IF GOD WILL MEET ALL OUR NEEDS AS BELIEVERS, WHY SHOULD WE BOTHER TO WORK???

IF GOD WILL MEET ALL OUR NEEDS AS BELIEVERS, WHY SHOULD WE BOTHER TO WORK???

(IMPORTANT: Please note that this article is just a section of a series of articles that explore the important lessons that Jesus taught in Matthew 6:24-34. The series is labelled ‘A 21-DAY CHALLENGE FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING’. If questions arise as you read this article, kindly look out for the series. A link to the page will be posted here when it is ready. Thanks.)

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things SHALL BE ADDED unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

At times, the truth contained in God’s word is so PROFOUND that our limited human understanding struggles to cope with it. And, in some of such cases, instead of ‘bending’ our understanding, in humility, to LEARN and ACCEPT God’s truth, what we do is to ‘bend’ God’s truth to fit our understanding!

There is a good example of this. When our human mind hears God’s truth on the subject of GRACE, our understanding is overwhelmed. And our instinctive response is to ask the rhetorical question that Apostle Paul penned in Romans 6:1, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Obviously, this is not what the message of GRACE is saying! But this is how man carnally drags the word of God down to his level, so that he can re-interpret it, and fit it into the tiny frame of his mind.

This is similar to what happens when we hear God’s truth on how He promised to provide for the needs of His children. In teaching this profound truth, Jesus pointed our attention to the BIRDS of the sky – “… for they SOW not, neither do they REAP, nor GATHER into barns; YET your heavenly Father feedeth them…” (Matthew 6:26)

He also drew our attention to the LILIES OF THE FIELD. “Consider … how they grow; they TOIL not, neither do they SPIN: And YET I say unto you….” (Matthew 6:28) Please note the word ‘YET’ in both passages and THINK about the function of the word in what Jesus was saying.

The profound meaning of what Jesus was teaching in the passage is clear. God does NOT NEED our ability or ingenuity to sow, reap, gather, toil, or spin BEFORE He can meet our needs! We may not do ANY of those five things (sow, reap, etc); YET, God can still meet our needs. YET!!!

“If God does this EVERYDAY for ordinary birds of the sky and lilies of the field, will He not do MUCH MORE for His own children that He birthed in His mercy, love, and pleasure?” Jesus asked his listeners. He was challenging them to THINK deeply. Of course, God can! And, He will!

He proved this point during the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land. While they travelled through the wilderness, they were neither able to sow nor reap, YET God provided food for them for 40 years (Exodus 16:15)! Feeding a whole nation that did NOT work for 40 years! Please think about that.

Not only that. Please listen to God in Deuteronomy 29:5, “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.”

God’s capability to feed, clothe, and provide for those that are following His instructions is UNLIMITED – and He does NOT need their help to do this! This is a great, great spiritual truth. It is difficult for a 21st-century mind to simply accept this truth and simply trust God. Rather, this is how our carnal minds will respond: “Does that mean God is saying we don’t need to work? So, we’ll just sit at home, and all our needs will be met? Incredulous!”

Of course, this is not what that truth means! This is just man twisting God’s truth to (1) either fit his understanding; or (2) subverting God’s truth so that he can disobey it and follow his carnal mind anyway.

Rather than taking this ungodly approach of twisting God’s word, a wise disciple of Christ will just accept the truth of God as He states it. That is faith! And, many times, it is on the basis of this simple faith that God will later grant a full understanding of that particular truth.

As God said in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are HIGHER than the earth, so are my ways HIGHER than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We need God to TEACH US HIS HIGHER WAYS so that we can ‘ascend’ to His level and have a fruitful walk with Him. This was the heart-cry of David in Psalm 25:4, “SHEW ME thy ways, O Lord; TEACH ME thy paths.” This is the ONLY way man can walk with God successfully.

Here is the meaning of the truth in Matthew 6:24-34. Of course, a believer MUST work! (And even work very hard!) But the truth is that a believer in Christ does not work SO THAT his needs can be met. In other words, meeting our needs is NOT our main reason for working. This is a profound truth. And if we don’t see this truth clearly, the rest of what Jesus taught in the passage will not make sense to us.

Our needs are NOT met just by our working. Our needs are met by what God ADDS to us as we seek His Kingdom and his righteousness. This is what verse 33 is telling us clearly. (Our work may be a channel through which God ADDS to us (and usually is), but this is NOT the purpose for which we work.)

Our INCOME is not what meets our needs. Our needs are met by what God ADDS to us. The primary duty assigned by God to a believer is to ‘SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS’. When we do this, God promised, on His honour, to ADD all the things that we need. He even assures us that He knows what we need!!

He went further to challenge us not to be like the Gentiles (unbelievers) that work to meet their basic needs in life (verse 32). We are different from them! They do not have GOD THE PROVIDER (Jehovah Jireh) as a Father! They do not have a Kingdom to seek. This world is all they have, and they have to fend for themselves in it. That is the way of Gentiles that do not have Christ at the centre of their lives.

