The Word Before Work

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Wisdom for Work from NehemiahDevotional: 4 of 5Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5:11)Paul is crystal clear in today’s passage that Christians are called to expose darkness. To, as pastor Timothy Keller says, "bring every dimension of life…under the rule and law of God."Now, this doesn’t mean that we hold non-Christians to the same standard as Christians (see 1 Corinthians 5:12). But we can still expose darkness and fight for kingdom principles without appealing directly to “the rule of God” with our non-believing co-workers. Why? Because as C.S. Lewis says, Christian or not, “human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.” Your co-workers likely agree that discrimination, fraud, and lying are wrong, even if you don’t quote the myriad of Scriptures that call these things sin. So if we aren’t going to run around saying, “Because the Bible tells me so,” how can we expose the darkness we see at work? Scripture gives us a terrific case study to help answer that question in Nehemiah 5. Some people had come to Nehemiah to complain that “their fellow Jews” were charging them interest (see Nehemiah 5:1-5). This was a serious violation of God’s law as outlined in Deuteronomy 23:19-20. What did Nehemiah do in response to this “darkness”? Five things. First, Nehemiah got “very angry” (see Nehemiah 5:6). Not anger that led to sin. But righteous anger at something that went against the Lord’s commands. Second, Nehemiah “pondered” the situation in his mind (see Nehemiah 5:7). He didn’t respond immediately. He was “quick to listen, [and] slow to speak” (see James 1:19).Third, Nehemiah made an explicit accusation saying, “You are charging your own people interest!...What you are doing is not right” (see Nehemiah 5:7-9).Fourth, Nehemiah spelled out what needed to happen to right the wrong, saying, “let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them” (see Nehemiah 5:10-11).And finally, Nehemiah held the guilty parties accountable. After they promised to repent, Nehemiah brought others in to hear the people “take an oath to do what they had promised” (see Nehemiah 5:12-13).Where do you see sin and darkness in your office or industry? Take a moment to ask the Lord whether or not he’s calling you to follow Nehemiah’s framework to expose that darkness for his greater glory.

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Wisdom for Work from NehemiahDevotional: 3 of 5…when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. (Nehemiah 4:7-9)Nehemiah was leading the people in rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, but they were met with considerable resistance and threats (see Nehemiah 4:7). How would Nehemiah and team respond? Today’s passage provides the answer: “we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat” (emphasis mine).The word “and” is the key to appreciating this text. Nehemiah and company didn’t just pray. They didn’t “let go and let God.” They trusted in prayer and the abilities God had given them to work and protect the wall.We see the same thing earlier in the book of Nehemiah. Even though Nehemiah knew “the gracious hand of...God was on [him]” he asked King Artaxerxes for protection as he traveled to Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2:7-9). As one commentator notes, “Apparently, Nehemiah did not believe that trusting God meant he should not seek the king’s protection for his journey.”Here’s my point: Trusting God and trusting human beings are not always mutually exclusive. Oftentimes, we demonstrate our trust in God by trusting in our work and the work of others.Let’s make this practical. Pretend you heard a rumor that your company will soon be issuing lay-offs. By all means, pray that you’ll keep your job and trust that God will meet your needs regardless of what happens. But you should also trust in your ability to search for a job, the programmers who build job boards, and the company that manufactured your laptop. In the words of theologian, J.I. Packer, “The Christian’s motto should not be ‘Let go and let God’ but ‘Trust God and get going.’”What challenges are you facing at work today? Trust God and get going, trusting in your work and the work of others to help you “meet this threat.”

