Work or Retire

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

WORK OR RETIRE

Rom 6:19-23

19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV

Well, there it is, plain and simple. We get paid wages for the work we do on the side or in the throws of sin. We earn the wage of death, which is what we will earn as long as we are working for evil. We do have to recognize that working for evil is a lifestyle and is different than failing to be perfect. We are still captive, in a scene to the flesh we were born in, being a member of Adam’s race. But we no longer work for evil, we have become unemployed. There is nothing for us to work for in regard to this free gift from God. That is why it is a gift, given freely without us having to earn it by doing any work whatsoever. Being unemployed is a relaxing time in our lives, In fact, we have retired from the workforce of evil and we do not have to ever go back to work. We can bask in the rays of the Son, relaxing, and confident as we opened our gift from God through faith in Jesus, we will never be asked to give it back, this gift is ours to keep and it is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our lord. However, there is that concept of being slaves to God. Because we are slaves to God, that means he is our Lord and Master which, in human terms means he owns us and is completely in control of our lives. We are not free to do whatever we want. We cannot jump unless God tells us to. We should not be doing anything unless God tells us to. But at the same time, we need to be doing what he commands us to do. It is not work, but obedience that is the result of the gift. In order words, it is impossible to attain or reap holiness by going back to work and becoming employed by good deeds. It is not that we cannot do good works, but the greatest work we could ever do is believe in the one God sent, Jesus. We are fully aware of what Paul said in this letter to the Ephesians about God having prepared beforehand, in advance, for those created in Christ Jesus to do good works. However, that is also in the context of not being saved by works, so we cannot boast that our salvation came to us because of some work we do. The greatest work or the work that God requires of us is to believe in the one he sent, Jesus. Our work is believing and sometimes believing can be work, especially when we are going through a difficult time. It is back to the simplicity of faith. It is through this faith that we reap holiness and eternal life in Christ Jesus. But, again, we need to be mindful that as slaves we are at the Lord’s beck and call. We are here for his purpose, not ours, and we are to act on his behalf, doing what he calls us to do for the benefit of his kingdom. This might be a little different than doing something or doing good works for the benefit of a church, although we would think most churches have the mission of benefiting the kingdom of God, but that may or may not be totally true in all cases. Nevertheless, we can rest in his love, his gift, and live that wonderful life of retirement.