Working for the Glory of God

Don: From the parable of the vineyard workers we have been trying to develop an understanding of the importance of works in the life of a believer. The two major themes of the parable are first that work is important, that there is something to do for everyone, and that all are employable in the master’s service, no matter their level of ability. In regard to universal employability…:

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

But as we have seen, the reward for work is independent of the effort put in. On the face of it, this is an affront to fairness, a violation of our sense of cause and effect, and above all a demonstration that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. It seems to underscore that whatever the value, output, or purpose of work should be, it should not be the ultimate reward of salvation. Work is not for our benefit. It is to bring glory to God:

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

In what sense do we glorify God? Clearly, our work—our deeds—cannot add luster to God, but we were nevertheless created for his glory:

Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made. (Isaiah 43:7)

Paul made this clearer when he wrote:

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; (2 Corinthians 4:5-7 )

The glory we are to display is a gift of God, it shines out of our hearts like a light in darkness, and is housed in ordinary earthen vessels—human beings. This glory is nothing less then God manifesting himself in us, as it were a light in darkness. We are the vessels carrying his grace, imperfect though we are, and our work is his work, as we learned again from Paul:

For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.

Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.

Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might;. (Ecclesiastes 9:1,7,10)

Our work is his work, built on a foundation God laid down:

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)

And that work will be evaluated:

Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

Our work might be of much or little value, it might be enduring or fleeting, but as long as it is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ then it becomes his responsibility. It is for his glory, even if on our terms it is fit for little purpose other than fuel for the fire. Our work is consequential:

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

But that work has its limits. Paul wrote:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.  (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

Despite the importance of our work, it is not a condition for salvation:

If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:15)

Our work not only brings good to others around us and glory to God. There is a reward—the satisfaction of a job well done—but it is not the ultimate reward of salvation. God understands there is present value in man’s seeing the fruits of his labor. The risk is that we come to believe that our work is the condition for our salvation. But to see no reward would be demoralizing. I suspect that we all do some work that is of great and lasting value and some that is of little and ephemeral value.

We are encouraged on our spiritual journey to see from time to time the fruits of work we have done. Humble pride, we might call it; the feeling of being humble in service to others, building on God’s foundation. It is a good feeling. It’s a reward, to be sure; but it can never be mistaken as the ultimate reward, or as the cause for our salvation.

If we are saved by grace and not by works (Ephesians 2), then why is there judgment for our work at all? It’s not a question of whether our works are good or bad, because only God is good. Our righteousness is as filthy rags in comparison. What is judged is whether we accept God’s grace, his robe of righteousness, to cover our “filthy rags” work, or whether we place our own work—whether we don our own robe of self-proclaimed righteousness—as evidence of our right to salvation.

Jesus made this point many times, as here:

When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’  (Matthew 20:11-12)

Men put their own work forward, as did the Rich Young Ruler:

The young man said to Him, “All these things [i.e., the Commandments] I have kept; (Matthew 19:20)

So did the elder brother of the Prodigal Son:

“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’” (Luke 15:25-32)

This passage shows in sharp contrast the grace of the father extended to both his sons. “Everything that I have is yours” he told the elder son.

Jesus addressed the issue—our works versus God’s grace—directly, in another parable:

And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)

When it comes to salvation, the value of works—or rather, the lack thereof—could not have been stated more explicitly than this:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Donald: As a photographer, I am struck by the light metaphor for God. In one illustration, we may see the light of God shining directly on a person, but in another we may see it reflected indirectly, through another person. That we might actually reflect God’s light—not consciously, not deliberately, not through deeds—seems to me an interesting concept. The way we do that perhaps is simply by reflecting the light of goodness on others. God could shine his light directly on any or all of us, but it seems enhanced, in a way, when it is reflected; just as a photographer uses indirect lighting reflected off a surface to enhance his or her photographs.

Mikiko: The Bible says everybody is different, and God can see everyone’s hearts and their works. He knows that some people are limited in their abilities to work, through age or sickness and so on. Jesus said that his own work was about everlasting life, hence it is important that people follow him in his work:

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. (John 17:3-4)

David: It seems to me that the indirect light Donald spoke of is more important to God than his own direct light. I wonder why?

Jay: We often struggle with the idea of fairness and equity. Young teachers have to grapple with this when they start teaching students. Being fair and being equitable are not the same. There is a whole spectrum of challenges posed by students, and every student comes with a different set of challenges for the teacher. One student mught come from a supportive family that strongly supports education, while another might come from a broken home in a culture that does not value education, and yet another might have intellectual learning disabilities. They cannot all be educated in the same manner. To provide an equitable educational experience for all of them, they must be treated differently. The special needs child may require much more accommodations and modifications in class to ensure that their educational experience is equal to that enjoyed by other students.

In short, they are not treated the same, and that can seem unfair. That’s what the story of the vineyard is all about. Works are not fair. But grace is equitable. Everybody gets what they need.

Regarding reflected light: Perhaps it could also be considered to be light of God within us shining out, so it is light refracted as it were through us.

