The Church Meeting in Jesus’ Name
602 Oak Knoll Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78228
Epistle
January 2017
Event Calendar
January 13 – 21, 2017 Revival Meeting with David Spurgeon
March 25 Women’s Meeting with Sue Spurgeon
June 19 – 23 Vacation Bible School
July 16 – 23 World Evangelism Conference
October 20,21 Men’s meeting
November 26 Thanksgiving meeting, Dinner on the grounds
Abiding
20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
1 Corinthians 7
This is the verse that coined the English term “calling” as meaning our profession or our career. Its synonyms include vocation, occupation and business. The superiority of this term when referring to our livelihood is in its recognition of God’s influence in our lives to the degree that our very daily labor is a performance of his will. The idea behind it is the emphatically “puritan” dissenters’ viewpoint, something that Roman Catholics and most Protestants of the period did not believe, that there is no difference between clergy and laity, that a bishop is not greater than a farmer, and that a career as a tinsmith is just as much a calling of God as a career in evangelism. This philosophy has proved valuable historically, being a major factor in the rise of science, industry and capitalism, at least in the opinion of authors like Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic, 1905). The idea is that every believer in Christ should consider his daily work a service to God, whether inherently spiritual or not. And the idea is confirmed by many other passages in the Bible:
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
Ephesians 6
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3
The fact that God promised to reward a servant of men as if he had labored directly for God is a tremendous encouragement to souls trapped in a social status without hope. It tells the oppressed of the ages that they have just as much opportunity as their rich benefactors to make something significant of their lives, because it reminds us that the only significance in this life is found in pleasing God. It leaves the impression that our daily manual labor is actually a form of worship if done as to God, and it should remind the gospel ministers of all ages that they are not “lords over God’s heritage.” It is surprising how many of us miss both of these points.
However, as true as the idea is, and as valuable as the usage is, the term is probably misunderstood in this passage, and was likely misappropriated by our forefathers when they made it mean a vocation, and certainly no other passage in the Bible can be confused to portray God’s “calling” as our profession or career. If the calling indeed refers to our vocation, then the command is to not change vocations, which is clearly not the intent of the passage. Overall scripturally, and even in this context, the calling refers to God’s invitation to believe, and our acceptance of his invitation. Our personal salvation is our calling of God, and the context of this term in this verse is the circumstances we are in when we are called, as shown in the preceding verse, whether we are circumcised or uncircumcised. Other situations wherein we are called included in the greater context is our marriage status (married or single) and our social status (servant or free). God calls some of us early in life, others later, some married, others single, some servants, others free, some highly educated and socially important, others disadvantaged and unlikely to improve. The point Paul is making is not that our career is of God, and certainly not that changing careers is not allowed. The immediate point is that oftentimes change is not better. We can see when looking at the passage as a whole that there are many things in our lives that don’t need to be changed (no essential difference, as between circumcision and uncircumcision), there are other things in our lives that would be wrong to change (God may have plans, as with an unbelieving husband), and there are some things that we simply cannot change, and we need to accept God’s decisions in those things. We are expected to play the hand we are dealt, so to speak.
Accepting God’s decisions in our lives is not only necessary and ultimately unavoidable but amazingly healthy and to a great extent the definition of morality. Consider young people in our modern inexcusably confused generation who have been convinced by their innermost feelings and encouraged by “supportive” parents, teachers and medical professionals that they are not in the correct body. They aren’t confused by some defect in their gender, they can see their own bodies, and everything is perfectly natural, in its appropriate place, and functioning correctly, but they become persuaded they aren’t supposed to be what they are. Some adults opt for “corrective” surgery to turn themselves into the opposite sex. Some parents even put their pre-school children on hormone therapy to help them partially become what their inner feelings are telling them they are supposed to be. Ignoring the fact that transgender suicide rates are exponentially higher than normal, many an “enlightened” father has told his daughter, “of course, son, let’s go with your feelings.”
