Mount when he called you to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Nobody sees light shining in an already bright room. Light can only shine in dark places. Which is why Jesus calls us to work and live amongst the lost.All of that brings me to the first principle for working in exile:Principle #1: A Christian’s default position should be to rush into dark workplaces, not retreat from them.But if we stay, we are going to need help in maintaining a distinctive Christianity while we work. It is to that challenge we will turn to next week.

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Easter VocationsDevotional: 4 of 4He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God….Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:3, 6-8)Everything God does is intentional, and the timing of Jesus’s resurrection is no exception.As pastor Skye Jethani explains in his book Futureville, the reason why Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday has its origins in the creation account of Genesis 1. Historically, Christians have identified “Sunday as the first day of God’s creative work.” And just “like the creation account in Genesis, which began but did not end on Sunday, God’s re-creation began on Easter Sunday with Jesus’ resurrection but continues to unfold.”You see, just as the first Sunday was just the beginning of the first creation, Easter Sunday was just the beginning of the final one. And just as God called the First Adam and his bride Eve to help him cultivate the first creation, Jesus the Last Adam has called his bride, the Church, to help him cultivate the final one.That’s the vocation Jesus gave us, his followers, in today’s passage: to be “witnesses” to that new creation! At first blush, that word “witnesses” simply appears to be a call to “share the gospel.” But pastor Tim Keller explains that the Greek word here means “more than simply winning people to Christ…the church is to be an agent of the kingdom. It is not only to model the healing of God’s rule but it is to spread it….ordering lives and relationships and institutions and communities according to God’s authority to bring in the blessedness of the kingdom.”What does that look like practically? It looks like weeding out things like disorder, injustice, and disease that have no place in the eternal kingdom of God.It looks like creating beautiful art, places of belonging, and cultural excellence that offer glimpses of what does belong in God’s kingdom.It looks like serving as faithful representatives of our Risen King, modeling his character of love, peace, and joy to those we work with.And yes, it looks like making disciples as you go about your life and work.If Jesus’s “Easter vocation” is King of Kings, our Easter vocation is to be witnesses to his kingship and rightful lordship over every square inch of creation—including your place of work. Embrace your role as a witness for the king and work to make “thy kingdom come” in your place of work “as it is in heaven” today!

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Easter VocationsDevotional: 2 of 4“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. (John 21:3-6)Today’s passage shows us “the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead” that first Easter Sunday (see John 21:14). Commenting on this scene, St. Augustine once wrote admiringly that after Jesus had “risen from the grave, after seeing the marks of His wounds, after receiving, by means of His breathing, the Holy Ghost, all at once [these disciples] become what they were before, fishers, not of men, but of fishes.”But not everyone shares Augustine’s glowing view of the disciples. I’ve heard many pastors preach this text and call the disciples “backsliding” Christians because they went back to their vocations as fishermen instead of “following Jesus fully” as “full-time missionaries.” Let me share three reasons why that’s a poor interpretation of this text.First, Jesus never said that fishing for men and fishing for food were mutually exclusive. In Matthew 4:19, he said, “follow me…and I will send you out to fish for people.” He didn’t say, “I will send you out to fish for people and you will never fish for food or income again.”Second, Jesus could have reprimanded his disciples for fishing, but he didn’t. And it’s not like it was beyond the resurrected Christ to reprimand his followers (see Luke 24:13-25).Finally, Jesus blessed the work of his disciples’ hands with a miraculous catch of fish! Why would he have done that if he was not pleased with their decision to go back to their work of fishing? In this scene, we see a theme that is reiterated throughout the gospels—namely, that Jesus frequently smiles upon the choices his followers make to go back to the vocations they had prior to following him. We see it here with these bi-vocational fishermen/disciples in John 21. We see it with the Roman centurion in Matthew 8, who Jesus could have easily called away from his vocation, but didn’t. And we see it with Zaccheus in Luke 19 who, upon choosing to follow Jesus, appears to have gone back to his vocation as a tax collector with Jesus’s blessing.Following Jesus means that all of us will now “fish for people.” But it doesn’t mean that all of us will lay down our trades. Deep in your soul, you, like Jesus’s fishermen friends, know that God put you on this earth to fish, write, build homes, start businesses, or create spreadsheets. Meeting the resurrected Christ doesn’t necessitate you abandoning that work. You can bring Jesus great pleasure by staying exactly where you are fishing for people and food for the glory of God and the good of others.