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Wisdom for Work from NehemiahDevotional: 2 of 5Then I [Nehemiah] said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. (Nehemiah 2:17-18)As we saw last week, Nehemiah was a Jew in exile, working for King Artaxerxes of Persia (see Nehemiah 1:11 - 2:1) when he heard that his ancestral home of Jerusalem had been destroyed (Nehemiah 2:3). Decades before Nehemiah heard this news, another Jew, Ezra, led God’s people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (see Ezra 6:14-15). But today’s passage shows us that when Nehemiah made it to Jerusalem, the rest of the city remained “in ruins.” So Nehemiah led the people in the “good work” of restoring and renewing the city that surrounded the temple.This passage reminds us of an important truth we see throughout Scripture: God calls his people to both “sacred” and seemingly “secular” work—to work with both the spiritual and the material world. In fact, the word “spiritual” doesn’t even show up in the Old Testament. Why? “Because in a Hebrew worldview, all of life is spiritual,” says John Mark Comer. “I think if you had asked Jesus about his spiritual life…he would have asked…You mean my life? All of my life is spiritual.” Which is likely why Jesus showed no qualms about working with both the so-called “sacred” and “secular” realms, spending some years making tables and others making disciples.Jesus, Ezra, and Nehemiah remind us that the distinction between the spiritual and the material—viewing work inside the church as more important than work outside the church—is a human invention. It is not from God. The Lord calls people to build temples and cities. Both types of work can honor him. In the words of C.S. Lewis, work becomes "spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly ‘as to the Lord.’”Believer, the temple has been rebuilt through Christ in you (see 1 Corinthians 6:19), freeing you to go to work today and repair what else is broken in creation. So go and embrace your vocation—even one you may have previously deemed “secular”—as nothing less than God’s “good work” today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Wisdom for Work from NehemiahDevotional: 1 of 5I [Nehemiah] took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king (Nehemiah 2:1b-5a)Scripture commands that we “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, ESV). But what in the world does that look like at work? Today’s passage helps answer that question. But first, some context.Nehemiah was a Jew in exile, working faithfully as a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia (see Nehemiah 1:11) when one day, he heard that Jerusalem, “the city where [his] ancestors [were] buried,” was in ruins (Nehemiah 2:3). This grieved Nehemiah so much that King Artaxerxes asked him, “Why does your face look so sad?” After Nehemiah explained the source of his grief, the king asked him, “What is it you want?” And immediately after hearing the question, Nehemiah said he “prayed to the God of heaven and...answered the king.”This prayer couldn’t have been longer than a second, maybe two. It happened in the blink of an eye. There, in the middle of a conversation with his boss, Nehemiah prayed the simplest of prayers, acknowledging God and asking for his wisdom and help. You and I can do the same today.Praying without ceasing doesn’t necessitate that you hole away in your office praying for hours on end. That approach is likely to get you fired! But we, like Nehemiah, can pray continually by quickly asking for the Lord’s wisdom and favor as we send an email, deliver a pitch, or interact with a customer. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “I rarely pray for more than 5 minutes, but I never go 5 minutes without praying." That’s the idea here. As you work today, follow Spurgeon and Nehemiah’s examples in offering up ceaseless, split-second prayers to the Lord.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 7 of 7Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)The Association for Psychological Science describes a “scarcity mindset” as “people seeing life as a finite pie, so that if one person takes a big piece, that leaves less for everyone else.” The opposite is an “abundance mindset” which “refers to the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody.”In today’s passage, the Apostle Paul is calling believers to live their lives with a mindset of abundance. Why? Because we worship the God who owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10) who will ensure that “at all times” we will have “all that [we] need” to do his will. If we believe that, we will be willing to sacrifice for the good of others, knowing that God will not allow our needs to go unmet. This means you can sacrifice the spotlight on a project, knowing that God will give you all the attention you need to carry on “in every good work.” It means you can sacrifice time to help a struggling colleague, knowing that God will redeem whatever time you need to finish your to-do list. It means you can give generously to meet the needs of others, knowing that the Lord will not let you go hungry.Commenting on today’s passage, Jen Wilkin says, “Our lives should demonstrate that there is no such thing as scarcity when you are a child of God.” Amen. With the truth of this passage in mind, bring an abundant mindset to your work that enables you to sacrifice greatly for the good of others today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 6 of 7For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. (2 Corinthians 8:17-21)For years, my friend had sold millions of dollars in artwork featuring a passage of Scripture. Then he discovered that the Bible translation he was using in the artwork was copyrighted, which could have meant he owed the copyright owners a lot of money in royalties. The chances that the copyright holder would’ve ever noticed my friend’s oversight were slim to none. But my friend knew what he needed to do. So, he hired an expensive attorney, contacted the owner of the copyright, and offered to retroactively pay a huge sum of money in backdated royalties. In this scenario, my friend was an exemplary picture of what the Apostle Paul is talking about in today’s passage: “taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.”As Christ-followers, we are called to go the extra mile to be totally above reproach—especially at work where our actions are likely to be noticed by many unbelievers. This could mean paying for a few hours of an attorney’s time to make sure you’re above board in how you’re classifying employees and contractors, or asking your finance department the question you don’t want to ask because you’re afraid of the answer, or redoing a piece of work for a client at your own expense, because you know it wasn’t your best.Where do you need to “take pains to do what is right” today? Pray about and respond to that question so that your “ministry will not be discredited” (2 Corinthians 6:3).

