Called to Rule and Reign (Faith & Work Series 4 of 6)

During the time of Moses, kings of the Ancient Near East presented themselves as bearing the image of God, as God’s representative vice-regents on the earth. In order to assert their dominion over a particular territory, the kings would often erect statues bearing their image.

The concept of the image of God was only used in reference to a few supreme rulers of nations. For example, Pharaoh was the only ruler in Egypt who bore the title “the image of God.” So it came as quite a shock for the people of Israel to learn from Moses’ creation account that God created each one of them in his image. Never before had the image of God referred to a normal person.

According to the creation accounts of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the creation of man is an afterthought. Humans are normally presented as the slaves or “the cattle” of the gods. But being created in God’s image communicates the intrinsic worth and dignity of not only who we are but what we do.

When God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion” (Gen 1:26), he inseparably ties our image bearing nature with our task of having dominion over creation. Like statues erected by an ancient king to represent his dominion, we now bear the image of God and signify his dominion over all the small domains of our lives in the temple of God’s world.

The concept of having dominion over creation by ruling and reigning over it is foreign to most people. At first, it seems contrary to the humble life and teachings of Jesus who said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matt 5:5)” It’s one thing for us to “inherit” the earth, whatever that means, but to rule over it seems arrogant, even tyrannical.

It’s confusing until we understand what the Bible teaches about God’s call for all of his image bearers to rule and reign with Jesus Christ on the earth. The meek Galilean of the first century is now the resurrected and reigning Lord of lords and King of kings at the right hand of the Father ruling over all things.

The Scriptures teach that we are not waiting for Jesus’ return for him to rule over the earth. Instead, the good news is that “God reigns” (Is 52:7, Rom 10:15) now over all things through Jesus Christ, and when he returns his rule over all things will finally be unveiled for all to see.

The Apostle John gives us an amazing glimpse into Jesus’ final battle as the Lamb returns to earth as the Lord of lords and King of Kings. “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.” (Rev 17:14)

Who are these “called and chosen and faithful” people ruling and reigning with Jesus over the earth at his return? The Scriptures tell us they are not an elite few, but a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation redeemed by the blood of the Lamb to carry out God’s original mission for humanity and creation to rule and subdue the earth through their work (Rev 5:9-10).

The Apostle Paul teaches that just as Jesus’ rule on earth has already begun, so our rule and reign with Christ has already begun. God means for our present ruling and reigning with Christ over all our domains in the world to be a foretaste of our future ruling and reigning with Christ in the world to come.

Therefore, Paul tells Timothy, his son in the faith, “if we endure, we will also reign with him. (2 Timothy 2:12)” Paul also refers to our being “raised up with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places” as the very heart of the gospel message that “by grace you have been saved.”

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7)

Paul immediately follows these words with famous statement, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)”

But many people fail to read Paul’s next concluding, important verse: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10)

God’s goal for saving us by his grace, raising us up, and seating us with Christ in the heavenly places is “for good works.” So Paul tells us that we are God’s “workmanship.” The Greek word Paul uses here for “workmanship” is poiēma (ποίημα).

Paul uses this word one other time, in Romans 1:20, in reference to the “works” of God in his creation of the world. But here Paul uses the word “workmanship,” not to describe an individual believer, but to describe the one body of believers God has now created from Jews and Gentiles for good works. (Eph 2:14-16)

Then Paul makes a mysterious statement about these good works: “God prepared them beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Before we were even born, God prepared our good works to be a part of his unfolding plan for the world. Thus, we have no reason to ever boast about God’s work in and through us. 

So what are these “good works” that cannot save us but that we’ve been created and now re-created in Christ to do? Jesus gave us a great summary of these good works in the Great Commandment:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37-40)

These good works of loving God and others are meant to encompass every area of our lives, including not only our families and churches, but also our work where many spend most of their hours in a normal day.

And even though all these areas of our lives are corrupt and broken by sin, God has created and recreated us in Christ to rule and reign with him over all of them as his vice-regents to make his invisible kingdom more visible.

