Analyzing Labor Education in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul: The Education of Labor in the Bible, #34

By Bible Sermons

Several work-related lessons can be drawn from the apostle Paul. Some of the valuable lessons that can be learned include:

 

1. work with dedication and excellence-Paul emphasized the importance of performing work diligently and giving one's best. In his writings, he encouraged believers to work as unto the Lord, recognizing that a job well done is a way of honoring God.

2. Finding satisfaction in work: Although Paul was an apostle and preacher, he also made his living as a tentmaker. Through his example, one can learn to find satisfaction and meaning even in seemingly ordinary or less prestigious jobs. He taught the importance of doing what you can to serve God and others through your work.

3. Selfless service: The apostle Paul promoted the idea of serving others without expectation of reward or personal recognition. He urged his followers to work with humility, seeking the welfare of others before their own. This mentality can help create a more cooperative and harmonious work environment.

In summary, by studying the writings of the Apostle Paul, one can learn important lessons related to work, such as performing with dedication and excellence, finding satisfaction and meaning in work, serving unselfishly, valuing work-life balance, and working with integrity and honesty. These lessons can be applied to any field of work and help cultivate a positive, ethical attitude toward work. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seminit Publications
• Release date: Apr 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224703760

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Introduction to Romans

Paul's letter to the Romans is known primarily for its vision of God's gracious actions for humanity through the cross and resurrection of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes ( Rom 1:16 ). There is something very wrong with us individually and in the world as a whole, from which we need salvation, and Romans tells us about the way God saves us from it.

Romans is deeply theological, but it is not abstract. God's salvation is not a concept for analytical discourse in Romans, but a call to action (Rom 6:22). Paul speaks of how God's salvation affects our wisdom, honesty, relationships, judgment, our ability to withstand setbacks, our character and ethical reasoning, all of which are essential to our work. Here, in the essence of human relationships and the desire to do a good job, is where God's salvation takes root in our world.

Written during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero (54-68 B.C.), the letter to the Romans hints at the darkness and danger that surrounded the house churches in Rome, including both Jewish and Gentile converts to Christ. Some of the Jewish members of the congregations had been exiled by an edict of the emperor Claudius in 49 and had recently returned, perhaps having lost their property and financial stability in the process (Acts 18:2). Surely anti-Jewish sentiment in the widespread Roman culture put pressure on the Christian churches. Paul's broad reflection on God's faithfulness to both Jews and Gentiles in this letter was not a summary reflecting on God's ways, but a skillful theological reflection on these historical events and their consequences. The result is a set of practical tools for making moral decisions that lead to a new quality of life where people live and work.

The letter to the Romans has been exceptionally important in the development of Christian theology. To give just two examples, Martin Luther broke from the ideals of Pope Leo X in large part because of his disagreement with what he perceived to be the Roman Catholic Church's perspective on the book of Romans. And it is possible that Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans was the most influential theological work of the twentieth century. In the last twenty-five to thirty years a great theological debate has emerged regarding the relationship between salvation and good works in Romans and the rest of Paul's letters, known as the New Perspective on Paul. The general commentaries on Romans explore these issues in detail. Here we will focus specifically on what the letter contributes to the theology of work. Of course, we must have a basic understanding of Paul's general ideas before applying them to the work, so we will study the general theology to some extent as necessary.

The gospel of salvation - Paul's vocation (Romans 1:1-17)

The first verse of Romans announces Paul's proper vocation, the work that God has called him to do: to proclaim the gospel of God in word and deed. What, then, is the gospel of God? Paul says it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed by faith and for faith; as it is written, 'But the just shall live by faith' ( Rom 1:16-17 ). For Paul, the gospel is more than words-it is the power of God for salvation. He emphasizes that this salvation is not just for a group of people, but is designed to help anyone on earth become part of God's people by faith. So Romans is above all about God's salvation.

What is salvation? Salvation is the work of God that brings human beings into right relationship with God and with each other. As we will see in a moment, we are saved from broken relationships-with God and with people-which bring about the evil forces of sin and death in the world. Salvation, therefore, is first of all the healing of broken relationships, beginning with the healing that reconciles the Creator with the created, God and us. Our reconciliation with God leads to freedom from sin and to a new life that is not limited by death.

Sometimes, Christians reduce Paul's gospel of salvation to something like, believe in Jesus so that you can go to heaven when you die. This is true, within its limitations, but it is grossly insufficient. To begin with, a statement like that says nothing about relationships except the one between the individual and God, but Paul never fails to talk about relationships between people and between people and the rest of God's creation. Paul has much more to say about faith, about life in Jesus, about the kingdom of God, and about the quality of life before and after death, which could never be encapsulated in a single slogan.

