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Author: David Oyedepo
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About the Book

"Walking in Wisdom" by David Oyedepo is a practical guide to living a successful and fulfilling life by applying wisdom and understanding to daily decisions and actions. The book emphasizes the importance of seeking wisdom through prayer, meditation, and studying the Word of God, and offers practical tips for developing a lifestyle of wisdom. Oyedepo shares personal anecdotes and insights to inspire readers to pursue wisdom and experience God's blessings in every aspect of their lives.

George Whitefield

George Whitefield was born at Gloucester in 1714. His mother kept the Bell Inn, and appears not to have prospered in business; at any rate, she never seems to have been able to do anything for her son’s advancement in life. Whitefield’s early life, according to his own account, was anything but religious; though, like many boys, he had occasional prickings of conscience and spasmodic fits of devout feeling. He confesses that he was ‘addicted to lying, filthy talking, and foolish jesting’, and that he was a ‘Sabbath-breaker, a theatre-goer, a card-player, and a romance reader’. All this, he says, went on till he was fifteen years old. Poor as he was, his residence at Gloucester procured him the advantage of a good education at the Free Grammar School of that city. Here he was a day-scholar until he was fifteen. The only known fact about his schooldays is this curious one, that even then he was remarkable for his good elocution and memory, and was selected to recite speeches before the Corporation of Gloucester at their annual visitation of the Grammar School. At the age of fifteen Whitefield appears to have left school, and to have given up Latin and Greek for a season. In all probability, his mother’s straitened circumstances made it absolutely necessary for him to do something to assist her in business and to get his own living. He began, therefore, to help her in the daily work of the Bell Inn. ‘At length’, he says, ‘I put on my blue apron, washed cups, cleaned rooms, and, in one word, became a professed common drawer for nigh a year and a half.’ This, however, did not last long. His mother’s business at the Bell did not flourish, and she finally retired from it altogether. An old school-fellow revived in his mind the idea of going to Oxford, and he went back to the Grammar School and renewed his studies. At length, after several providential circumstances had smoothed the way, he entered Oxford as a servitor at Pembroke at the age of eighteen. Whitefield’s residence at Oxford was the great turning-point in his life. For two or three years before he went to the University his journal tells us that he had not been without religious convictions, But from the time of his entering Pembroke College these convictions fast ripened into decided Christianity. He diligently attended all means of grace within his reach. He spent his leisure time in visiting the city prison, reading to the prisoners, and trying to do good. He became acquainted with the famous John Wesley and his brother Charles, and a little band of like-minded young men. These were the devoted party to whom the name ‘Methodists’ was first applied, on account of their strict ‘method’ of living. At one time he seems to have been in danger of becoming a semi-papist, an ascetic, or a mystic, and of placing the whole of religion in self-denial. He says in his Journal, ‘I always chose the worst sort of food. I fasted twice a week. My apparel was mean. I thought it unbecoming a penitent to have his hair powdered. I wore woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes; and though I was convinced that the kingdom of God did not consist in meat and drink, yet I resolutely persisted in these voluntary acts of self-denial, because I found in them great promotion of the spiritual life.’ Out of all this darkness he was gradually delivered, partly by the advice of one or two experienced Christians, and partly by reading such books as Scougal’s Life of God in the Soul of Man, Law’s Serious Call, Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted, Alleine’s Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, and Matthew Henry’s Commentary. ‘Above all’, he says, ‘my mind being now more opened and enlarged, I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word. This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light, and power from above. I got more true knowledge from reading the Book of God in one month than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men.’ Once taught to understand the glorious liberty of Christ’s gospel, Whitefield never turned again to asceticism, legalism, mysticism, or strange views of Christian perfection. The experience received by bitter conflict was most valuable to him. The doctrines of free grace, once thoroughly grasped, took deep root in his heart, and became, as it were, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Of all the little band of Oxford Methodists, none seem to have got hold so soon of clear views of Christ’s gospel as he did, and none kept it so unwaveringly to the end. At the early age of twenty-two Whitefield was admitted to holy orders by Bishop Benson of Gloucester, on Trinity Sunday, 1736. His ordination was not of his own seeking. The bishop heard of his character from Lady Selwyn and others, sent for him, gave him five guineas to buy books, and offered to ordain him, though only twenty-two years old, whenever he wished. This unexpected offer came to him when he was full of scruples about his own fitness for the ministry. It cut the knot and brought him to the point of decision. ‘I began to think’, he says, ‘that if I held out longer I should fight against God.’ Whitefield’s first sermon was preached in the very town where he was born, at the church of St Mary-le-Crypt, Gloucester – ‘As I proceeded I perceived the fire kindled, till at last, though so young and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my childish days, I was enabled to speak with some degree of gospel authority.’ Almost immediately after his ordination, Whitefield went to Oxford and took his degree as Bachelor of Arts. He then commenced his regular ministerial life by undertaking temporary duty at the Tower Chapel, London, for two months. While engaged there he preached continually in many London churches; and among others, in the parish churches of Islington, Bishopsgate, St Dunstan’s, St Margaret’s, Westminster, and Bow, Cheapside. From the very first he obtained a degree of popularity such as no preacher, before or since, has probably ever reached. Whether on week-days or Sundays, wherever he preached, the churches were crowded, and an immense sensation was produced. The plain truth is, that a really eloquent, extempore preacher, preaching the pure gospel with most uncommon gifts of voice and manner, was at that time an entire novelty in London. The congregations were taken by surprise and carried by storm. From London he removed for two months to Dummer, a little rural parish in Hampshire, near Basingstoke. From there he accepted an invitation, which had been much pressed on him by the Wesleys, to visit the colony of Georgia in North America, and assist in the care of an Orphan House which had been set up near Savannah for the children of colonists. After preaching for a few months in Gloucestershire, and especially at Bristol and Stonehouse, he sailed for America in the latter part of 1737, and continued there about a year. The affairs of this Orphan House, it may be remarked, occupied much of his attention from this period of his life till he died. Though well-meant, it seems to have been a design of very questionable wisdom, and certainly entailed on Whitefield a world of anxiety and responsibility to the end of his days. Whitefield returned from Georgia at the latter part of the year 1738, partly to obtain priest’s orders, which were conferred on him by his old friend Bishop Benson, and partly on business connected with the Orphan House. He soon, however, discovered that his position was no longer what it was before he sailed for Georgia. The bulk of the clergy were no longer favourable to him, and regarded him with suspicion as an enthusiast and a fanatic. They were especially scandalized by his preaching the doctrine of regeneration or the new birth, as a thing which many baptized persons greatly needed! The number of pulpits to which he had access rapidly diminished. Churchwardens, who had no eyes for drunkenness and impurity, were filled with intense indignation about what they called ‘breaches of order’. Bishops who could tolerate Arianism, Socinianism, and Deism, were filled with indignation at a man who declared fully the atonement of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost, and began to denounce him openly. In short, from this period of his life, Whitefield’s field of usefulness within the Church of England narrowed rapidly on every side. The step which at this juncture gave a turn to the whole current of Whitefield’s ministry was his adoption of the system of open-air preaching. Seeing that thousands everywhere would attend no place of worship, spent their Sundays in idleness or sin, and were not to be reached by sermons within walls, he resolved, in the spirit of holy aggression, to go out after them ‘into the highways and hedges’, on his Master’s principle, and ‘compel them to come in’. His first attempt to do this was among the colliers at Kingswood near Bristol, in February, 1739. After much prayer he one day went to Hannam Mount, and standing upon a hill began to preach to about a hundred colliers upon Matthew 5:1-3. The thing soon became known. The number of hearers rapidly increased, till the congregation amounted to many thousands. Whitefield’s own account of the behaviour of these neglected colliers, who had never been in a church in their lives, is deeply affecting: ‘Having’, he writes to a friend, ‘no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend to publicans, and came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was the sight of the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks as they came out of their coal-pits. Hundreds of them were soon brought under deep conviction, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion.’ Two months after this Whitefield began the practice of open-air preaching in London, on 27 April, 1739. The circumstances under which this happened were curious. He had gone to Islington to preach for the vicar, his friend Mr Stonehouse. In the midst of the prayer the churchwardens came to him and demanded his licence for preaching in the diocese of London. Whitefield, of course, had not got this licence. The upshot of the matter was, that being forbidden by the churchwardens to preach in the pulpit, he went outside after the communion-service, and preached in the churchyard. From that day forward he became a constant field-preacher, whenever weather and the season of the year made it possible. Two days afterwards, on Sunday, April 29th, he records: ‘I preached in Moorfields to an exceeding great multitude. Being weakened by my morning’s preaching, I refreshed myself in the afternoon by a little sleep, and at five went and preached at Kennington Common, about two miles from London, when no less than thirty thousand people were supposed to be present.’ Henceforth, wherever there were large open spaces round London, wherever there were large bands of idle, godless, Sabbath-breaking people gathered together, in Hackney Fields, Mary-le-bonne Fields, May Fair, Smithfield, Blackheath, Moorfields, and Kennington Common, there went Whitefield and lifted up his voice for Christ. The gospel so proclaimed was listened to and greedily received by hundreds who never dreamed of going to a place of worship. The ministrations of Whitefield in the pulpits of the Church of England from this time almost entirely ceased. He loved the Church in which he had been ordained; he gloried in her Articles; he used her Prayer-book with pleasure. But the Church did not love him, and so lost the use of his services. The Church was too much asleep to understand him, and was vexed at a man who would not keep still and let the devil alone. The facts of Whitefield’s history from this period to the day of his death are almost entirely of one complexion. One year was just like another; and to attempt to follow him would be only going repeatedly over the same ground. From 1739 to the year of his death, 1770, a period of thirty-one years, his life was one uniform employment, and he was always about his Master’s business. From Sunday mornings to Saturday nights, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, excepting when laid aside by illness, he was almost incessantly preaching Christ and going about the world entreating men to repent and come to Christ and be saved. There was hardly a considerable town in England, Scotland, or Wales, that he did not visit as an evangelist. When churches were opened to him he gladly preached in churches; when only chapels could be obtained, he cheerfully preached in chapels. When churches and chapels alike were closed, or were too small to contain his hearers, he was ready and willing to preach in the open air. For thirty-one years he laboured in this way, always proclaiming the same glorious gospel, and always, as far as man’s eye can judge, with immense effect. In one single Whitsuntide week, after preaching in Moorfields, he received one thousand letters from people under spiritual concern, and admitted to the Lord’s table three hundred and fifty persons. In the thirty-four years of his ministry it is reckoned that he preached publicly eighteen thousand times. His journeyings were prodigious, when the roads and conveyances of his time are considered. He visited Scotland fourteen times; he crossed the Atlantic seven times, backward and forward, in miserable slow sailing ships, and arrested the attention of thousands in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. He went over to Ireland twice, and on one occasion was almost murdered by an ignorant Popish mob in Dublin. As to England and Wales, he traversed every county in them, from the Isle of Wight to Berwick-on-Tweed, and from the Land’s End to the North Foreland. His regular ministerial work in London for the winter season, when field-preaching was necessarily suspended, was something prodigious. His weekly engagements at the Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road, which was built for him when the pulpits of the Established Church were closed, comprised the following work: Every Sunday morning he administered the Lord’s Supper to several hundred communicants at half-past six. After this he read prayers, and preached both morning and afternoon. Then he preached again in the evening at half-past five, and concluded by addressing a large society of widows, married people, young men and spinsters, all sitting separately in the area of the Tabernacle, with exhortations suitable to their respective stations. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, he preached regularly at six. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings, he delivered lectures. This, it will be observed, made thirteen sermons a week! And all this time he was carrying on a large correspondence with people in almost every part of the world. That any human frame could so long endure the labours that Whitefield went through does indeed seem wonderful. That his life was not cut short by violence, to which he was frequently exposed, is no less wonderful. But he was immortal till his work was done. He died at last very suddenly at Newbury Port, in North America, on Sunday, 29 September, 1770, at the comparatively early age of fifty-six. He was once married to a widow named James, of Abergavenny, who died before him. If we may judge from the little mention made of his wife in his letters, his marriage does not seem to have contributed much to his happiness. He left no children, but he left a name far better than that of sons and daughters. Never perhaps was there a man of whom it could be so truly said that he spent and was spent for Christ than George Whitefield. [Adapted from J. C. Ryle’s ‘George Whitefield and His Ministry’ in Select Sermons of George Whitefield; see also George Whitefield’s Journals, Robert Philip’s Life and Times of George Whitefield, and Arnold Dallimore’s 2-volume biography George Whitefield.]

