Category Devotionals

The Economic Solution?

Todd R 1 Comment

What if only one verse from the Bible could solve all of the world’s economic problems?  If one could, it would probably be Ephesians 4:28, where Paul wrote:

“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.”

What if everyone followed the three rules suggested by this one verse?

A fig tree. Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

First, imagine if there was no crime.  “Let the thief no longer steal.”  The Bible tells us that in a perfect world, God’s people “shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid”[1]  Every person will reap the rewards of their effort – their own wine and figs – with no concern for it being taken away from them.

Next, imagine if everyone’s job was productive and meaningful; that each person did “honest work with his own hands.”  What if everyone approached their job as an act of worship, offered to God who sees and knows all?  No dishonesty, no scandal, no nasty office politics, no slacking.

Last, imagine if everyone’s needs were taken care of from the surplus of others.  Imagine if we had the mindset that working in order to have more to share is better than working in order to accumulate for ourselves.

What a world that would be!  So, let’s make these rules into law, enforce them strictly, and we will have a perfect society, right?  Wrong, because rules and laws are not the solution to the world’s problems.  People don’t consistently follow rules, especially when they require that we abandon our selfish ways.  At the root of Adam and Eve’s sin – the sin that taints us all – is that they wanted to do things their own way, making their own choices between good and evil, rather than trusting God to know it for them.  When rebellion is the problem, more or better rules can’t solve it.  Rebellion against God can’t be solved from the outside of us, only from the inside.

However, while sin will always taint us in this world, Christians are called to, and able to, live differently.  Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  The principles of Ephesians 4:28 apply to God’s people now.

Christians are called not to follow this world’s economic models and incentives, but to “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”[2]  Because in heaven the thief will “no longer steal” and we should desire that God’s “will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we should no longer steal now.  We should know that in any job we should “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”[3] and we should share with those in need because Jesus told us “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”[4]

Is this possible?  Yes, and Paul modeled some of this for us in his own life.  In Acts 20:34 he said, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.”  While as an apostle he could have asked each church he founded to fully support his ministry and cover his costs, instead he worked as a tentmaker to show us the principles of Ephesians 4:28 at work.

Maybe one verse can solve all of our economic problems, but only when everyone lives like God knows best.  Our Savior Jesus offers us a world just like that.  All good things are possible.

“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.”

[1] Micah 4:4
[2] Matthew 6:20
[3] Colossians 3:23
[4] Matthew 25:40

The Eternal Work of Eden, Heaven, and Earth

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Do you love your job?  Is your work meaningful?  After the Covid-19 pandemic, many found that the work they did before the pandemic doesn’t seem as important or meaningful to them now.  People were quitting their jobs or retiring early so often, a new catchphrase was created: “Great Resignation.”  Frustration over work coincided with demand by many workers to find meaning in their job beyond the actual job, for example looking for a workplace that shares their political or social goals.  The work itself had become less meaningful.

As a partial response to this frustration, today’s post will make three points about work before the Fall, in the Garden of Eden, and what that means for our future in heaven and the place of work in our lives now.  We start with an idea from Genesis that is sometimes missed:

#1 – “Not all the world was Eden”
As noted by Michael Heiser in his book The Unseen Realm[2], Eden’s geography is limited and defined in Genesis 2:8-14.  Also, when God expels Adam and Eve from the garden in Genesis 3:23-24 we know that they are still on earth, but no longer in the garden.  God didn’t create a new place for them to go but removed them from the part of the earth that was Eden.  While Eden was a paradise, it was not the entire world.  Which leads to the second point:

#2 – “The original task of humanity was to make the entire Earth like Eden”
In Genesis 1:28 we read: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”  Heiser notes on this verse that “the earth needed filling” and that “it makes no sense to subdue the garden of God.”

Eden was a perfect pattern which mankind was to learn from and apply to the rest of the world.  God’s creativity in Eden was a model for human creativity everywhere else.  The pre-Fall world was not a world where there was no work left to be done, which suggests that:

#3 – Work is Eternal
A popular view of heaven is that it is a leisurely place where we don’t have to work.  Images of angels playing harps and finally being able to kick back and relax come to mind.  Some hope in heaven partly for this reason – that they’re tired of working and can’t wait for it to be over.  However, in Genesis 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”  Adam had a job to do in Eden, and God’s people will have jobs to do in heaven.  Work is not only part of our current fallen world, but a part of our eternal destiny as well.  This may seem like bad news to some of my readers, but is the idea of doing nothing for eternity really appealing when you think about it?

We can be encouraged because the actual hope of heaven is always greater than we can imagine.  As Paul wrote in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  While in heaven we will work, it will be thoroughly meaningful and fulfilling.  Every person will be perfectly suited for their tasks and doing exactly what they were designed to do.  No longer will work be cursed by “thorns and thistles,”[3] where labor means pain and you only benefit “by the sweat of your face.”[4]  Work will not be gone, but redeemed and perfected.  Heaven will not be what we expect, but God promises it will always be better than our expectations.