Likewise, salvation cannot be reduced to a single moment in time. Paul says that we have been saved (Rom 8:24) and that we shall be saved (e.g., Rom 5:9). Salvation is an ongoing process, not a one moment event. God interacts with each person in a dance of divine grace and human faithfulness over time. Of course, there are turning points in the process of being saved. The central moments are Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Paul tells us that, we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (Rom 5:10) and the same who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (Rom 8:11).

Each of us might also consider that a turning point in our salvation was the first time we said we believed in Christ. However, Romans never speaks of a moment of personal salvation, as if salvation were an event that happened to us in the past and is now stored up until Christ returns. Paul uses the past tense of salvation only to speak of Christ's death and resurrection, the moment when He brought salvation to the world. When it comes to every believer, Paul speaks of an ongoing process of salvation, always in the present and future tenses. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:10). It does not say in the past tense believed or confessed, but believes and confesses, present tense. This leads directly to, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, future tense (Rom 10:13). Salvation is not something that was given to us, but it is something that is given to us.

We take the trouble to emphasize the ongoing action of salvation because work is one of the preeminent places where we act in life. If salvation were something that only happened to us in the past, then what we do at work (or in any aspect of life) would be irrelevant. But if salvation is something that is happening in our life, then it bears fruit in our work. To be more precise, since salvation is the reconciliation of broken relationships, then our relationships at work (as everywhere else in life) with God, with other people and with the created world will be improving as the process of salvation takes hold. To give just a few examples, our salvation is evident when we are courageous enough to speak an unpopular truth, listen to the perspective of others with compassion, help our colleagues achieve their goals, and produce labor fruits that help other people prosper.

Does this mean that we must work - and keep working - to be saved? Absolutely not! Salvation comes only through the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15). It is by faith (Rom 4:16) and nothing else. As N. T. Wright puts it, whatever language or terminology we use to speak of the great gift that the true God has given His people in and through Jesus Christ, He still calls it precisely a gift. It is never something we can earn. We can never make God owe us anything, but will always be indebted to Him. We do not work to be saved, but because we are being saved, we do work that bears fruit for God (Rom 7:4). We will return to the question of how salvation is given to us in Judgment, righteousness and faith later in Romans 3.

Our need for salvation in life and work (Romans 1:18-32)

We saw in Romans 1:1-17 that salvation begins with reconciliation with God. People have distanced themselves from God because of their ungodliness and unrighteousness ( Ro 1:18 ). For though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him ( Rom 1:21 ). We were created to walk in intimacy with God among the creatures in the Garden of Eden (Gen 1-2), but our relationship with Him has become so broken that we no longer even recognize God. Paul calls it a state of depraved mind ( Rom 1:28 ).

Lacking the courage to stay in the presence of the real God, we try to create our own gods. We are the ones who have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things (Rom 1:23). Our relationship with God is so deeply broken that we cannot tell the difference between walking with God and carving an idol. When our real relationship with the true God is broken, we create false relationships with false gods. Idolatry, then, is not just one sin among many, but is the essence of a broken relationship with God. (For more on idolatry, see "Thou shalt not make thyself an idol," Exodus 20:4).

When our relationship with God is broken, our relationships with other people are also broken. The following is Paul's list of some of the broken aspects of human relationships:

Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malignity; they are gossips, backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, ruthless (Rom 1:29-31).

Almost all of these evidences of broken relationships are experienced at work. Greed, quarreling and envy for the possessions or paychecks of others, malice and disobedience toward some authority, gossip and slander of co-workers and competition, deceit and being untrustworthy in communications and engagements, insolence, arrogance and boasting of those experiencing success, lack of understanding in decisions, lack of love and cruelty of those in power. Of course, the situation is not like this in all cases. Some workplaces are better and some are worse, but everyone has seen the consequences of broken relationships. We all suffer them. We all contribute to their occurrence.

We may even compound the problem by making the job itself an idol, dedicating ourselves to work in the vain hope that it alone will bring us meaning, purpose, security or happiness. This may seem to work for a while, until we are passed over for a promotion or laid off or retire. Then we discover that the job ends and in the process we become strangers to our family and friends. Like man, birds, four-footed animals and creeping things, work was created by God (Gen 2:15) and is inherently good, although it becomes evil when we elevate it to the place of God.

We have all sinned (Romans 2-3)

Sadly, this rupture extends even to Paul's own workplace, the Christian church, and in particular to the Christians in Rome. Despite being God's people ( Rom 9:25 ), called to be holy ( Rom 1:7 ), Christians in Rome are experiencing a rift in their relationships with one another. Specifically, Jewish Christians are judging Gentile Christians for not acting according to their own peculiar expectations and vice versa. Paul indicates that they say, And we know that the judgment of God justly falls on those who practice such things ( Rom 2:2 ). Each party claims to know God's judgments and speak for God. Declaring that they speak for God makes their own words into idols, illustrating in miniature how idolatry (the breaking of relationship with God) leads to judgment (the breaking of relationships with other people).