And Jesus was clear that His followers must NOT be like that!!! A follower of Christ that walks/works in that way is only a follower BY LIPS – he is really a Gentile at heart! It’s as simple as that.

Here is a truth that is worth repeating: the primary (first) duty assigned by God to a believer is this – “… seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness….” Period. (Mature believers know that this is not only our first duty, it is our ONLY duty! This duty in itself is the crux of our whole existence and it bears no addition to itself. We’ll see this clearly when we truly understand what it means to SEEK THE KINGDOM. But this is meat for only mature believers).

What we ALL need to know is that with God, the BASIS of our working is quite different from that of an unbeliever. Unbelievers must work SO THAT they can eat. That is the BASIS of their working.

So, what then is the BASIS of a believer’s work? To understand the BASIS on which we work today, we need to return to the beginning. To the creation of man in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7-15).

In the sequence of events in the passage, we’ll see that God provided food for Adam (verse 9) BEFORE He gave him work to do (verse 15)! So, Adam was NOT working SO THAT he could eat! Food was already there, provided by God. But, still, Adam had to work. So, this means the BASIS of his working was totally different from eating/meeting his needs. There was something else.

It was only after sin came into the world that ‘work-to-eat’ became A CURSE that flowed from that rebellion against God. Here is the account in Genesis 3:17, 19, “… Cursed is the ground for your sake; IN TOIL YOU SHALL EAT of it all the days of your life…. IN THE SWEAT OF YOUR FACE YOU SHALL EAT bread till you return to the ground….”

From this, it is crystal clear that ‘work-to-eat’ (or more broadly, ‘work-to-live’) is A CURSE! As long as we CHOOSE to continue to live/work on this BASIS, we are simply perpetuating a curse that has been lifted in Christ Jesus. So, we must be clear on this: believers MUST work. But we should know that we do not work SO THAT we can eat. We do not work-to-eat. The BASIS on which we work is quite different.

So, what is the BASIS on which we work? Again, let’s go back to the example of Adam in Genesis. If he was not working to eat, why then was he working?

In working, Adam was simply SERVING GOD! He was reflecting the nature of God, his Father. For God Himself is A WORKER. Jesus made this clear in John 5:17, “… My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Like Father, like Son. A child of God does what his Father does. So, Adam worked simply because that is the nature of God.

Please imagine if God does not work. No heaven and earth would have been created! You would not be here today! Probably, there would just have been silence and stillness everywhere! We thank God that He is a Worker! For we see the works of His hands and we marvel.

It is in this His nature that He gave Adam work to do – to tend the garden, name the animals, and so on. In doing all these, Adam was SERVING GOD by complementing His work and adding value to the environment where he was placed by God.

Today, it is in the same way that we MUST work and ADD VALUE to wherever God has placed us. It is inevitable. It is non-negotiable. And it is a sin not to engage in work. Some of us will add value to our society as cleaners, drivers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and so on.

(One of the greatest jobs that God assigns on earth is the role of A MOTHER. The mothering work is a sacrificial role through which God builds His next generation on the earth. This role is a difficult job, and it is one of the greatest jobs that a woman can do for God on the earth in SERVING HIM. Please see Ruth 4:11, Proverbs 14:1, 2 Timothy 1:5, etc. if you are a housewife that is conscientious in what you do in your home, don’t allow ANY blind, mammon-lover tell you to go and get a job! You already have more than a job. It is NOT God speaking through them, it is the god of mammon – Satan!)

So, in WHATEVER sphere we find ourselves, we MUST work. But, in so doing, we are NOT working-to-eat, or working-to-live, we are simply SERVING GOD.

But, helpfully, the New Testament makes this concept much clearer in Colossians 3:22-24. It tells us that when we work, even in the secular sphere, we are SERVING CHRIST!!! So, in whatever way we are adding value to the society (as gardeners, housewives, lawyers, accountants, etc), we are NOT working-to-eat, we are simply SERVING CHRIST! This is an integral part of our walk with Him, our discipleship, our calling.

And, in whatever way we serve, it is Christ that will, ULTIMATELY, reward us for our service to Him – even for service in the purely secular sphere. Colossians 3:22-24 makes this abundantly clear. It is on the basis that our entire service is unto Christ that Apostle Paul urged believers to be diligent in their secular tasks. For, we are NOT serving men (or earthly bosses) – we are SERVING CHRIST.

It is on the same basis that Apostle Peter also instructs believers to SUBMIT themselves, not only to good and kind bosses, but even to unreasonable and harsh bosses as well! (1 Peter 2:18) For, in reality, they are NOT our REAL ‘boss’. Our REAL boss is Jesus Christ.

Our earthly bosses are just His representatives in that sphere – in the same way that governments are His representatives in administering the state/country. They are all just acting on His behalf, and believers are instructed to submit to them all (Romans 13:1, etc). He is Lord over ALL. Once more, please endeavour to study Colossians 3:22-24 diligently to know WHY we work.