Work is Now
For now, this means that whether you’re working at a job, at home, retired, a student, a parent, or in any role in this world, as God’s creativity was to be reproduced by Adam and Eve, the character of Jesus is being developed in His people in this world, and will be fully reproduced in heaven.  In the Lord’s Prayer, part of the meaning of “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) is that we should live as much as possible in this world in the same way we would in heaven.

Christians are God’s agents in this world to glorify Him and make Him known, in our jobs or in any other roles we find ourselves in.  Heiser cites many examples from the Bible which show that “God works through figures like Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, the prophets, and the apostles. But the pattern extends to us, to all believers. There is nothing we do that God could not accomplish himself. But he has not chosen that method. Rather, he tells us what his will is and commands his loyal children to get the job done.”

In heaven your job will not be what it is now, but for each of us, whatever role we have, whatever our circumstances, our job is to take the gifts of creativity and character God endowed us with and make this world a bit more like Eden.

Jesus was a perfect pattern which we are to learn from and apply to everything we do in this world.

[2] Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.  (2015).  This post draws from pages 49-52.
[3] Genesis 3:18
[4] Genesis 3:19

Daily Readings for Sept 1 – 7

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Fellow travelers:

Here is the list of readings for this week: 2 chapters to read per day as the main reading plan, and extra chapters for anyone who wants to read the whole Bible in 2025.  Reading 3 chapters a day on weekdays and 4 on weekends almost exactly covers the 1,189 chapters of the Bible, so the “extra” readings are about 9 chapters per week.

Follow along (or not) any way you choose!

Monday, September 1: 1 Corinthians 11-12
Tuesday, September 2: 1 Corinthians 13-14
Wednesday, September 3: 1 Corinthians 15-16
Thursday, September 4: Joshua 1-2
Friday, September 5: Joshua 3-4
Saturday, September 6: Joshua 5-6
Sunday, September 7: Joshua 7-8

Extra chapters for those reading the whole Bible this year:
Jeremiah 39 – 47

A Hot Take on Hot Takes?

Todd R 3 Comments

Of the millions (or billions? Trillions?) of new things published on the internet every day, a lot of it falls into the category of a “hot take,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “a quickly produced, strongly worded, and often deliberately provocative or sensational opinion or reaction (as in response to current news).”  I have to admit I sometimes get jealous when I see the amount of attention this stuff gets (and feel guilty when I click on it and read it).

In many of these hot takes, the writer is stating an opinion about the future, but of course nobody knows the future.  Can wisdom be based on knowledge of the future?  The author of Ecclesiastes seems to say no:

“A fool multiplies words,
            though no man knows what is to be,
            and who can tell him what will be after him?”[1]

Since “no man knows what is to be,” it would seem that “I don’t know the future” is a better starting point for wisdom than “I have a strong opinion about what’s going to happen next.”  Talking a lot about something where the starting point is wrong is foolish.  Unfortunately, it’s the best way to get attention and make money online in our modern culture.  Wisdom is out of style.

How much time and effort is put into predicting sports, politics, and many other things with no evaluation of accuracy or value?  Imagine if people on the internet were held to the standard Old Testament prophets were supposed to be held to: “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’  And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

Nowadays we hardly keep track of whether people’s opinions and predictions are right or wrong.  We just enjoy tossing entertaining opinions around.  We prefer provocative and interesting over correct and useful, or wise.  Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, made a great point when he said: “The news media has decided that the way to arrive at neutrality is to put two opposing voices together and let them yell at each other.”  That’s entertainment, I guess.

Anyway, you won’t see many “hot takes” here, and I’ll just have to be satisfied with fewer clicks and follows.

To do otherwise would be foolish according to Ecclesiastes, which was written with the assistance of Someone who does know the future.

(PS. This post was “quickly produced”)

[1] Ecclesiastes 10:14

Jesus is the Best Fisherman

Todd R 1 Comment

During His life on earth, Jesus called 12 men to special positions as His disciples or apostles.  Out of these 12, at least 4 and possibly 7, were fishermen, a common trade at that time.  The gospels have many fishing stories, including one in Luke 5 when Jesus is about to call His first disciples.

One morning after Simon Peter and some other fishermen had been working all night without catching anything, Jesus decided to preach from Simon’s boat to the crowd that was following Him.  After teaching, Jesus told Simon: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”[1]  Simon answered: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”[2]

Simon ended up obeying, but not before objecting: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!”  Some questions may have gone through Simon’s mind: Did this travelling rabbi just tell me how to do my job?  Nighttime was the best time for fishing, and they caught nothing, so why did He tell them to try again?  Maybe Jesus, as a non-professional, didn’t know that?  Maybe he felt like “I’m the expert here!”

However, Jesus knew what He was doing because when they obeyed, “they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.”  There were so many fish that, they “filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.”[3]

One lesson of this story is that Jesus can perform miracles by controlling nature.  Another is that Jesus had an unlimited ability to help Simon and the others do their jobs!  And if Jesus was better than professional fisherman at fishing, what does that mean for other jobs?  Jesus always knows better than we do about any job!

So, whether you’ve had a productive day, or you feel like you’ve “toiled all night and took nothing” don’t hesitate to ask Jesus for career advice! As Simon (later known as Peter) wrote in his own letter, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7

[1] Luke 5:4b
[2] Luke 5:5
[3] Luke 5:6-7