Posts tagged with “Martin Luther”
Martin Luther on the Word of God
Posted at 12:23 PM
No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people, than to have God’s Word taken from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant we and our descendants be not witnesses of such a calamity.
When we have God’s Word pure and clear, then we think ourselves all right; we become negligent, and repose in a vain security; we no longer pay due heed, thinking it will always so remain; we do not watch and pray against the devil, who is ready to tear the Divine Word out of our hearts.
The Table-Talk of Martin Luther, Of God’s Word, XII-XIII (public domain)
More on work
Posted at 11:17 AM
I’ve continued to think on the issue of so-called “secular” and “Christian” careers, and was helped yesterday by Vaughan Roberts’ book “God’s Big Design”, particularly the chapter on work. Roberts has what I think is a brilliant way of referring to the “twin callings”, namely “creation” and “new creation” work. So all work is Christian work, but some is more focused on this creation (in obeying the “First Great Commission” as Hardyman puts it – culture, development, conservation etc.) and some more focused on the new creation (evangelism, pastoring, Bible teaching etc.). The categories aren’t distinct (those doing “creation” work are still involved in evangelism; pastors are there to help those in “creation” work; evangelists still do the washing up!) but can overlap, however the essential calling is to “creation” work or set-aside ministry. Both are biblical, both are good, both are worthwhile. To deny the worth of “creation” callings is to say that God’s good creation is not as good as all that; even to say that “new creation” callings have more value is to say something the Bible never does.
Martin Luther taught the controversial message that all work, even street sweeping or looking after a sick child, is something done for God and has value and worth. In recent times, it seems like a bit of the world’s ideas about status have crept into Christian thinking to create a hierarchy of “worthy” professions: church planters and other missionaries at the top, followed by pastors, then people like doctors or teachers, then maybe accountants, and down the bottom politicians, or cleaners. This is unbiblical, and hopefully this isn’t the way we think. But maybe in certain situations we take a look at this list and start comparing things. So I have a choice between a “creation” or a “new creation” job: those advising me might say “being a pastor is more important than being a recording engineer, so become a pastor”. Maybe we’re more hierarchical in our thinking than we thought.
One big thing I haven’t touched on yet (mainly because I’ve no real idea about it) is the issue of “calling”. I might have various gifts which could lead me into creation or new creation work; every book or article I’ve read so far suggests that I assume I’m doing creation work until I’m “called” to be set apart in new creation work. So what constitutes a calling? Does it mean a pastor or other leader taking you aside and saying “you should consider this work”? Does it mean you feel like you could do it and would quite like to do it? Does it mean trying it out in an apprenticeship scheme and seeing by doing whether it’s for you?
More thinking needed, then.