‘I Worked Harder’

ABSTRACT: “I worked harder than any of them.” Few figures in Scripture labor with the manifest industry of the apostle Paul. Where did such a prodigious work ethic come from? As one steeped in the Old Testament, Paul would have known and loved the many passages in Proverbs commending diligent, skillful labor and warning of idleness. The teaching of Proverbs, together with the mighty working of God’s grace, produced an energy and effort that challenges the trend toward leisure in society today. For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors, leaders, and teachers, we asked Robert Yarbrough, professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, to profile the work ethic of the apostle Paul. We all know about COVID and its worldwide spread. Much attention focuses on the number of deaths, and not without justification. But the numbers do grow wearisome — numbers deceased, numbers testing positive, numbers in ICUs, numbers on ventilators, and now numbers vaccinated (or not). Such numbers are a sign of fundamental matters (like human health) amiss. There is, though, another set of numbers that had become commonplace long before COVID in most locations in the United States, and to an extent worldwide. They too point to something amiss. I’m talking about lottery numbers, featured on various media outlets in most locales. The money squandered on these games of chance is staggering. While this is not the place to debate the wisdom, morality, or possible pros and cons of this form of gambling, I do believe that the popularity of lotteries alerts us to an emerging idol that Christians need to nip in the bud, if they have not already fallen to its worship. That idol is the love of being idle when it comes to gainful employment, like a job. (You play the lottery so you’ll never have to work again, right?) Or when it comes to labor for the good of others, like being a parent who tends a household and rears children. Or like pastoral ministry, which is typically heavy on self-sacrificial labor for the sake of others. The idol I am envisioning is the love of leisure when the kingdom of God calls for engaged subjects: douloi (servants, slaves) joyfully (at least much of the time) doing the King’s bidding. It is the love of money for the sake of making habitual downtime and idle enjoyment possible. It is the love of self-indulgence and the exploitation of creation’s goods for personal pleasure rather than for the fulfillment of God’s creation mandate and Christ’s call to discipleship. It is the love of being served rather than of serving. Think cruise-ship getaway. In remarks below, I want to remind us of key insights from contemporary discussion, from Scripture, and especially from the apostle Paul that will help us maintain a healthy relationship to our work in life rather than skepticism or antagonism toward that work that leads to a harmful gravitation toward idle pursuits that God is unlikely to deem productive or redemptive. The Worth of Work, with a Warning Work in the sense of human toil to earn a living has received abundant attention from Christian writers in recent years. A book by my colleague Daniel M. Doriani serves as an example: Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation.1 On the back cover, D.A. Carson comments, “The last few years have witnessed a flurry of books that treat a Christian view of work. This is the best of them.” A few years back, Christianity Today carried a story on “reclaiming the honor of manual labor.”2 The article argued for the virtue and indeed necessity of more people learning trades rather than eschewing manual labor and avoiding jobs that demand arduous physical exertion. Of course, there is barren overwork, a bane to be avoided. Kevin DeYoung has written about it in Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem.3 If you’re too busy to get hold of the book(!), some main points were recently summarized online.4 DeYoung notes that busyness can empty life of joy, impoverish our hearts, and conceal and contribute to a bankrupt soul. When hard work (along with all of life’s other demands) shades over into obsessive hyperactivity, when we pour all our energy and devotion into gainful labor with no time or energy for anything else, we have idolized work, the benefits we plan to receive from it, or both. We need the psalmist’s reminder: It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:2)5 Yet while Scripture warns against work overload, it also models an appeal for God to bless our daily labors, not to rescue us from the need to perform them. The wonderful conclusion to Moses’s sole contribution to the Psalter runs, Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (Psalm 90:17) Duly warned of vesting work with devotion that belongs to God alone, we can still call on him to bless our licit labors. And we are wise to ask, What is work’s value, in God’s eyes? “Warned of vesting work with devotion that belongs to God alone, we can still call on him to bless our licit labors.” A considerable literature