According to surveys, 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population has self-reported a suicide attempt, with that number climbing to between 10 and 20 percent for lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents. By comparison, 41 percent of trans or gender non-conforming people surveyed have attempted suicide. Mar 5, 2015
www.vocativ.com/culture/lgbt/transgender-suicide/
How much healthier it would be if a child was told by responsible, mentally stable parents that they are what God made them, and their health and well-being actually depends upon accepting God’s decisions. And this is just one example out of a million in our generation. Individuals resisting God is unhealthy, to be sure, but too many people objecting to God’s decisions is cultural disaster. For example, the focus on “equality” in career opportunities in our generation has demanded that women be placed equally in all roles, including military combat and special operations, despite physical concerns (women cannot pass standard physical tests required of men, are twice as likely to suffer injuries, and their shooting accuracy decreases significantly in combat compared to men), social concerns (romantic relationships affect mission performance, and morale is disrupted in mixed combat units, especially when women soldiers are taken prisoner) and tactical concerns (because of an uncontrollable negative effect on males when a female companion is wounded, affecting the performance of the unit). So even on the scale of a nation, allowing God’s decisions to determine cultural roles makes perfect sense. All in all, it is clear that letting God make major decisions like gender roles, and which gender to be, whether an unborn child lives or dies, and even what sex is about, is the only way for human beings to live a healthy and sane life.
And any definition of morality must include our deference to the intentions and purposes of our creator. There can be no intelligent conversation about human ethics without consideration of the original designer, any obvious purpose of his, and our ultimate goal in life of pleasing him. But I think there is another principle at play here beyond acceptance of God’s decisions in our lives. Whether this is the point the apostle is trying to make or not, the obvious take-away from the text and the context is that there is something good to say about long-term perseverance, even in difficult situations – the simple concept of abiding.
Most people in history and in the rest of the world even in our modern generation do not have the options we Americans have, the opportunities to change careers, houses, city of residency, marriage status or even gender. Changing houses or citizenship is not an “option” to countless millions, but an unqualified disaster, a refugee crisis, an exposure to oppression and genocide. Changing marriage status has not been an option for most people in most cultures for most of history. And “no-fault divorce” in America hasn’t made our society healthier overall. Changing gender is not a realistic option even now, even for Americans, but the American attitude of seeing change as something positive and achievable has actually lured people into trying it, and though some have taken their own lives because of it, and others have lived to regret it, all without exception have proven objectively that it didn’t solve any problem of theirs. The fact is, change is not necessarily good, even if the status quo is far from ideal. Something needs to be said for abiding.
Abiding is perseverance. My father used to quote the old west proverb, “when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” I remember thinking how hopeless that sounded. But in reality, that is the essence of hope. When there is nowhere else to go, then we stay here. When there is nothing else to do, then we keep on doing this. When there is no answer, then we repeat the question. Paul said he had “finished his course.” Three cheers for finishing what we start.
Abiding is expertise. People complain about a “boring” job because it involves repetition of little things, but practice makes perfect. Nobody wants a heart surgeon that has just finished medical school. We want a heart surgeon that has been practicing a long time. Even heart surgeons improve by repetition, which may not be much comfort to earlier patients, but he or she kept doing it, even if it was boring. Concert pianists don’t complain about being bored by repetition, even though their job is incredibly repetitious. They are focused on perfection in the little things. The reward is one more repetition that comes out perfect. A mechanic gets good after seeing the same things over and over. And mechanics brag amongst themselves about problems they’ve solved just because of their expertise, things the young whipper-snappers missed. But their expertise was due to the consistent, daily grind of abiding in the same calling for years on end.
Change is not forbidden, of course, not even in this text. Opportunities may present themselves that are worth going after, such as freedom from bondservice (v.21). But much good, and perhaps the most good, comes from the consistent service of someone doing what he or she knows how to do, and does with a good attitude, day in and day out, for a lifetime. If that seems depressing to you, you are looking at it the wrong way. Life is repetition – sunrise, sunset, seedtime, harvest, spring, summer, fall, winter, sleep, wake, work, rest.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1
Abiding in the same calling is accomplishment. Married for 50 years is something worth celebrating. Pastoring the same church for 40 years is a remarkable feat. Mothering half a dozen children throughout their childhood and into their young adult lives is incredibly tedious, never-ending work, and will include thirty thousand meals, stacks within boxes of vaccine records and report cards, tens of thousands of laundry loads, thousands of photos in albums, hundreds of band-aids, and millions of demands like “Momma, look-it”. But in every case the unwavering dedication of abiding in the same calling wherein ye were called is a monumental achievement. Change may be inevitable over the long run and in the broad scope, but abiding in service to God or man by a dedicated resolve to something useful is nothing to sneeze at.