The Dignity of Work for Jesus and Paul

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Mark 6:3; Acts 18:3
Psalters: 261, 287, 297, 246
  1. Consider what Scripture tells us of Jesus’ life prior to His ministry at 30.
    1. At the age of 12 we learn some things (Luke 2:40-52; 4:16; Mark 1:35).
    2. The people of his home town of Nazareth knew Him as a “carpenter,” a worker in wood (Mark 6:3).
    3. Jesus laboring at a carpenter’s bench sanctifies all forms of legitimate work.
      1. Jesus is our perfect Savior because He kept all God’s commands, including “six days shalt thou labor.”
      2. If God incarnate toiled in a form of manual work, then He forever stamps heavenly dignity on all lawful work.
      3. And this shows the necessity of work as the God ordained way to obtain our temporal needs.
      4. It also shows that it is possible (and necessary) to have communion with God while doing the routine.
  2. Though a commissioned apostle, Paul deliberately left an example of work (Acts 18:3,4; I Cor. 4:12).
    1. In this way too Paul showed that the gospel is “proclaimed” in a lifestyle. Cf. Titus 2:9,10; Eph. 6:5-8.
    2. He labored with his hands as a tent-maker, though he had the right not to work (I Cor. 9:6ff, 14).
    3. In Paul there is no conflict between hard, manual labor and being spiritually mature (I Thess. 2:9,10).
    4. Further, Paul did manual labor for the benefit of others (Acts 20:34,35).
  3. Christ’s and Paul’s manual labor assumes that such work is honorable and noble.
    1. The Bible condemns specifically many forms of sin, but never legitimate manual work.
    2. Be aware of the perverseness of our hearts.
    3. May our perspective of work follow the example of Paul and of Jesus
    4. Our vocations are sanctified and made noble when it is done in gratitude for the Savior and to the glory of God.