What greater privilege could there be than to use all the resources at our disposal to help make “God’s kingdom come and will be done (in all our own domains) on earth as it is in heaven?”

Designed for Influence (Faith & Work Series 3 of 6)

As we compare and contrast the imagery of Genesis 1 with Genesis 2, we go from a picture of God exercising ultimate sovereignty over all creation, to God exercising his same sovereign rule over just a few people, cultivating a small patch of the earth called a garden, in a real place called Eden.

Although God’s original creation was good, it wasn’t complete. The garden God planted in Eden was a paradise, but it was a newly planted paradise that still needed to be cultivated to reach its full potential. This is why Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

From the beginning God created his image bearers to be his developers of creation according to his design and for his purposes. If Adam and Eve had obeyed God and never sinned, their work as God’s coworkers, developing his good creation into an even better one, would have continued for eternity.

The garden paradise God planted was only in the eastern part of Eden. (Gen 2:8) From Eden, God meant for Adam and Eve’s dominion and work to also extend beyond the boundaries of Eden, including regions like the one east of Eden where Cain settled. (Gen 4:16)

Eventually God meant for Adam and Eve’s dominion and work to be like that of kingdom-priests transforming the earth into part of a cosmic sanctuary that brings glory and honor to the King. God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth [not just the garden paradise] and subdue it.” (Gen 1:28)

How were Adam and Eve to accomplish their work of filling and subduing the whole earth?

According to Genesis 1:28 it involved two things: their procreation and their vocation. Their procreation involved filling the earth with their offspring. Their vocation involved exercising their dominion and subduing the earth by their work and the work of their descendants.

When God told Adam and Eve on the sixth day to be fruitful and multiply, this was not just a command. God was blessing them, similar to how he blessed the animal world on the fifth day. “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’” (Gen 1:22)

So God is saying to Adam and Eve: Be blessed by having many children who will have many descendants for generations who will bear my image and carry out my work. God’s plan was not merely for humans to reproduce physical offspring, but for a man and woman to be in a holy covenant that reproduces holy offspring, set apart as image bearers for the work of God on earth.

Throughout Scripture, God’s pattern is to accomplish his purposes in the world by blessing his people as they reproduce and rule over creation. (Gen 3:15, Gen 12, 15, 17, 2 Sam 7:10, 1 Cor 7:14, Gal 4:4, Heb 2:14) This is why the Psalmist writes:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
    the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man
    who fills his quiver with them! (Ps 127:3-5)

Therefore, the purpose of Adam and Eve’s procreation was so that their descendants, the image bearers that filled the earth, would carry out their vocations of subduing the earth. The Hebrew word translated subdue means to bring under one’s control and into one’s service.

So how were Adam and Eve to subdue the earth by carrying out their vocation?

The Bible tells us in Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” These two Hebrew words can be translated “to work” (לְעָבְדָ֖ה) and “to keep” (לְשָׁמְרָֽהּ). They can also be translated “to develop and to take care of” or “to cultivate and to preserve or protect.”

God assigns each of us certain gardens or sub-kingdoms or spheres of influence in the world that he expects us to be cultivating and protecting so they can reach their full potential according to his kingdom purposes.

The result of our cultivating and protecting God’s creative order under our influence is called culture. The meaning of culture does not refer to high intellectual or aesthetic pursuits in things like literature and art. We often speak of the elite of a society as being “cultured.”

Instead, culture should be seen as a description of the unique ways that societies live and govern their lives.[1] It includes a society’s language and customs. But culture is more than outward behaviors. It also includes the values that motivate the behaviors, and the beliefs that underlie these motives. And all cultures have worldviews that shape a society’s understanding of reality.

To be someone who is human is to be someone who shapes culture. Because we are image bearers, we cannot not be culture shapers just as we cannot not be worshipers. In our worship the issue is not whether we worship but what we worship. Likewise, in culture, the issue is not whether we shape culture but how.