Flowing from this, we ought to know that 100% of the income that we get from our secular employment belongs to God. For He owns us as well as EVERYTHING we have, and will ever have. (The subject of 10% TITHE for a believer in Christ is one of the many LIES that Satan introduced into the Body of Christ through the church system of today that exists to MISLEAD the souls that are TRAPPED in their deception.)

100% of our income belongs to God. (It is part of the ‘ALL’ that we forsake to follow Christ – Luke 14:33). So, we are merely STEWARDS of our income. And, as stewards, we ought to discern from God, through our regular fellowship and communion with Him, what percentage of the income He’ll want us to use for ourselves, and what percentage He’ll want us to give away to the NEEDY (Ephesians 4:28).

It is important to also note that one of the MAJOR reasons we SERVE CHRIST in the secular sphere is so that, through our lives, God can meet the needs of the poor. Ephesians 4:28, as quoted above, as well as passages like Acts 4:34-35, etc, make this point very clearly. This is one of the ways that we send our earthly treasures to the heavenly realm for conversion into eternal riches as Jesus taught in Luke 12:33, etc.

Sadly, in spending our income today, most of us ignorantly CONSUME what belongs to the needy on ourselves/families in ‘living large’. Or worse still, we give such money to the hordes of deceivers that we today blindly call ‘men of God’. All these are ways in which we WASTE the resources that we are called to steward for God. For all these, we ought to REPENT and make amends as quickly/practicable as we can. This is why God is sending us this truth. He does not want us to continue to walk in error.

(Please note that, despite all that has been written here, God will NEVER, EVER constrain any believer to give ANYTHING that does not come WILLINGLY from our hearts. What is acceptable to God is ONLY that which are quite happy to give cheerfully – according to the level of our faith and maturity in Christ. Yes, ALL our resources belong to God 100%, BUT He does not take them – UNTIL we release them to Him willing as an act of faith, love, and surrender. God will encourage us to give, but He will NEVER constrain us to do so, or trick us to part with our money as the ‘men of God’ do today.)

There is one more issue we must address. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Apostle Paul gave the instruction that the lazy brethren that were not working should not eat. Many have used this verse to support the WORK-TO-EAT position. But this is wrong.

The lazy brethren ‘… should not eat…” because by being lazy and not working at all, they are NOT serving Christ. They are not being responsible members of the Body of Christ. They are acting as parasites on the Body. In thus severing themselves from their responsibility to the Body, they were also severing themselves from the benefits of the Body (including the ADDITION that God promises to those that seek the Kingdom).

It is for this reason that Paul said they ‘should not eat’. It is not because believers have to work SO THAT they can eat. For this is NOT God’s plan for His children. God’s children do NOT work for money, they work for God! His plan is to provide for them (through ADDITION) as they devote themselves, primarily, to seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness.

When we SERVE CHRIST as prescribed in the New Testament, it is easy for Him to move us seamlessly from one sphere of service to another according to His will and His need for our service. For instance, He moved Apostle Peter from being a fisherman to become a fisher of men. At a point, Apostle Paul was moved from his learned pursuit under the greatly admired Gamaliel to become a tentmaker (Acts 18:3) in addition to his tight ministry schedule.

Jesus is at liberty to move His workforce around as He deems fit – from secular job to ministry work, or the other way round. Or a mixture of both. He can change these as often as He wills according to His purpose. ALL such services count as our SPIRITUAL SERVICE to God (even if they relate to purely secular jobs). The spirituality of our secular jobs does not arise from the nature of the job itself, but from the nature of WHO WE ARE – spiritual entities.

It is important to note that, for a believer in Christ, our career/profession is NOT a source of personal identity, pride, status, flair, accomplishment, or a matter of personal ambition or pursuit. A true disciple is TOTALLY DEAD to all these considerations. Our career, however lofty or lowly, is just AN AREA OF SERVICE that we have fully SURRENDERED to the Lord, and it could change in a minute. Believers that place a premium value on their career/profession are placing a premium value on SELF. And this is a sure path to lukewarmness, or even slow spiritual death.

All these are realities of becoming disciples of Christ. The realities of the HUGE TRANSFORMATION that takes place when we become SONS in the Kingdom of God. For these are not matters for babes that are yet to know the ways of the Kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

So, friends, how are we living in relation to all these? Are we living as SONS that genuinely LIVE FOR CHRIST on earth? Or, after following Christ for decades, are we still babes that play with the toys of the world? As the return of Christ becomes more and more imminent, God does not want us to remain as over-grown babes in the Kingdom.

Let’s grow up and LIVE FOR CHRIST, serving Him with all our hearts WHEREVER He chooses to place us – even in the lowliest and most humbling positions in life. He is coming soon, and His rewards are with Him - for all the faithful disciples that He finds watching and waiting for His sudden return.

May we be counted in that number. Amen.

Thanks for reading, God bless you.

#ThinkPrayRepentTurn

By Church watch in Nigeria