Donald: Plants need different amounts of light (and water, etc.), some more than others. It depends on their natural environment. It’s human nature to try to give everything in equal measure, but this does not work for plants—among other things. And the effects may be further modified by the quality of light—from strong, direct sunlight to the relatively weak and diffuse light of a cloudy day. We see the greens of the grass and trees and the colors of the flowers differently under different lighting; perhaps the same is true of how we see God.

Don: In the parable of the sower and the seed, the seed produced different yields depending on the type of soil on which it was sown. Even seed sown on fertile soil showed considerable differential in yield. So it seems that God does not expect a uniform “yield” from everyone.

David: Whether direct or reflected or refracted or diffuse, there is but one source of light: God. But as a subscriber to process theology, I believe that God is in two simultaneous states: He exists, and he is coming into existence. He is a Being, and a Becoming. The God within us, the inner light that shines directly upon our own souls, is God the Being, I would contend. It exists in everyone who is ever born, but it can be more or less smothered by the flesh it inhabits. God Becoming is what is what happens when we allow our inner light—God the Being—to shine through us to add to or even rekindle the inner light of others, which may be more or less smothered. To glorify God is to bring God into existence.

Jay: It is maximizing the potential of God to use our inner light to help others maximize theirs. And when goodness maximized to its full potential is God.

David: God’s ultimate goal surely is for goodness to prevail. Not on points, but by a knockout. The universe—Creation—has to consist 100 percent of goodness. And there is a process for getting there. We are a vital part of the process of restoring the Creation to 100 percent good. Not even the Garden was that good—we know that evil had a presence there. We have a pretty important job!

Robin: It seems we are discussing works as cause or effect. Works don’t cause salvation, but salvation causes good works…?

Don: It might be both/and.

David: I don’t see an activist God who causes things. I see instead a passive presence—the great I Am—that can be taken advantage of by creatures with intellect to cause things to happen. But that is not the real value of the presence: Its ultimate value is spiritual, not intellectual. To the extent it has any spiritual effect it must depend on our acceptance, our recognition, our sharing of it.

Rimon: Perhaps evil exists to highlight God’s absence! Perhaps it exists to give us the opportunity to glorify God.

Donald: We live in an evil world, so we can easily reflect evil if we choose not to reflect the primary source of light. Distinguishing between them is the issue. The situation is made even more complex by the individual differences among us, and our individual perspectives and experiences of good and evil. That can be ameliorated through tolerance, but religions tend to intolerance of other viewpoints than their own, which destroys the valuable opportunity of seeing things from various perspectives.

David: I very much agree with all of that except for the first bit! I argue that we don’t live in an evil world. I think we live in a world that is overwhelmingly good, a world filled with God’s spirit, a world in which God is Becoming, not Receding. It’s just that the good is less newsworthy, less colorful than the evil, so it is less remarked upon. But we can see that “there is some good in all of us”—and that is the crucial point, and it is why tolerance is so valuable. And God-like! By viewing the world as more good than evil, artifacts that once struck us as evil take on a whole new light—and God Becomes a little bit more.

Mikiko: But…

…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

That’s why I see this world as a very bad place—and getting worse!

Donald: We can see it getting worse because man is allowing evil to flourish. But on the other hand we can see nature—“God’s second book” flourishing all around us. Perhaps if we focus on evil, we will reflect evil; if we focus on good, we will reflect good. The fact is, though, that the world comes in shades of gray! It might be worth noting that physically, pure black absorbs light—it does not reflect it.

Mikiko: In any case, we need to be vigilant:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Don: On the other hand…:

…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Romans 5:20)

Which is another way of saying that where there is evil, there is even more good.

David: Evil is destruction. If it were to prevail, everything would be destroyed, yet we see Creation in progress and we learn more about it every day through science. To me it is a good world and it is getting better, but it can be hard to see that through the tears brought on by the school massacres and so on or the death of a loved one—things we think of as terrible but from a deep spiritual perspective they may not be as terrible as they seem. Vigilance is all very well, but I don’t want to spend my life looking over my shoulder for roaring lions. Jesus walked in a lions’ den every time he set foot in the street but it didn’t seem to worry him.

Don: The gospel talks about him doing good—carrying out his mission…

David: …and not caring about the roaring lions!

Mikiko: Satan was a roaring lion on the prowl and found Job.

David: Who won the battle?

Mikiko: Job won because of his faith in God, but not many people are strong like Job!

Donald: What is evil, and how does it prevail (if and when it does)? When does tolerance move towards evil?

Rimon: I struggle with that. I like to believe that goodness is to glorify God’s works, but at times I struggle to believe it. It’s a similar struggle to see the goodness in the world through all the evil we see. We can’t think like God thinks—we can’t see destruction and put it down to the glory of God.

Mikiko:

You were taught to put away the old personality that conforms to your former course of conduct and that is being corrupted according to its deceptive desires. And you should continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude, and should put on the new personality that was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty. (Ephesians 4:22-24—New World Translation)

* * *