How did the first humans shape their culture?

In Genesis 1 and 2 we see the first primitive forms of culture emerging, such as the beginnings of language (naming animals), marriage (Adam and Eve), work (gardening), and even worship through poetry (Adam’s praise to God for Eve in Gen 2:23).

Author Richard Mouw speculates that when Adam and Eve took something from nature and turned it into a tool, we see a primal form of technology. When they called the tool a rake, instead of a plant, they created a word and labeling system so all other future tools would not be called rakes. And when they decided they would take turns working, they created the first distribution of labor.

We don’t need to speculate much regarding the first formations of culture. By the time we get to Genesis 4, we find accounts of the founders of three cultural traditions: Jabal, “the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock”; Jubal, “the father of all who play the harp and flute”; and Tubal-Cain, “who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.”

God designs us in his image so that we will cultivate and protect all the spheres of life he places under our influence, in order to accomplish his will on the earth. The reason we long to make a difference in the world is because God designed us to.

We are designed to glorify and enjoy God by cultivating and keeping things that are true, good, and beautiful. We’re meant to promote truth, nurture goodness, and create objects of beauty.

We’re not designed to tolerate injustice and poverty, to be content with corruption and disease, or to suppress creativity and expression. This is why we’re compelled to fight back against all the brokenness in the world until all things are made new.

This is what it means to be fully human and flourish according to God’s design.

[1] Here's a helpful definition of culture developed by the Lausanne Movement: “Culture is an integrated system of beliefs, values, customs, and institutions which binds a society together and gives it a sense of identity, dignity, security, and continuity.”

Work as Worship (Faith & Work Series 2 of 6)

Earlier we learned in Scripture that the paradise God created was perfect, but it was not complete. Everything was good, but it was not yet what God intended. God’s purpose was to make everything he created even better through the work of his image bearers as his “sub-workers.”

We’re now taking a deeper look at God’s original purpose for work found in the first chapter of Genesis. In the beginning God describes human work in its very primitive, earliest form as exercising authority over his creation as his representatives. In Genesis 1:28, we read that after God created Adam and Eve, he blessed them and said to them:

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

God presents the human task as primarily two things: multiplying and ruling over all the animals on the earth. Multiplying includes being fruitful and filling the earth. And subduing or ruling includes having dominion.

In the original context of the writing of Genesis, the ancient Near East, the rule of the earth refers primarily to the development of animal husbandry and agriculture, which were the basic elements of human society at that time. But as history and Scripture unfold, we soon learn this ultimately included all the more developed aspects of culture and society.

Many are surprised to learn that the initial purpose of humanity is not portrayed in Scripture as something seemingly more spiritual, like worship. Instead the primary human task is described by God as a much more mundane sounding activity like engaging our environment in work.

The problem is that people normally separate worship and work in a way that God doesn’t. Most of us see worship as merely engaging our heart’s affections by offering up our prayers and praise to God. That is worship, but biblical worship is much more.

The Scriptures teach that the essence of worship is bringing honor and glory to God for who he is and for all he does. This is why the biblical concept of our worship of God cannot be fully understood apart from our service to God. Thus, the historic Christian concept of understanding our worship as service and our service as worship.

So from Genesis chapter one onward, humans are given the task of bringing honor and glory to God (worship) through carrying out his will on the earth (service). We see this same perspective toward worship in the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Roman Christians when he writes:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1).

 In the remaining verses in Romans 12, Paul describes what spiritual worship looks like, and it doesn’t look like prayers and praise to God. Instead, in Romans 12:6, Paul writes to the Roman Christians, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them.” Then Paul gives them practical examples of spiritual worship based on the unique gifts God has given them. He writes,

If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom 12:6-8).

So what is spiritual worship?

It’s bringing honor and glory to God by using the unique gifts he has given us to carry out his will on the earth. For some, spiritual worship looks like preaching, teaching, exhorting, and leading. But for others, their spiritual worship is offered to God much more behind the scenes in their serving, giving, and acts of mercy.