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 5 of 7Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)The dictionary defines a “yoke” as “a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull.” When two animals are yoked together, they have no choice but to move in lockstep as they work. They are bound to the unilateral actions of the other. In the context of human relationships to be unequally yoked with unbelievers is, in the words of one commentary, “to be in a situation...that binds you to the decisions and actions of people who have values and purposes incompatible with Jesus’ values and purposes.”With that in mind, it’s clear that Paul is not saying we aren’t to befriend, work with, or purchase products and services from non-Christians. This interpretation would contradict much of Paul’s other writings (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, and Titus 2:9-10). Paul is saying that it is unwise to be yoked—that is conjoined with, in lockstep-with, joined-at-the-hip with—unbelievers, whether in business, marriage, or any other partnership.Why is this unwise? Because we have already been yoked with Christ (see Matthew 11:28-30)! Jesus is the one we are meant to move in lockstep with. Adding a third party who is trying to steer in a direction different from Christ’s is destined for conflict.If you are unequally yoked with someone at work, pray for God’s wisdom as to how to become unyoked. But if you are largely independent of the actions of the non-Christians you work with, praise God for the opportunity to work in ways that “will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” to them (see Titus 2:9-10).

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 4 of 7All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)On August 31, 2001, millions of children sat in front of their TVs to watch the final episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Eleven days later, a dramatically different scene unfolded on those same screens as the world watched terrorists fly airplanes into the World Trade Center. Recently retired, Mister Rogers was drafted back into service to help comfort children and their parents. After recognizing the horrific events of 9/11, Rogers ended his televised address on a hopeful note saying, “No matter what our particular job, especially in our world today, we all are called to be 'tikkun olam,' repairers of creation.”Given Rogers’s devout Christian faith, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had today’s passage in mind as he penned those words. Rogers understood that the Kingdom of God isn’t going to come in one fell swoop. It is going to come slowly like a mustard seed growing into a tree or yeast folding into dough (see Matthew 13:31-33). And it’s going to come at least in part through you and me—those who have been given what Paul calls “the ministry of reconciliation.”In today’s passage, Paul makes it clear that that ministry has two parts. On the one hand, we are to “implore” other people to “be reconciled to God.” But human beings aren’t the only thing in need of reconciliation. Paul says that God is “reconciling the world to himself.” The Greek word for “world” here is kosmos meaning that Christ’s redemption truly does flow “far as the curse is found.”What does this mean for our work? It means that the work you do to fix broken processes at work, fight for justice, create beauty, and share the gospel—all of it is a part of your “ministry of reconciliation.” God is “making his appeal” to a broken world "through [you],” believer. Be a joyful ambassador for him and his gospel today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 3 of 7So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)If you’re not careful, this well-known verse can be easily misinterpreted to mean that the only thing of eternal significance at work are the souls we come into contact with.But based on what we see throughout Scripture, we know that can’t be right. Isaiah 60 makes it clear that some of the things we make today will physically last forever. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul said that some of their work would “survive” God’s judgment (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). And of course, Jesus’s own ministry was just as much about redeeming the “seen” material world as it was about the “unseen” spiritual one. He turned water into wine, multiplied food, and spent as much time healing physical bodies as he did preaching to immaterial souls.OK, so if Paul is not telling us to ignore the material world of work, what does 2 Corinthians 4:18 mean? The answer is found in the context of this passage. In verse 17, Paul says, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” Paul’s not saying that the seen material world is bad and the unseen immaterial world is good. He’s saying that in light of the unseen eternal rewards awaiting those who persevere in the Lord, the “troubles” we can see in this life are relatively inconsequential.So, what troubles are you experiencing because of your faith today? Are you choosing to make less money so you can be at home to disciple your kids? Are you ostracized at work for sharing the gospel with your co-workers? Have you lost your job for calling out injustice within your company? The troubles these things produce are real and seen. But they cannot compare to the unseen “glory that far outweighs them all.” Fix your eyes on that hope today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: 2 Corinthians on WorkDevotional: 2 of 7Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. (2 Corinthians 2:12-13)As soon as I left the Zoom meeting, I knew I had screwed up. I was arrogant and defensive in response to a well-intentioned member of my team. My plan was to get back to writing as soon as the call ended, but I couldn’t. I just stared at a blinking cursor knowing that I had to make peace with my team member before I did anything else. Today’s passage was on my mind as I did. It appears that Paul had sent Titus to deliver a severe letter of rebuke to the Corinthians (see 2 Corinthians 2:3-4). But the lack of response appears to have left Paul feeling troubled. So troubled that he couldn’t focus on his work because he "had no peace of mind.” I imagine Paul felt a bit like you and I do the moment after we fire off an angry email. Only Paul didn’t have the luxury of an unsend feature. In the words of one commentary, “[Paul] simply could not attend to his work, his very passion, because of the anguish he felt over his strained relationship with the Corinthian believers.” So what does Paul do? He leaves Troas in order to make things right. Here we see Paul heeding his own command to “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).Here’s my question for you today: Who are you not at peace with right now? A team member you sent a terse message to? A co-worker you suspect might have something against you? A spouse you spoke rashly to this morning?We can’t always drop our work at a moment’s notice to pursue peace. After all, our relationships and our tasks matter to God. But Scripture is clear that we are called to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone” (Hebrews 12:14). Pursue peace with those you are in conflict with today!