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Easter VocationsDevotional: 2 of 4Joseph of Arimathea…was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took [Jesus’] body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen….At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb…they laid Jesus there. (John 19:38-42)Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had a lot in common. Both were members of the Sanhedrin—the religious governing body that had just played a role in crucifying Jesus (see Mark 14:53-65). Both men, most scholars agree, were likely very wealthy. And both men were secret followers of Jesus…up until Good Friday, that is.Something about Jesus’s death compelled these two men to go public with their faith, specifically by giving Jesus a proper burial. As pastor Daniel Darling explains in his book, The Characters of Easter, “Typically a criminal would be dumped into an empty grave or pauper’s field, buried ignominiously under a pile of rocks.” But Nicodemus and Joseph refused to allow Jesus to suffer that fate. While their fellow members of the Sanhedrin may have killed Jesus like a criminal, these men were intent on burying Jesus like a king.And they made at least three enormous sacrifices to do so.First, money. Joseph gave up his costly tomb (see Matthew 27:60) and Nicodemus offered “seventy-five pounds” of “myrrh and aloes” for embalming, which one scholar says would have cost “an extraordinary amount.”Second, these men sacrificed their priorities. As Ken Costa points out in his book, Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph and Nicodemus “fully knew the embalming” of Jesus “would make them ritually impure at the start of the Passover feast.” This was an unthinkable act for religious professionals used to adhering to the letter of the law! And yet they prioritized honoring Christ above honoring the traditions of their professions.Finally, by burying Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus would have seriously risked their reputations. Their peers had just murdered Jesus! And here they were honoring him. At a minimum, this act would have cost them their stature. But it could have cost them their jobs—maybe even their lives.The faith of Joseph and Nicodemus cost them a lot. How much is your Christianity costing you? If your honest answer is “not much,” I pray that the example of these two men would inspire you to be even bolder for Christ in your workplace today. That could take a lot of different shapes. Here’s just one I would challenge you with this morning: Acknowledge your faith in Christ to one co-worker who may not know you’re a Christian. In doing so, you’ll be paying a small tribute to Joseph and Nicodemus. But more importantly, you’ll be offering up a small display of worship to the One who gave up everything for you and me!

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Easter VocationsDevotional: 1 of 4Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane…and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:36-38)Peter and “the two sons of Zebedee” (James and John) had a broad vocation to follow Jesus. But on the night before their rabbi’s crucifixion, they were given a more specific job: Simply to stay awake while Jesus went away to pray.As they were all walking into the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus “began to be sorrowful and troubled.” He was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”What’s going on here? In his phenomenal sermon The Dark Garden, Tim Keller explained Jesus’s sorrow this way: “Jesus…got all of his power…and his love from his relationship with the Father, and therefore...as he was walking to [Gethsemane], he would have started praying….In his heart, he would have turned to the Father, the way he constantly does…and that’s when it hit him. Because when he turned in his soul toward the Father, there was nothing there.”Jesus was experiencing a first sip from the “cup” of God’s wrath due to humankind’s sin (see Matthew 26:39). He was catching a preview of what he would drink in full the next day: Total separation from his Heavenly Father.Meanwhile, back at the camp, Jesus’s disciples were (literally) falling down on the job. Three times Jesus asked them to do the easiest job in the world while he went off to consider whether or not he would do the hardest—dying for these men who couldn’t even stay awake.As Keller explains, “Peter, James, and John are the representatives of the human race…Every time [Jesus found them sleeping] it’s like the Father is saying, ‘That’s the human race for you. Swallow hell for them. Take into yourself this spiritual atomic bomb and let it explode for them.’”And Jesus did! What does that mean for you, believer? At least two things.First, it means that God loves you on your absolute worst day at work. The day that represents your biggest regret. The season of unproductiveness. The time you had a golden opportunity to share the gospel with a co-worker but didn’t. God knows all about it. And because Jesus chose to die for his disciples on their worst day at the office, you can be confident that he loves you on yours.Second, I hope this scene at Gethsemane reminds you that you are free to risk greatly. Start that business, speak up for the injustice you’ve seen in your office, share your faith boldly. Why? Because even in failure, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).Because Jesus spent three days separated from the love of God, you never will, believer. Don’t take that for granted. May the assuredness of God’s love lead you to be bold for Christ’s sake today!