Paul is not teaching that our spiritual worship should be limited to so called “spiritual activities” we do in or through the church. Instead, to the Corinthian Christians Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).

The Scriptures present worship as more than the gathering of God’s people once a week for praying, singing, preaching, etc. God also calls us to worship him all the other days of the week as we bring honor and glory to him in all we do, including our work and leisure.

Therefore, the Scriptures present worship to us as much more than a religious gathering of people carrying out spiritual rituals and traditions like reading, singing, and praying. Instead, the Bible presents worship to us in a much deeper, broader, and more comprehensive way that involves every aspect of life.

Theologians use the Latin phrase Coram Deo to describe this understanding of worship. The term Coram Deo refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before (Coram) the face of God (Deo). R.C. Sproul writes, “To live corem Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.”[1]

This means that our worship involves our relationship with God in a much broader sense. It also involves our relationships with ourselves, others, and our relationship with all of creation in its fullest sense through our work. This is why Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians:

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Col 3:23-24

God created the human race in his image and likeness for two primary reasons: to worship him and to serve him by carrying out his will on the earth. And one of the most significant ways God means for you to worship him is by serving him in and through your work.

Paul told the Corinthian believers why they should seek to bring honor and glory to God, not only with their souls, but also with their bodies in all areas of their lives. He writes, “You were bought with a price. So you must honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor 6:20).

When God, through Jesus Christ, redeemed you with his precious blood, and when the Holy Spirit made you a new creature in Christ, it was all for a high and holy purpose. It was so that God’s name would be honored, and his kingdom would come, and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven–through your life and work.

In the next article, we’ll take a deeper look in Genesis 2 at how God means for us to carry out his will in our work.

[1] www.ligonier.org, http://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-does-coram-deo-mean/

Created to Work (Faith & Work Series 1 of 6)

In the beginning, God worked. In the first chapter of Scripture God is at work in creation. The Old Testament Hebrew word used to describe God’s acts of creation is the same word used for human work.

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. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Gen 2:1-3

God not only works but takes great delight in his work. The Scriptures tell us when God saw everything he made, he declared that it was good.

On the final day of creation, God made man the pinnacle of his workmanship, saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). The Psalmist praises God for man’s exalted place, “You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps 8:5).

God created a majestic paradise on earth. The Hebrew word “shalom” gives us a glimpse into the goodness of this paradise. Shalom is the biblical word for complete fulfillment, happiness, and joy.  In Paradise, everything was the way it was supposed to be.

It was a perfect environment including perfect relationships with God, self, others and creation. There was no pain, suffering, disease, sickness or death. Adam and Eve loved and obeyed God’s will in thought, word and deed. This is the picture the bible paints for us of ultimate flourishing as his image bearers on the earth. It’s heaven on earth.

We often envision paradise as an ideal place to experience leisure and pleasure with no responsibility or work. But when we look again at the biblical picture of paradise, it doesn’t look like that.

In Genesis 2:15 we read, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” After God completes his work of creation, he puts man in paradise to work. We’ll explore the fuller meaning of the phrase “to work it and keep it,” later in the course. But for now, our focus is on the Bible’s positive view of work. 

In the beginning God worked and then he created us in his image to work. God put man into paradise to work before sin entered the world. The fall of man into sin and the curse on humanity and creation doesn’t happen until the next chapter, Genesis 3.

Therefore, work is not part of a curse from God and a necessary evil because of sin. Instead, it’s a blessing from God he means to help give our lives purpose so we will flourish according to his design. Work is God’s gift to us that needs to be redeemed and restored to its original purpose in our lives by Jesus Christ.

In these articles we’re studying a biblical view of work. Our focus is on integrating our faith with our work, thus the title “Faith and Work.” We’ll see how our work is not only a means of personal benefit but also a contribution to the common good for the glory God.

The essential biblical truth we’re exploring in this course is that all human work is not just a job but a calling from God.