addresses this from various points of the world-Christian perspective. Esther O. Ayandokun draws on the Bible (along with other resources, both academic and religious) to argue for a work ethic without which the acute problem of poverty will only worsen in her location (Nigeria), where it is already severe.6 She argues that “when working hard is embraced by members of the society, the society will be free of corruption, thuggery, armed robbery, cultism, and other social vices.”7 More broadly, she concludes her survey of what Scripture says on the subject with this observation: [The] human race can fight poverty as they engage meaningfully in one job, or the other, depending on age, gender, skills, knowledge, and exposure. What is important is that no one should be idle, to the extent that such will only depend on the sweat of others perpetually. Everyone, who is old enough to work, must be employed gainfully. Efficient labour as established in the Scriptures, is a panacea for poverty alleviation; where each person (at work) does his/her best, to enhance production of quality goods, and services rendered.8 While panacea might not be quite the right word, that quotation lines up well with the wisdom on work that Proverbs offers, a wisdom that echoes in Paul’s life and letters. Work in Paul from Proverbs’ Perspective The apostle Paul, like other New Testament authors and Jesus himself, affirmed what we call the Old Testament as inspired by God and authoritative. While it is worthwhile to keep in mind views of work prevalent in Greco-Roman spheres or Judaism in the New Testament era,9 the New Testament often draws on the Old Testament to lay a foundation and to push back against the deficient understandings and practices of its day. The grass and flowers of the times wither and fade away, but God’s word endures (1 Peter 1:24–25; Isaiah 40:6, 8). A survey of references to work or labor in Proverbs (using the ESV) reveals principles that play out in Paul’s view of his own apostolic, missionary, and pastoral activities. They are surely worth pondering for our own outlook and practice. 1. God is a worker, and his people labor with and for him. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. (Proverbs 8:22) Here divine wisdom is personified, depicting the Lord as the Creator who works. That God is a worker, and that people made in his image are designed to work too, is widely accepted in the literature. This statement is typical: “Paul would have had a full understanding of God as worker, humankind as created for work, work properly done as glorifying God, but work also corruptible by the fall.”10 Accordingly, Paul viewed himself and others as coworkers (ESV “fellow workers,” synergos) with God (1 Corinthians 3:9). Nearly a dozen times, Paul mentions fellow workers; he views this fraternity of work as not merely human-with-human but also people laboring with God alongside, as when he calls Timothy “our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ” (1 Thessalonians 3:2). Paul viewed himself and his wide circle of accomplices as “fellow workers for the kingdom of God” (Colossians 4:11). 2. Hard work is virtuous, and slothfulness is a vice. From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him. (Proverbs 12:14) The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. (Proverbs 12:24) Both of the passages above commend work by using hand to signify hard, competent, and gainful effort. “The work of a man’s hand” is how Paul described his ministry: “We labor, working with our own hands” (1 Corinthians 4:12). He counseled new converts at Thessalonica “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). For someone in the church wrestling with the temptation to steal, Paul commanded, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Ephesians 4:28). “The epitaph of many a failed ministry and minister could be summed up with Proverbs’ words: ‘His hands refused to labor.’” The point is not that only manual or trade work is of value. It is rather that every believer’s life should be centered on God’s service for the promotion of God’s glory. Since in Paul’s day (as when Proverbs was written centuries earlier) most livelihoods required what we would consider hard physical work, Paul’s word to all believers in all situations was, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23; see also 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31). Even allowing for changes over the ages, that is still perfectly understandable and highly applicable whatever our station in life today. “The slothful will be put to forced labor” expresses the conviction that the lazy run the risk of being commandeered by forces they could have escaped if they had gone to work for God and the good on their own. In Pauline terms, one thinks of his warning that we become slaves to sin if we reject faith in and service for Christ (Romans 6:16). 3. God guides the life direction and outcome of the person who works to honor God. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. (Proverbs 16:3) This statement taps into the common canonical conviction of God’s benevolent and personally attuned sovereignty. Those who trust in him will find that he has gone before them; their efforts and labors will prove to have purpose, meaning, and value, because God has overseen and directed their way. A related conviction is stated a few verses later: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Those who labor in fellowship with the Lord and in accordance with his purposes can be assured of God’s support, assistance, and ultimate vindication, even if one’s assignment ends in seeming disaster (like John the Baptist’s beheading, or Christ’s cross). Paul’s work was certainly committed “to the Lord.” This is epitomized in the statement “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul can exhort the Philippians to practice what Paul taught and modeled, assuring them that “the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).11 Their lives, the plans by which they live them, and the ends to which they strive “will be established,” as Proverbs 16:3 puts it. When Paul labored in Ephesus, he frankly acknowledged, “There are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:9). But he purposes in the very same verse not to flee but to exploit “a wide door for effective work,” as “the Lord permits” (1 Corinthians 16:7). Ministry often proceeds under ominous auspices. But that may be precisely when God’s upholding hand is most vigorously at work. Sometimes fears are realized and calamity occurs — as Paul and Silas experienced in founding the Philippian congregation: “The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison” (Acts 16:22–23). This doesn’t sound like a successful church-planting event. But Paul and Silas stood firm in trusting the God they served in Christ’s name. God used their poise and praise (Acts 16:25) to convert the jailer and his household and to establish a congregation. Paul’s unswerving resolve illustrates what it means to minister under the conviction that “your plans will be established.” 4. Idleness is destructive of those who languish in it. Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. (Proverbs 18:9) The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. (Proverbs 21:25) From different angles, both of these verses warn of the destructive effect of idleness. The person “slack in his work” can probably rationalize it a dozen ways: “It’s Monday; I’m worn out from the weekend” (often a true statement for pastors!). “It’s Friday; I’m gearing up for the weekend” (maybe a prelude to skipping out of work for the golf course, or laying weekend plans to skip church . . . again). “Half-hearted effort, or doing much less than is possible, is the norm for many, whatever their occupation.” Half-hearted effort, or doing much less than is possible, is the norm for many, whatever their occupation. I think I see this attitude often in big-box home improvement stores when I need help in hardware or plumbing. It can be impossible to catch the eye of the attendant who is paid to help you. You might have to sprint to catch those who sense you want their help, as they suddenly feel the urge to flee to a distant aisle. Paul urged churches to “admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). The examples of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy served as a public demonstration of how Christians should comport themselves: “You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you” (2 Thessalonians 3:7). “Slack in his work” and “the sluggard” describe an “idleness” Paul decried: Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6) For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. (2 Thessalonians 3:11) The epitaph of many a failed ministry and minister could be summed up with Proverbs’ words above: “His hands refused to labor.” Failure to expend full effort can be justified in all kinds of ways, from self-care to self-love to a demonstration of the conviction that we’re not saved by works — so we’ll perform works sparingly and sporadically, since they aren’t really required for salvation. Paul’s example runs the opposite direction. Comparing himself with the other apostles, he speaks of God’s grace toward him, the former persecutor, and avers that this grace “was not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:10). What proof does he point to? “I worked harder than any of” the other apostles, though Paul knows “it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” Because of that very grace, Paul toiled prodigiously, and not for a season or a year but over decades. 5. God is pleased by those who develop and apply the ability to work hard and skillfully. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29) This is one of my favorite verses in Proverbs. I grew up under a grandfather and father who did tree work — for Davey Tree Expert Company — and as a young man I devoted over six years to full-time tree climbing and timber felling, first for Davey, and then for lumber mills in western Montana and Idaho. For the first quarter-century of my life, I watched workmen come and go — attrition in this trade is high for understandable reasons. Men (at that time I knew of no women who climbed trees or felled timber) who had high standards for their work were rare. Theft of company equipment was common. Avoiding the hard or dangerous roles was the norm. Bosses knew they had to keep a sharp eye out for workers cutting corners or turning in work they did not perform. In those same years, I observed certain older men who stood out. They were kept on the payroll when others were laid off. The quality of their work set them apart. They were “skillful” (see the Proverbs verse above) in their attitude and execution. Years later, some owned their own companies or had moved to positions of oversight. Jesus taught, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10). In line with this, Paul taught Timothy and Titus to pay close attention to those whom their social settings regarded as less important people, like women and children and slaves. Paul spends more verses instructing Timothy on widows (1 Timothy 5:3–16) than on any other people group — including overseers! It was vital that Timothy’s care for the flock extend to what Jesus called “the least of these,” rather than majoring on the mighty and the wealthy, who easily attract church leaders’ fullest attention. Paul knew that church leaders who failed in the pastoral care of the seemingly less significant were unlikely to withstand the pressures and blandishments that come with duties that attract higher public visibility. In college, a young man training for the ministry was the envy of his classmates. He seemed to have a photographic memory. While others were beating Greek into their heads, not always with success, he would glance at the textbook right before quizzes and ace them all. But after graduation, despite his ability and intelligence, his level of ministry effectiveness fell below potential. Did this go back to being clever and gifted but not “skillful in his work”? Had he perhaps not really learned to work? In contrast, in that same college there was a fellow student who proved “skillful in his work.” He applied himself with the humor and energetic daily output that he had brought with him from his rural upbringing. He went on to be a highly published Old Testament scholar, professor, and speaker who has built up thousands of students, readers, and pastors in the faith over many decades. “He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men” was actually fulfilled in the apostle Paul’s life, as God transformed a man zealous to oppress into a man eager “to carry [Christ’s] name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul’s consistent, all-out attention to more modest tasks the Lord set before him from the start — like in Damascus immediately proclaiming “Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20) at great peril to himself — led to a witness that spoke all the way up to kings (Acts 26:2–29). Paul’s message has continued to challenge people and peoples everywhere, from common folk to global elites, down to this hour. But what about his ethos of unstinting hard work to get that message out?12 Recovering the Pauline Work Ethic An old saying from previous generations was “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Today there are desires for leisure like never before and often the technological means to indulge those desires. COVID lockdowns and confinements have likely exacerbated temptations to idleness. It is not easy to find either the will or the means to busy ourselves in ways that sanctify and harness our inner restiveness so that the main thrust of our lives furthers divine ends rather than worldly trivialities. How many hours weekly do many in the church, including ministers, squander in online activities that are excessive or even illicit? Then there are, for some, still more hours of TV or movies or sports — all justifiable in theory, but in many lives amounting to a replacement of what should consume us: God, the furtherance of his kingdom, and labors that promote his holy and redemptive aims for us. Yes, God grants rest and leisure and recreation in their appropriate place. But many believers at some point wake up to how worthy Christ is of their devotion, not merely sentimentally or “spiritually” but in the expenditure of time and physical energy in ways that social media, ESPN, CNN, FOX, Internet browsing, and other black holes for time wastage cannot monetize. In many cases, we are not only idolizing indolence but paying for the privilege. “In many cases, we are not only idolizing indolence but paying for the privilege.” And the higher household income becomes, the more temptation there is for extravagant pursuits to dominate our horizon and make us forget that we are supposed to be “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). As church members, we are under the oversight of those charged with equipping us “for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). The