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3: More than Rules · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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  This is Finding God at Work.
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  In our current series, Fruitful Work, we're asking
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  the question, what kind of fruit am I
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  bearing at work?
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  Because we don't always bear the kind of
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  fruit that we wish we would.
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  But by God's grace, by the power of
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  the Holy Spirit, we can bear fruit that
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  is good.
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  I'm continuing a little explication of Paul's letter
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  to the Galatians that I started in the
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  previous episode.
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  So if you haven't listened to that one,
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  make sure you give a listen, because we're
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  just going to pick up right where we
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  left off.
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  We finished by talking about flesh versus spirit.
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  The idea that your flesh actually is your
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  body.
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  Paul means your body when he says your
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  flesh.
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  But he means your body as it's been
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  formed, contrary to God, as it's been formed
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  by sinful habits, sinful routines over time, and
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  the way that that's still there embedded in
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  you when you come up against what you
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  really want to do as a disciple of
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  Jesus.
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  Now, we talked about how the Stoic philosophers
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  believed that it was rational philosophical reflection was
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  how you would get mind over matter, how
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  you would become a master of your body
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  rather than a slave of your passions.
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  It's really interesting.
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  Paul, in this passage, right after the fruit
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  of the spirit, he says this.
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  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have
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  crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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  Now, who does that sound like?
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  That kind of sounds like a stoic philosopher,
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  right?
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  Oh, yeah, crucifying the flesh with its passions
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  and desires and overcoming those passions and desires.
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  So Paul's diagnosis is very similar to the
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  Stoics.
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  He's saying, yeah, there are passions, there are
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  superficial pleasures that can control our lives and
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  can be very destructive, just like the Stoics
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  would say.
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  But his prescription for that diagnosis is dramatically
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  different rather than philosophical reflection and the rational
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  taking possession over the passions.
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  What he says is those who belong to
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  Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
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  passions and desires.
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  The prescription is union with Christ.
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  Union with Christ in his crucifixion, his death
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  and resurrection, allows us to put to death
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  to crucify those habits of our body that
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  are contrary to his way of life, his
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  teaching.
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  Crucifixion was all about control.
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  Literally involved nailing people's limbs down so they
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  couldn't move their limbs.
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  So this metaphor of crucifying the desires of
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  the flesh is about finding that power over
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  the things that we have an urge to
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  do, finding that power over the passions and
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  desires of our flesh that are contrary to
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  what we really want to do as disciples
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  of Jesus.
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  When we are united with Jesus, when we
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  belong to him, we can crucify those desires.
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  We can control them.
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  We can overcome them.
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  We can do what we really want to
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  do as children of God by the power
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  of the Holy Spirit.
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  That's really good news.
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  This teaching doesn't just answer the Stoic idea,
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  though, that rational philosophy is somehow the answer.
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  We need the Holy Spirit.
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  The Holy Spirit is also an answer to
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  a misunderstanding on the Jewish side of things.
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  So the Stoic philosophers, they were in the
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  Roman world.
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  There were also many Jewish followers of Jesus
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  in the first century.
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  Jesus himself was Jewish.
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  All of the twelve apostles were Jewish.
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  Paul was Jewish.
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  And some of those disciples of Jesus came
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  along to the early Christian community in Galatia
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  after Paul had left it.
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  And they said, look, we agree with Paul
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  that Jesus is Messiah.
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  That's good.
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  But here's the thing.
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  Doesn't matter if you're not ethnically Jewish.
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  You need to become Jewish if you're going
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  to be part of God's covenant family.
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  Jesus was Jewish.
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  God's covenant has always been with the Jewish
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  people.
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  So you really need to become Jewish.
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  You need to get circumcised if you're a
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  man and you need to keep the regulations
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  of the Torah regardless.
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  And that's essential.
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  That's part of what marks you as part
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  of the covenant.
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  Now, before we get into how Paul responds
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  to this, I just want to point out
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  how reasonable this argument seems.
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  This is not like way out of left
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  field, totally something that nobody would ever expect
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  someone to say.
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  This kind of makes sense.
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  Like they're saying, like, who is God?
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  God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
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  Jacob.
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  God is the God of Israel.
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  God established his covenant with a specific people,
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  the people of Israel.
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  And so if you want to be part
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  of that covenant, you should do it the
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  Jewish way.
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  It makes a lot of sense.
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  And so it's easy to see how early
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  Jewish disciples of Jesus would kind of stumble
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  into this way of thinking.
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  It's intuitive.
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  It makes sense.
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  It's like, this is the way we've always
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  done it.
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  We've always been following the law of Moses.
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  We've always been keeping Torah regulations.
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  Circumcision is such an important symbol.
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  The horror of being uncircumcised is talked about
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  throughout the Jewish scriptures.
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  So this is not something that's strange.