In the Medieval age, most churches saw human work as only a physical necessity for sustaining life and putting bread on the table. Work was a hardship to endure. It had no real spiritual value. Being called by God became synonymous in most circles with being called to be a member of the clergy – a priest, monk, or nun.

However, the Protestant Reformers recovered a biblical view of work as a calling from God at the very center of God’s purpose for all followers of Jesus. Luther and Calvin argued from Scripture that all work is as much a calling from God as the ministry of a priest or monk. They denounced the false, unbiblical dichotomy between faith and work.

Luther once wrote, “a farmer in the field or his wife in the kitchen doing their work by faith to the glory of God is as high and holy a calling as a preacher in the pulpit.” Luther saw our work as the instrument through which God works to care for us and provide for us. So when we work, Luther wrote, “We are the fingers of God.”

Also the Reformers saw work as the instrument God uses to provide for others in the church and society as a common good for the glory of God. In one of Luther’s open letters in 1520, he writes:

A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another.

The Reformers also recovered the biblical view of work as continuing God’s creative work of building a world that brought glory to God.

In the beginning, the paradise God created was perfect, but it was not complete. Everything was good. However, God’s purpose was to make everything even better through the work of his image bearers. God’s good creation still had deep, untapped potential for development that humans were to unlock and cultivate through their work.

The Scriptures teach that God’s work in the world did not stop at creation. Rather, it began there as a majestic display of his providence. When God “rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Gen 2:2), that doesn’t mean that God just sat back, folded his arms, and watched man work.

Instead, as soon as God rested from his original work of creation, he immediately began his sovereign work of providence.  This work includes developing his purposes for creation through his image bearers as his “sub-workers.” God continues his work on earth today through us as we align our work with his.

Even after the fall of humanity in sin, God continues his work in the world today through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17). In Jesus’ prayer to the Father at the end of his earthly ministry, he prayed “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4).

The good news is that God’s creation, ruined by humanity’s sin, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by his Holy Spirit into the Kingdom of God. The heart of this good news is God restoring all things lost in creation because of sin.

This good news includes not only restoring our broken relationship with God, ourselves, and others. It also includes restoring our broken relationship with creation by recovering God’s original purpose for our work.

So in the next article, we’ll take a deeper look at God’s original purpose for work in Scripture.

The Practice of Mercy (Mercy Series 6 of 6)

How we understand and define poverty will determine the practical methods we use to help alleviate poverty. For example, if we think the root cause of poverty is a lack of material things, then our solution will focus mostly on giving material things to the poor.

If we think the root cause of poverty is oppression from unjust governments, our solution will focus on working for social justice.  If we think the source of poverty is mostly sickness, our focus will be on providing health care to the poor. And if we believe poverty’s root is a lack of knowledge, we’ll focus on helping bring education to the poor.

In these articles, we’ve established from Scripture that the root cause of poverty is ultimately broken relationships with God, ourselves, others, and creation. This means we’re all poor, just in different ways, because each of us experiences some form of brokenness in all four foundational relationships.

Therefore, showing mercy to the poor is primarily a ministry of reconciliation, helping alleviate their suffering by strengthening their broken relationships with God, self, others, and creation.

To be effective in our ministry to the poor, we must realize that one approach or method will not work well in every situation. We must determine which of three general approaches will best serve the poor at a particular time and place. The failure to distinguish the appropriate approach can result in doing more harm than good.

The first approach is called “Relief.” Relief is appropriate when people are not capable of helping themselves. Brian Fikkert, co-author of the book When Helping Hurts, writes, “Relief can be defined as the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis.”

Jesus illustrates relief to the poor in his story of the Good Samaritan who stops everything in order to provide emergency care for the man who was beaten, robbed, and left by the side of the road. The Apostle Paul’s financial collections among all the churches is another example of providing relief to the hungry and poor at the Jerusalem church.

But we must always remember that some people are so critically ill and near death that they cannot help themselves. Effective mercy ministry to them is often just being with them and providing them comfort until they die.

