February 2003 chaplain's corner

The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Chaplain's Corner - February 2003

Rev. Rich Hines

This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, and are serving as correctional or rescue mission chaplains within the United States.

This month, I want to address the subject of biblical work ethics. Chaplains need to teach inmates and rescue mission residents these truths from God's word. They need to teach Christian inmates and residents to appropriate the power of God's indwelling Spirit to follow through and live them out. This is a very big issue. Some, even many inmates have never ever known one day's honest, honorable wage earning work - in their entire lives.

I personally know a man that came to saving faith in Christ while in jail. After he was released, he began to work in menial jobs. Then, at a neighborhood birthday party given for his six year old daughter, he publically testified to about 75 neighbors about the changes Christ was making in his life. I'll never forget what he said at that party: "God made me for the first time in my life, a working man, and a true father to my children." This came from a man that had formerly supported his family by dealing drugs and even using his children to transport drugs hidden on their bodies. Before his conversion he also had taught them how to shoplift from the local merchandisers!

To begin seeing the biblical theology of work, we see God's word shows that the concept of work, or of mankind being industrious, goes way back, even to the time in mankind's history BEFORE he fell into sinful rebellion against God. I've often heard people say something like "Having to work for a living is part of the curse!" That is not true.

Note it in Genesis 2:15

"Then the LORD GOD took the man (Adam) and put him in the garden of Eden TO TEND AND KEEP IT."

With the advent of sin, and the subsequent infection of the human race with a nature bent on disobeying God, came God's curse. In Genesis 3:17-19 we read:

"Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground,...' "

Note that the curse was not that God now intended mankind to work. He had ordained that back in Genesis 2:15. The curse was that in his work, man would now find difficulty, toil and sweat.

Apparently, before sin arrived and this curse came, planting and harvesting would have been easy. No weeds, no toxic plants. Note the future tense in Genesis 3:18, "thorns and thistles it SHALL BRING FORTH." Sin's curse brought a curse on the ground and the ease with which it was intended to grow and produce good things. After the advent of sin, came the weeds, the thorns and thistles, and other useless and hard labor creating things.

With a fallen sinful nature, work also has a helpful side spiritually to us. Biblically, it can be seen as an aide against having more time to pursue even more sinful thoughts and acts. This is part of the reason idleness (from working) is seen in the word of God as an opportunity for evil. The old saying, "An idle mind is the Devil's workshop" agrees with this. The ancient city of Sodom, which is synonymous with sinful living, teaches us this.

In Ezekiel 16:49,50 we find this interesting statement from God about ancient Sodom: "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fulness of food, and ABUNDANCE OF IDLENESS; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit."

Turning to the book of Proverbs on the subject of working for a living, we see the concept of diligence. "Diligent" is a key word in the following verses

Proverbs 10:4, "He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the DILIGENT makes rich."

This word translated "diligent" really means "determined" and "eager to get a job done." It also is the word used in the following four verses:

Proverbs12:24, 27, "The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor... The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man's precious possession." (There certainly is some diligent, determined work involved in being successful in hunting).

Proverbs 13:4, "The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich."

Proverbs 21:5, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty."

Then we see a slightly different Hebrew word translated "diligent" in the next two proverbs. It really means "skillful"

Proverbs 22:29, "Do you see a man who excels in his work (AV 'diligent')? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men."

In other words, a diligent (skillful) man is seen as an asset therefore he is promoted.

Proverbs 27:23,24, "Be diligent(skillful) to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds; for riches are not forever; nor does a crown endure to all generations."

As used in Proverbs these two words translated "diligent" really are the opposite of "lazy," "sluggard (KJV)" and "idle"

Moving into the New Testament Scriptures, we see in 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12

10 ...we urge you...

11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

12 so that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

Before I continue, it is important to understand TWO THINGS here and for the remainder of this message. These two things must be in some way, explained to inmates and residents.

FIRST, when the word of God, as in these verses, urges men to work for a living, it is not justifying the acquiring of money BY ANY MEANS AVAILABLE. One Scriptural principle never cancels out another. It's never right to sin. It's never right to get finances illegally OR IMMORALLY. I want to stress the immoral aspect because in a sinful society like ours, immoral practices are being legalized, and are becoming more and more, normalized.

In many Proverbs, contrasting lines of thought, make it obvious, that work must be MORALLY RIGHT, as in:

Proverbs 21:5-8.

5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.

6 Getting treasures by a lying tongue (lying is always morally wrong) is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.

7 The violence of the wicked (the morally wrong) will destroy them, because they refuse to do justice.

8 The way of a guilty man is perverse; but as for the pure, HIS WORK IS RIGHT.

Consider and teach the lessons of these verses.

Proverbs 10:2 "Treasures of wickedness gained by dishonesty profit nothing."

Then note this proverbial statement from the Prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 17:11 "As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, BUT NOT BY RIGHT; it will leave him in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool."

So we see the word of God is not teaching, "Just get money to pay your bills by any means available!" It is teaching we must seek honorable, honest, righteous employment.