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  It makes sense that people would think this
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  way.
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  And yet Paul gets more incensed and more
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  angry about this approach to the good news
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  about Jesus than anything else in the whole
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  of the New Testament.
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  His letter to the Galatians has his most
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  extreme and emphatic language.
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  He says that they're preaching a different gospel.
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  So we got to ask, what's going on
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  here?
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  You can kind of see where the Jewish
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  disciples are coming from.
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  Paul calls them agitators because they're agitating.
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  They're confusing the Galatians.
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  And so we can empathize with the agitators.
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  We get where they're coming from.
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  But for Paul, it's a black and white
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  issue.
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  It's a non-starter.
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  Why is this?
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  Why is this?
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  Well, remember how we were asking the question,
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  where does deep inner goodness come from?
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  And the stoic philosophers were like rational reflection
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  on philosophy.
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  That's where you're going to, that's the pathway
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  to deep inner goodness.
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  Obviously, in the context of God's covenant with
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  his people, God himself is the source of
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  deep inner goodness.
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  So for any Jew, the question is, how
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  do I get in touch with God?
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  How can I be connected with God?
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  How can I be part of what God
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  is doing in the world?
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  And the answer to that question is being
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  part of God's covenant, specifically God's covenant with
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  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  And for the longest time, following the law
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  of Moses was part of that covenant.
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  So again, this makes sense.
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  But even though following the law of Moses
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  was part of that covenant, following the law
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  of Moses was not the source of that
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  covenant.
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  And that's something that Paul is at pains
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  to explain throughout Galatians.
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  And he unpacks it in Romans again.
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  He's saying just because the law was given
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  doesn't mean the law was the source of
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  life.
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  So in Galatians 3 21, he says it
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  this way.
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  He says, if a law had been given
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  that could give life, then righteousness would indeed
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  be by the law.
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  So he's saying, let's just use our thinking
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  caps here.
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  Suppose there's a law out there and that
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  law really can impart life to human beings.
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  If there was a law like that, great,
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  let's follow that law.
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  And that would be how we would be
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  part of what God is doing in the
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  world, following that law.
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  But his point is that's not how the
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  law works.
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  That's not even how the Torah was ever
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  meant to work.
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  The way that Dallas Willard puts it is
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  the law is the course of life.
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  It shows us the way to live, but
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  it's not the source of life.
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  It doesn't actually give us the life to
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  power that way of life.
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  It was never intended to.
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  That's not, that's not how God works.
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  And Paul points out, Hey, Abraham, he actually,
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  he had a connection with God even before
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  he got circumcised.
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  And so obviously circumcision couldn't be the source
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  of life because God himself is the source
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  of life.
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  And then Paul emphatically says, and if we've
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  received Jesus as Messiah, we've put our faith
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  in him, then we've received that life.
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  That that's all we need.
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  We don't need anything beyond Jesus as Messiah.
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  This is why he is so passionate about
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  this, but this creates a problem.
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  This creates a problem.
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  Again, the source of deep inner goodness, we
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  can be tracking.
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  Okay.
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  So the source of deep inner goodness is
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  God himself.
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  It's not the law, but then like, what
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  do you do with all those works of
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  the flesh, like all those things that people
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  do?
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  Again, we don't have the agitator side of
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  the conversation.
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  So we don't know exactly, totally what's motivating
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  them, but often people who are motivated about
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  rules, what they're concerned about is moral chaos.
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  It's like, well, if we don't have rules,
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  aren't people just going to do whatever the
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  heck they want?
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  And isn't that awful?
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  It's like, well, yeah, it is.
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  I mean, it's everything Paul was talking about,
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  impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, the whole nine
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  yards.
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  It's like, what, those seem like good things
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  to have rules against.
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  Right?
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  Like, you know, do we just want anarchy?
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  And so again, it's, it's very reasonable.
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  You can understand maybe part of their motivation
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  was this sense of we've just got to
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  have rules for them.
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  We got to control people.
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  We got to somehow bridal people's lusts and
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  their passions and, and contain it somehow.
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  And that's what, that's what law is good
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  for.
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  And Paul would basically agree with them on
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  that point.
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  He'd say, well, yeah, that is what law
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  is good for.
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  But here's the problem.
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  The problem is that that doesn't actually change
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  that we do those bad things.
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  It just helps us know that we do
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  those bad things.
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  That doesn't actually fix us.
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  It doesn't actually heal us.
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  It doesn't actually do something new inside of
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  us.
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  It just identifies what's wrong with us.
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  It's a diagnosis, but it's not a prescription.
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  Another way we could break this down just
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  to kind of help understand is it seems
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  as though if you're giving Gentiles permission, not
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  to keep Torah, that they're just going to
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  go crazy.
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  They're just going to go nuts because they've
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  got permission to do whatever the heck they
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  want.