The second approach is called “Rehabilitation.” This is appropriate when people can participate to some degree in their own recovery from a crisis. Fikkert writes: “Rehabilitation begins as soon as the bleeding stops; it seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions.”

The third approach to showing mercy to the poor is called “Development.” This is appropriate when people are able to participate in improving their lives beyond their long-standing levels of poverty. Fikkert writes, “Development is not done to people or for people but with people.”

The development approach involves walking with the poor through a long-term, holistic reconciliation process that helps them alleviate their suffering and flourish by strengthening their relationships with God, self, others, and creation.

To be effective in showing mercy to the poor, we must determine which of these approaches is appropriate. One of the most common mistakes well-intentioned people make is using a relief approach with people who need rehabilitation or development. Giving temporary relief handouts of material assistance to people who need long-term rehabilitation and development is likely to do harm.

So what’s needed to help your church have an effective mercy ministry to the poor?

First, prepare your church for mercy ministry no matter how new or old your church. It’s not just the materially poor who struggle with addictions, mental illness, broken families, and unemployment, etc.

A mercy ministry is required in your church no matter what socio-economic group makes up your church or community. This involves preaching and teaching about the importance of ministries of mercy, as well as equipping and modeling mercy ministries to the poor both inside and outside the church.

On a practical level, this normally includes the church leaders establishing guidelines and policies for how the church will respond to the needs of the poor. These policies will differ between churches based on each church’s unique resources and communities. Randy Nabors created a series of questions to help churches establish their own policies, including:

• Who has priority in receiving help?

• What kind of help will you give?

• What kind of help will you not give?

• What is the limit of your help?

• What structure will you use for members?

• What structure will you use for strangers?

• Who makes decisions on exceptions?

• When do you call in the church leaders?

 
Regarding our priorities in assistance, since the Apostle Paul teaches in Galatians 6:10 that we should “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith,” we should give priority to caring for church members and their families. Some churches also give priority to people in their immediate community and to specialized mercy ministries.

Another way to help mobilize your church to have an effective mercy ministry is to diagnose the unique needs and brokenness in your church and community. This can be done by conducting informal and/or formal surveys inside and outside your church. A helpful question to consider answering is, “What are ways that sin has uniquely damaged our church and community?” This can help you determine the levels and forms of injustice, hunger, sickness, racism, prejudice, greed, materialism, etc.

But when diagnosing the needs of the poor inside and outside of the church, you must avoid having an inordinate focus on what is wrong with the poor that needs to be “fixed” by those outside of their community. The assumption that the solutions for poverty must come from people outside their community is often wrong, arrogant, and exacerbates their feelings of inferiority or the outsiders’ feelings of superiority.

Instead, effective mercy ministry starts by focusing on the gifts, abilities, and assets God has given to the poor, and it always includes the poor in the design, development, and implementation of mercy ministries.

Although every church should have its own mercy ministries under the oversight of church elders and deacons, it’s often wise and helpful to partner with other churches and organizations with a proven history of effectively serving the poor inside and outside the church.

Church historian, Richard Lovelace calls all who are in Christ to participate in his ongoing ministry to a broken and poor world as prophet, priest, and king.

We are priests as we pray for those near us and draw them into the sphere of God’s mercy and blessing. We are prophets as we hold a biblical straightedge against whatever is crooked around us. And we are kings as we use whatever powers we have to straighten what is crooked, reshaping whatever falls within the scope of our responsibility until it reflects the order of heaven.[1]

[1] Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, p. 168

The Heart for Mercy (Mercy Series 5 of 6)

We can know a lot about the Apostle Paul’s thinking and ministry methods from studying the New Testament. But we can also learn a lot about the underlying heart affections that motivated him to do his ministry.

Paul was not a cold-hearted, ivory tower theologian. He was a risk-taking church planting missionary with a heart for mercy. Two of the most prominent objects that captured his heart for mercy were the lost and the poor.