Titus 2:9,10 "Exhort bondservants (by extension and application: employees) to be obedient to their own masters, (their bosses) to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, so that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."

At this point, I want to remind you of another thing about the culture most inmates come from. In most cases it resents anybody who through honest work, makes a profit. It resents those whom they call "the man," meaning the rich man, or the boss, the employer or anybody in authority.

There certainly are evil employers and evil rich men. But, earning a good living in and of itself is not evil. In fact, there are many righteous Christian employers who regard their business as a stewardship from God. They see that the funds they've been allowed to make are partly so that they can put many people to work and be a blessing to many others.

Inmates that become Christians need to learn to apply Titus 2:9,10. They are to treat their employers differently from the way their culture has trained them to. They are to strive to please them, not to bad talk them, or resent them.

Furthermore, note the change of attitude and behavior commanded in Ephesians 4:28 -

"Let him who stole (before he knew Christ) steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, in order that he may have something to give him who has need."

Next, consider that Ephesians 5:8-11 says:

"...you were once darkness, but now (meaning since Christ came into your life) you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. AND HAVE NO FELLOWSHIP WITH THE UNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS, BUT RATHER EXPOSE THEM."

An application of that one verse would lead Christians away from certain legal jobs where they would assist those in sin to keep on sinning. For example: tending bar, being a clerk in a porno shop, being a dealer at a gambling establishment. All these are now legal, but according to God's word they are not morally right.

I remember helping a woman who had just become a Christian to prepare for believer's baptism. She said the Lord had changed her and caused her to praise him for her new job. It was scrapping up animal droppings at a veterinary hospital kennel. She praised God for convicting her that her old job, although legal, was not moral, not what God wanted her to be doing. She then said she had formerly earned money by being a female mud wrestler.

These things just mentioned, are less and less obviously wrong to the general society in which we now live. We have to teach the most basic moral truths to this society and trust the Spirit of God to make them convictions in the hearts of those we teach.

Let me give you just one example of what I am saying about our society. I've only been in Florida serving with Aurora Ministries for a little over five years. When I knew we were going to move from California to Florida, I knew there would be a larger percentage of elderly people there. I kind of put that fact in a "good" category in my mind. But I was shocked when I arrived to overhear many of the 70 somethings, and 80 somethings, talking about immoral things being right - as long as there was a financial gain involved. Things like cheating on their taxes, getting away without paying for food, living together as man and wife without actually being married because you could get more from Social Security that way. Our society has in the main, lost its' moral bearings.

The SECOND THING I want to stress is that the culture of the people of ancient Thessalonica, (the passages we are looking at) looked down on manual labor, especially any labor that caused sweat. The mark of having "arrived" in their culture was having others (servants) do all your work for you. Obviously there was a pride issue with that.

Similarly, in our society, there are those today that want to live off the toil of others. When I was a jail chaplain I discovered that most of the men I dealt with had been living with a woman they had not married. That, according to God's word, is sinful (see Hebrews 13:4 or 1 Thess. 4:3-8). Some had eventually legally married the woman. But in both cases they thought it was that woman's role and responsibility to support them. In the case of living together without being married, initially I thought the issue was sexual lust. It may have been part of it, but I came to realize the greater part was this thinking that she was supposed to take care of them!

They would rather sit around idle and have someone else support them. This thinking must be changed by God's Spirit. As you seek to establish that, turn them to this passage in 2 Thess. 3:6-12 - It is a key passage!

6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly (translated 'unruly' in 1 Thess. 5:14) and not according to the tradition which he received from us.

The word "disorderly" in this passage comes from a term originally that described a soldier who broke ranks, or an army moving in disarray, and then finally of a soldier who quit the ranks and did not perform his duty. The "tradition" refers to oral teachings from the Apostle and his helpers. They taught them they had to work for a living. The whole issue of "withdrawing" from those that refuse to work is that of church discipline (compare verses 13-15).

Continuing in 2 Thessalonians 3:

7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you;

8 nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor (to the point of exhaustion) and toil (struggle) night and day, so that we might not be a burden to any of you,

9 not because we do not have authority, (compare 1 Cor. 9:11-14) but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow (mimic) us.

10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: "If anyone (who is physically able) will not work, neither shall he eat."

11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. (this word means 'not busy in their own business, but overbusied in that of others')

12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

Next month I will continue with this important theme and highlight Scriptural teaching on the attitudes Christians are to have while doing their work. I also plan on bringing up the practical side of getting ex-inmates job training and other basic living skills, like budgeting.

I do want to close by saying most rescue missions have excellent programs in these areas. You jail and prison chaplains ought to have a good working relationship with evangelical rescue missions. They are a great resource in helping to disciple the people you are now shepherding for Christ.

Lastly in closing, I want to stress the fact that no one can begin to have a proper work attitude without a living growing relationship with Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior. Without His Spirit, living out the teachings of Scripture on this subject are impossible. Again, as with so many other issues, your first job in helping men and women to get to work is evangelizing them. May our Lord bless your effort and service for Him.

Rev. Rich Hines

Minister To Chaplains - Aurora Ministries