The Protestant Work Ethic, pt. 3
It is a wonder how the Reformers who rejected salvation by works (only by God’s grace through faith) developed such a high work ethic. The Protestants were not trying to compensate for something lacking in their theology; they were merely following the Scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “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.” God does not save people because of their good works (in reality, all of our works are tainted with sin. Is. 64:6). No one can put God in their debt. Eternal life cannot be earned; it must be received as a gift. The Reformers, however, also understood Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We are not saved by works, but we are created for good works. These good works are not just random acts of kindness; the good works God calls us to are primarily done through our vocations. As we’ve discussed, a vocation is not just a job, it also includes family, church, community, hobby, rest, and recreation. Vocation is living the life that God has called us to as His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20) and priests (1 Peter 2:9).
Our calling of good works, then, is not a calling for self-gratification or self-glorification; it is a calling to serve others. William Perkins wrote, “Every man for himself, and God for us all is wicked, and is directly against the end of every calling.” Then he wrote, “They profane their lives and callings that employ them to get honors, pleasures, profits, worldly commodities, etc., for thus we live to another end than God hath appointed, and thus we serve ourselves, and consequently neither God nor men.” The Reformers viewed vocation as the way to carry out the greatest commandment—to “love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind,” and to “love your neighbor as yourselves.”(Matt. 22:37-40) Luther wrote in his Larger Catechism, “In God’s sight it is actually faith that makes a person holy; it alone serves God, while our works serve people.” Gustaf Wingren wrote, “God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does.” The Reformers saw that through our vocations we can become Christ-like by not looking to be served, but to serve others (Matt. 20:28).
In our community (or any community) you’ll not find one person who is completely independent (that idea should deflate some egos). Where would any of us be with out the plumber, the garbage man, the electrician, the grocery store clerk, the doctor, the lawyer, the insurance agent, the pastor, the road worker, the policemen, the firemen, the truck driver, etc. We all need each other, and we all serve each other whether we like it or not. The Reformers understood that God calls us to the good works of loving our neighbors by serving them through our vocations. As we do this, we’ll soon discover that we’re not only loving and serving our neighbor, we’re also loving and serving Christ. As Matthew 25:40 says, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
The Protestant Work Ethic, pt. 2
As we discussed last week, the Protestant doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” challenged the medieval church’s distinction between sacred and secular. Martin Luther, and later John Calvin, championed the idea of vocation as a sacred calling. Luther wrote, “Your work is a sacred matter. God delights in it, and through it He wants to bestow His blessing on you.” Calvin wrote, “It is an error that those who flee worldly affairs and engage in contemplation are leading an angelic life…We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when each one attends to his calling and studies to live well for the common good.” In the minds of the Reformers, work was a calling and a means by which we glorify God and serve our neighbors.
These ideas produced sweeping social changes in the medieval world. One of the greatest changes was in education. Before the Reformation it was only deemed necessary for the clergy and ruling class to read, but Luther made it his goal to educate everyone, including the plowboy, in order to read and understand the Word of God. The reformed churches, however, went even further and began to implement a classical approach to education. This approach completely transformed the social order of the day. It began to erode the walls of social class, spurred economic growth, and planted the seeds of individual and political freedom.
These social, economic, and political changes were also affected by the Protestant idea of vocation. Today, vocation has come to mean a job or career, but the Reformers had a much broader understanding of the word. To the Reformers vocation meant God’s calling (vocatio) on one’s life. As Harry Blamires wrote, “Vocation is the voice of providence, and providence is always purposeful.” One’s vocation, which included work, rest, play, marriage, and raising children, meant living out God’s purpose for one’s life. Because one’s vocation was a calling from God, it was not to be used for selfish purposes or for purely monetary gain, but always for God and the service and betterment of others. This produced honest, quality-driven, hard-working laborers. Everyone practiced a trade according to their God-given abilities and according to the needs of the community. A wide range of trades insured that all the needs of the community would be met. The blacksmith made farm equipment, the farmer produced food, the doctor helped heal the sick, the preacher taught the Bible, the cobbler made shoes, the tailor made cloths, etc. Everyone did their part for the glory of God and the betterment of the community. Puritan William Perkins summed up this idea of vocation when he wrote, “The main end of our lives…is to serve God in the serving of men in the works of our callings…Some man will say perchance: What, must we not labor in our callings to maintain our families? I answer: this must be done: but this is not the scope and end of our lives. The true end of our lives is to do service to God in serving of man.”
What would it look like if service to God and others were removed from the idea of vocation? Vocation defined as merely a job done for personal glory and/or monetary gain would lead to a self-centered, pleasure-seeking, greedy, materialistic, purposeless society. Unfortunately, that kind of society is not hard to imagine.
The Protestant Work Ethic, pt. 1
In many ways the medieval church was influenced more by Greek philosophy than by Scripture. Philosophers under platonic influence held to an extreme separation between the spiritual (the invisible world) and the physical (an imperfect copy of the invisible world). To the Platonists, the spiritual world was good and the physical world evil. This Greek influence on the medieval church can especially be seen in its concept of vocation. In the medieval church, the idea of vocation played out in a two-tiered, or dualistic, view of human life. One could receive a “call” (Latin vocatio) from God to be a monk, priest, or nun, which were considered the spiritual callings. For everyone else, there was marriage, children, and physical labor. This kind of earthy or worldly existence was viewed as unspiritual (even though marriage was one of the seven sacraments). Those who engaged in the worldly affair of physical labor were typically poor and uneducated—reading and writing were considered necessary only for those who pursued the spiritual life of contemplation and devotion.