His heart of mercy for the lost includes both Gentiles and Jews without a saving knowledge of Jesus. Yet Paul had another object of his merciful heart much less known. Throughout his ministry and writings, he places a high priority on encouraging the churches to show mercy to the poor.

During Paul’s ministry, under the rule of the Roman Emperor “Claudius” (Acts 11:28), there were several years of bad harvests resulting in a widespread famine. Israel and Jerusalem were hit especially hard. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, writes about the impact of the famine on Jerusalem. “[T]here was a famine in the land that overtook them, and many people died of starvation.” (Antiquities 20, chapter 1.3-2.5)

So, how did Paul respond? He did not ignore it and just continue doing his church planting work, as if the only thing that matters are people’s souls. Instead, throughout all the years of his ministry, wherever he planted and developed churches, he called on the churches to show mercy to the poor.

More than once, Paul established relief funds for the poor. This is why significant portions of his letters focus on financial collections he was receiving from the Gentile churches to deliver to the poor among the Jewish believers in the Jerusalem church. (1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8:1–9:15; Rom 15:14–32)

In Acts 11:28 we read that after hearing about the “great famine over all the world … the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea” (Acts 11:29). These “disciples” were the leaders and members of the Antioch church – Paul’s sending church. In Acts 11:30, we learn what happened next: “And they did so, sending it to the elders [at the Jerusalem church] by the hand of Barnabas and Saul [Paul].”

Paul saw his commitment to help raise and deliver money for the relief of the poor as a vital and deeply spiritual part of his ministry for which he was willing to take great risks and sacrifice (Rom 15:30-31).

When Paul, along with Barnabas and Titus, went to Jerusalem to meet with the elders and Apostles to take the offering, he also set before them the message of the gospel he was proclaiming to the Gentiles. Paul wanted the Apostle’s affirmation of the gospel he was preaching “in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain” (Gal 2:2).

After the Apostles and elders heard about Paul’s message and ministry, they strongly affirmed his message and his ministry to the Gentiles by giving him “the right hand of fellowship (Gal 2:9).” But Paul wrote that these “pillars” of the Jerusalem church had one special request they wanted him to remember as he continued to proclaim the gospel to all the Gentiles. He wrote, “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (Gal 2:10).

Showing mercy to the poor was not just a duty to Paul. He was “eager” to continue remembering the poor in his church planting among the Gentile nations. Why was he so eager to care for the poor?

His eagerness was not only because of his compassion. Instead, Paul saw the church’s participation in giving sacrificially for the poor as an act of worship. To the church at Corinth, Paul wrote about the financial collection he was receiving from the Gentile churches for the poor in Jerusalem.

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper. (1 Cor 16:1-2)

 The Greek term Paul uses for “the collection” (λογεία) has strong worship overtones. It was intended to be a significant part of their Lord’s Day gatherings for worship.

In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul tells them about an amazing display of God’s grace toward the poor in Jerusalem shown among the churches of Macedonia (Europe) who themselves were suffering “severe afflictions” and “extreme poverty.” Paul writes:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. (2 Cor 8:1-4)

Paul saw this example of the poor churches in Macedonia giving sacrificially and cheerfully to the poor churches in Jerusalem as originating from one source, “the grace of God.” A few verses later, Paul amplified this saying, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

In this succinct summary of the gospel, Paul reminds them and us of the amazing grace of God that is ours only because Jesus sacrificed all his heavenly riches so we would no longer be spiritually poor. And here Paul calls them, and us, to draw deeply from the riches of God’s grace toward us in Christ and give sacrificially and generously, not only our money, but also our lives for the sake of the poor.

Paul makes clear to one of the Macedonian churches at Philippi, that their giving to him was about much more than helping him or others in need. He says it was for their sake. He writes, “Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit” (Phil 4:17).

What was this credit, this benefit, he longed for all the members of the churches to receive through the sacrificial giving of their lives and money to the poor? It was for them to experience doing this in response to God’s mercy to them, as “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Phil 4:18).