percentage of church members, in most cases, whose notion of equipping goes beyond reasonably regular church attendance is probably impressive — mainly in the sense of appalling. So what are most Christians doing with most of their discretionary time? And what motivates them as they perform their daily labors? Are we mainly working for the weekend? Do we disappear for hours daily into cyberspace or other fantasy worlds in which we are serving, God knows, neither him nor people? To put it in a flurry of Pauline declarations and commendations that point to the all-out effort that the gospel spawned in the early church: Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Romans 12:10–11) Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:13) Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. (Romans 16:6) Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. (Romans 16:12) We labor, working with our own hands. (1 Corinthians 4:12) Always [abound] in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) Be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. (1 Corinthians 16:16) If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. (Philippians 1:22) It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:29) Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)13 Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. (Titus 3:14) Such references are the tip of an iceberg of the industriousness that characterized those first mobilized by Christ and his gospel. Is this not a dynamic worth upholding now against all countervailing forces? Precisely in our time of unprecedented challenge and peril for Christians worldwide, there is need to reaffirm the conclusion reached in a recent study of Paul’s (high) regard for work: Failure to work — sloth — represents faithlessness toward God and our neighbor. There is no rank among Christians in the work place, as there is dignity and equality between all who labor and no task for the kingdom that is of lesser importance than any other. As Christians, our work is to sustain and support others and to relieve their burdens, as Paul’s work did, as we work for Christ’s kingdom. Hard work is the norm for the Christian, as it was for Paul, whether manual labor or otherwise, as it is a witness to others of our faith. To be that witness our work should follow the self-giving example of Christ, focused on Him and on others and not ourselves, marked by agape love.14 May God’s gospel grace move many more of us in this direction, smashing all idols of opposition to God’s work through our hands. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2019. ↩ Jeff Haanen and Chris Horst, “The Handcrafted Gospel,” Christianity Today, July/August 2014, 66–71. ↩ Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013. ↩ Kevin DeYoung, “3 Dangers of Busyness,” Crossway (blog), December 9, 2020, https://www.crossway.org/articles/3-dangers-of-busyness/. ↩ Unless otherwise noted, Scripture references are from the ESV. ↩ “The imperative of dignity of labour as a panacea for poverty alleviation in Nigeria,” Practical Theology (Baptist College of Theology, Lagos) 7 (2014): 84–110. See also Jude Lulenga Chisanga, “Christian Spirituality of Work: A Survey of Workers in Ndola City, Zambia,” African Ecclesial Review 60, nos. 1/2 (2018): 10–24. ↩ Ayandokun, “The imperative of dignity of labour,” 100. ↩ Ayandokun, “The imperative of dignity of labour,” 88–89. ↩ For this background, see, e.g., Christoph vom Brocke, “Work in the New Testament and in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” in Dignity of Work — Theological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Kenneth Mtata, Documentation 56 (Minneapolis, MN: Lutheran University Press, 2011), 25–28. Accessible at https://www.lutheranworld.org. Alexander Whitaker, “Paul’s Theology of Work,” Puritan Reformed Journal 12, no. 2 (July 2020): 32. ↩ Annang Asumang, “Perfection of God’s Good Work: The Literary and Pastoral Function of the Theme of ‘Work’ in Philippians,” Conspectus 23, no. 1 (January 2017): 1–55, helpfully unpacks the theme of God’s work in that epistle, along with “not just the inward spiritual transformation of the Philippians, but also its social consequence and the Philippians’ synergistic active participation in” God’s work (42). But stress is laid on God’s provision and enabling, not the work ethic from the human side needed to embody God’s outpoured energies. ↩ See Akinyemi O. Alawode, “Paul’s biblical patterns of church planting: An effective method to achieve the Great Commission,” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 76, no. 1 (2020): a5579, https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v76i1.5579. This study describes concepts, patterns, models, and strategies. But there is no direct mention of the hard effort required for any of this to have worked for Paul or to work today. ↩ Those who obey this command assiduously know that while it has its joyful aspects, it is nevertheless work. ↩ Whitaker, “Paul’s Theology of Work,” 41. ↩ Article by Robert Yarbrough