This Platonism of the medieval church was challenged and overturned in the 16th century by the Reformation. The Reformers rejected the dualism of the medieval church and reintroduced the scriptural notion of the “priesthood of all believers.” To the Reformers, this notion did not mean that the office of pastor was unnecessary, or that everyone had a right to interpret the Bible however they wished. The priesthood of all believers meant that Christians did not need an earthly mediator between God and man in a priestly system, because Jesus Christ is the mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). Through Jesus Christ, Christians have direct access to the Father (Heb. 4:16). Not only do Christians have direct access, we also have been called (vocatio) to the holy calling of the priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). According to Scripture, the priesthood is not the calling (vocation) of a select few; it is the duty and delight of every Christian. This means that every Christian, the preacher, the teacher, the doctor, the plumber, the trash man, the pool man, the street sweeper, the farmer, the politician, the banker, the lawyer, the grocer, the truck driver, the cashier, the housewife, the soldier, the corporate executive, and the fast food restaurant worker are all spiritually equal before God. The high calling of serving God and man is carried out through work (and other activities). This doctrine did not degrade the office of pastor, but raised to a sacred calling what once was thought to be secular or worldly work.
In my own tradition (Baptist), we still carry the residual language of the medieval church. We talk of people being called into “full-time Christian service,” which is platonic to the core. In actuality, according to the priesthood of all believers, all Christians are in full-time Christian service no matter what their jobs.
In the next few weeks we’ll discuss how the protestant work ethic gave rise to the Western notions of education and capitalism and how the protestant idea of vocation can be lived out. We will also discuss how the protestant work ethic, when God is taken out of the picture, will lead to a self-centered, pleasure-seeking, greedy, materialistic, purposeless, meaningless society. a pdf version of this entry is available here
Was Jesus in the Old Testament, pt. 3
Reading the Gospels many years ago, I noticed that Jesus constantly referred to Himself as the Son of Man. This troubled me because I knew the historic teaching of Christianity was that Jesus is both God and Man. Jesus’ constant reference to Himself as the Son of Man seemed to place the emphasis on His humanity, to the exclusion of His deity. This continued to puzzle me, until I realized why Jesus preferred to use this title. Daniel 7:13-14 says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” By using the title Son of Man, Jesus was identifying himself as the one in Daniel’s vision. This allusion was not lost on the Jews (like it was lost on me), who knew this prophecy very well.
It’s even more awesome when one compares Daniel’s prophecy to Jesus’ own prophecy concerning His second coming. In Matthew 24:30 Jesus says, “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Jesus says, in Matthew 25:31, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.” Before His crucifixion, Jesus was taken before the high priest and asked if He was the Messiah. Jesus answered, “I am[ego eimi], and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:62 (ESV) There’s no doubt that Jesus was claiming to be the one Daniel saw in his vision.
Jesus’ whole life was lived in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The writers of the Gospels understood this and made many of these prophetic connections. The Gospel of Matthew was especially written to point out the prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Many times in Matthew (and the other Gospels) one will come across a phrase like, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” (Matthew 1:22)
In Matthew 16:1-3, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus asking for a sign from heaven to prove He was the Messiah. Jesus answered them by saying, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” In essence, Jesus was telling them that the Scripture and its prophecies were sufficient signs from heaven to prove He was the Messiah.
Is Jesus found in the Old Testament? Without a doubt; He is its very theme.
Labels: Old Testament, prophecies
Was Jesus in the Old Testament, pt. 2
The Apostle John gives an account of a conversation Jesus had with the Jews. Jesus said, “’Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (John 8:56-59) Why were the Jews angry enough to kill Jesus? It was because He had claimed to be God.
When God sent Moses to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3:14) The Hebrew word translated “I Am” is Yahweh. Yahweh is the Hebrew name of God given in the Old Testament. When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am [Greek, ego eimi], ” Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh, and for this they wanted to stone Him.
Another important piece of evidence for Jesus’ identity as God is the use of the title “LORD.” In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament from around 100 BC), The Hebrew word Yahweh (God) is translated Kurios in Greek, and Kurios is translated Lord in English. In many of our English translations, when LORD is used with all capital letters in the Old Testament, the underlying Hebrew word is Yahweh. When Lord is not in all capital letters in the Old Testament, it should be translated something like master or sir. The New Testament does not maintain this distinction. How, then, should we translate this passage: “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved….For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:9-10, 13) When we confess ‘Jesus as Lord,’ are we confessing Him as master or are we confessing him as God? We are actually confessing both. The Old Testament passage Paul quotes is Joel 2:32: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD [Yahweh] shall be saved….” Clearly, with Paul’s thoughts sufficiently anchored to this Old Testament passage, we are to confess that Jesus is God (Yahweh).
An example of Jesus being confessed as both Lord (master) and God is when Thomas realized that Jesus really had risen from the dead. John 20:28-29 says, “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
The witness of Scripture is that God (Yahweh of the Old Testament) became a man and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
Labels: Old Testament, prophecies
