Finding Worth In Your Work Series

We can live to have or we can live to give like Hershey did. This is counter-cultural and radically revolutionary. God wants to take your job and turn it into a work of grace. Ephesians 4 challenges us to not steal in the service of illegal greed and to not work in the service of legal greed. Everything is to be done out of grace, not greed. Don’t covet or steal in order to have. Don’t just work in order to have. But work in order to give.

Why? Because that’s what it means to walk by faith. John Piper writes that the “very essence of faith is the delight of the soul in the experience and display of God’s grace. Faith is the power, by grace, to be content with what we have. And faith is also the power, by grace, to be DISCONTENT with what others DON’T have.” We don’t have to steal or hoard to be happy. But we do need to give in order to be happy. Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”

Paul models this kind of giving in Acts 20:35 when he writes, “In everything I did, I showed you by this kind of hard work we must help the weak…” The word “weak” means to be “feeble in any sense.” Paul not only preached about what they should do, he lived it for the three years that he spent in Ephesus. He exhorted them and he was an example to them. He worked hard in order to help the weak, when he very easily could have coasted and thought only of himself.

Paul knows that this is a radical way to view their jobs, so he encourages them to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This saying of Jesus is recorded nowhere else in the Bible but was evidently well known and quoted often by first century Christ-followers. This should not surprise us because not everything that Jesus said and did was written down in the Gospels. John 21:25: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

This teaching was so important that God made sure it was placed in the permanent record of Scripture. Jesus demonstrated the truth of this throughout His life as He gave and gave and gave. We could paraphrase verse 35 this way: It’s better to share with others than to keep what you have and collect more. In other words, the blessing does not come in accumulating wealth, but in sharing it.

This is somewhat of a paradox, isn’t it? At first glance, it seems better to receive. Just ask any kid sitting around the Christmas tree. But giving is better than getting for at least four reasons.

1. Givers experience deep satisfaction in knowing that they are participating in God’s priorities. God is a giving God and He wants to use us to distribute His gifts to others. When you give to someone in need, they receive a gift from God through your hands and you become more like Him.

2. Generous givers find great joy in giving. Some of the happiest people I know are people who love to give and some of the grouchiest people I know are those who don’t give at all. If you find your joy waning, look for ways to become a giver. To be “more blessed” means to become more happy or joyful.