Both sides are wrong. The truth is that both Gentiles and Jews have turned away from God. The Gentiles, who should have recognized God's sovereignty in creation itself, have given themselves over to idol worship and all the destructive behaviors that arise from this fundamental error (Rom 1:18-32). The Jews, on the other hand, have become judgmental, hypocritical and boastful because they are the people of the Torah. Paul summarizes both situations by saying, For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law (Rom 2:12).

But the crux of the problem is not that each side misunderstands God's expectations. It is that each side judges the other, destroying the relationships God has established. It is crucial to recognize the role of judgment in Paul's argument. Judgment causes the breakdown of relationships. The specific sins found in Romans 1:29-31 are not the causes of our broken relationships, but the results. The causes of our broken relationships are idolatry (toward God) and judgment (toward people). In fact, idolatry can be understood as a form of judgment, the judgment that God is not enough and that we can create better gods ourselves. Thus, Paul's dominant concern in chapters 2 and 3 is our judgment of others.

Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for in judging another, thou condemnest thyself, because thou that judgest practiceest the same things. And we know that the judgment of God justly falls on those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who condemn those who practice such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? (Ro 2:1-3)

If we ask ourselves what we have done that we need salvation, the answer above all else is judgment and idolatry, according to Paul's words. We judge others, even though we have no right to do so and therefore, we bring God's judgment upon us because He works to restore true righteousness. To use a modern metaphor, it is like the Supreme Court overthrowing a corrupt judge in a lower court that did not even have jurisdiction in the first place.

Does this mean that Christians should never evaluate people's actions or oppose others at work? No. Because we work as God's representatives, we have a duty to evaluate whether things happening in our workplace further or hinder God's purposes and to act accordingly (see Ro 12:9-13:7 for some examples from Paul). A supervisor may have to discipline or fire an employee who is not doing his job satisfactorily. A worker may have to go to a higher authority than his or her supervisor to report a violation of ethics or policy. A teacher may have to give a failing grade. Maybe a voter or politician must oppose a candidate. Perhaps an activist should protest a government or corporate injustice. A student may need to report that another student cheated. A victim of abuse or discrimination may need to stop having contact with the abuser.

Since we are accountable to God for the results of our work and the integrity of our workplace, we must evaluate people's actions and intentions and act to prevent injustice and do good work. But this does not mean that we can judge the worth of others as human beings or that we believe we are morally superior. Even if we object to the actions of others, we do not judge them.

It may sometimes be difficult to tell the difference, but Paul gives us surprisingly practical guidance. We must respect other people's consciences. God has created all people in such a way that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness (Rom 2:15). If others are genuinely following their conscience, then it is not your job to judge them. But if you are putting yourself in a morally superior place, condemning others for following your own moral guidance, you are probably judging in a way for which you are without excuse (Ro 2:1).

Judgment, righteousness and faith (Romans 3)

Judgment, the source of broken relationships (Romans 3:1-20)

What can be done with a world of people whose idolatry separates them from God and whose judgment separates them from one another? The true righteousness of God is the answer. In Romans 3, when Paul describes what happens in salvation, he puts it in terms of God's righteousness. Our unrighteousness brings out the righteousness of God ( Rom 3:5 ).

Before we continue, we should talk a little about the terminology of justice and righteousness. Paul uses the Greek word for righteousness, dikaiosynē and its various forms, thirty-six times in Romans. It is translated as justice (in the sense of righteousness) most frequently, and as righteousness (in the sense of each having what is due him) or justification less frequently. The two senses are the same in Paul's language. The term dikaiosynē is used primarily in courts of law, where people seek justice to restore a situation that is not right. Thus, salvation means being in the right place with God (justice in the sense of righteousness) and with other people and all of creation (justice in the sense of everyone having his or her due). A full exploration of the relationship between the words salvation, justification and justice (in the sense of righteousness) is beyond the scope of this chapter, but is addressed by any general commentary on Romans.

If this seems abstract, ask yourself if you can see concrete implications at work. Is it true that the (false) judgments people make of each other are at the root of broken relationships and injustices where you work? For example, if a manager and an employee have a disagreement regarding the employee's performance appraisal, which causes greater harm: the performance gap itself or the hostility that arises from the judgment of both? Or if someone gossips about someone else at work, which causes greater harm: the embarrassment over what was said in the gossip or the resentment over the judgment that was revealed in the gossiper's tone and the snickering of those who heard it?

If our false judgments are the root of our broken relationships with God, with other people and with creation, how can we ever find salvation? We are really unable to achieve