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  And Paul actually gets at this in chapter
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  five.
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  He says, for freedom, Christ has set us
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  free.
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  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
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  to a yoke of slavery.
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  Again, that slavery would be trying to use
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  the Torah as the source of life, trying
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  to say it's by keeping Torah that I'm
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  in the covenant.
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  He's like, no, no, no.
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  Our freedom comes through Christ.
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  Faith in Christ, that's what brings us into
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  the covenant.
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  We don't have to keep Torah too.
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  But then he says, for you were called
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  to freedom, only do not use your freedom
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  as an opportunity for the flesh.
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  But through love serve one another.
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  Let me read that again.
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  For you were called to freedom, brothers, only
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  do not use your freedom as an opportunity
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  for the flesh, but through love serve one
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  another.
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  That word opportunity is actually a military term
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  that means base of operations.
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  So he's saying, don't use your freedom as
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  a base of operations for the flesh, but
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  through love serve one another.
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  What puts that love in our hearts?
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  It's the spirit of God.
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  What's the internal change that God makes?
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  It's changing our hearts through love, through the
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  power of his Holy Spirit.
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  So an external thing like circumcision cannot accomplish
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  what God can accomplish in our hearts through
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  the gift of his Holy Spirit.
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  This is why Paul gets so agitated and
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  animated about the agitators is that they basically
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  have a really bad theology of the spirit.
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  They're saying people do all sorts of problems.
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  So what we need is the law.
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  And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no,
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  no, no, no, you're right.
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  People do all sorts of problems.
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  What we need is a change of heart.
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  And for that, we need the spirit of
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  God.
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  And guess what?
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  If you put your faith in Jesus as
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  the Messiah, you've got the spirit of God.
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  You don't need to keep the law in
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  order to have the spirit of God.
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  And in fact, this love that the spirit
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  puts in your heart, that fulfills what's most
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  important about the law.
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  Anyways, Paul says this, uh, and now this
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  is moving ahead to chapter six, uh, bear
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  one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
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  of Christ.
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  He says, it's this love we have for
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  each other fulfills what's necessary about the law,
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  all of those rules and regulations and rituals.
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  What they were trying to get at is
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  this is what it looks like to live
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  in love under the care of God.
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  And we can do that now because God
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  is living inside of us in the Holy
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  Spirit.
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  So where does that leave us?
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  Well, first I want to again, emphasize how
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  plausible the approach of the Jewish agitators is.
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  This happens in Christian communities all of the
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  time.
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  There's some sort of problem and people think
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  that rules are going to be the solution.
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  There's some sort of issue and people think
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  that we've just got to control people's behavior.
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  But, but this intuition actually cuts against character
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  formation actually cuts against the fruit of the
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  spirit.
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  Because if you're going to have the fruit
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  of the spirit, what you have to do
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  is interact with the spirit of God, taking
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  responsibility for the kind of human being you're
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  really becoming over time.
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  Whereas if you just have to follow a
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  list of rules, you just have to follow
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  a list of rules, regardless of what's going
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  on in your heart.
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  Dallas Willard puts it like this.
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  He says, as a child of the King,
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  I always live in his presence.
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  By contrast, the way of law avoids individual
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  responsibility for decision.
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  It pushes the responsibility and possible blame onto
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  God.
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  That is one reason why people who must
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  have a law for all their actions lead
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  such pinched and impoverished lives and develop very
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  little in the way of genuine depth and
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  godly character.
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  I think of a saddening example of this.
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  My dad used to be like the generosity
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  pastor at our church.
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  So he bought a book about four different
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  views of tithing.
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  Like how should we teach about tithing?
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  You know, it's in the Jewish law, but
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  it's not in the new covenant explicitly, but
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  it still seems like a good idea.
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  And I read some of that book and
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  there was an author in that book.
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  I won't even say his name because it's
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  just so sad.
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  But he added up all of the Old
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  Testament regulations about tithing.
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  And he said, okay, here's the percentage.
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  It's not actually 10%.
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  It's some, some higher percent because you also
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  got to factor in these other things from
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  the festivals and the sacrifices.
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  All that God wants is that exact percentage
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  of your income.
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  That's what you owe to God.
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  That's the only thing you need to worry
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  about.
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  But that was his teaching.
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  What's going on in the heart of someone
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  who teaches that?
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  He is so afraid about responsibility.
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  He is, he is just terrified of the
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  idea that he might have to discern something
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  about generosity in the Holy Spirit in his
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  actual life.
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  He just wants a rule.
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  He just like, just tell me the percentage
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  God and I'll do it.
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  And then I know I can feel okay
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  about things.
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  He's pushing the responsibility back onto God.
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  But that's not the point.
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  The reason that the tithe law is not
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  explicitly commanded again in the New Testament is
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  not because it's a bad idea.
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  It's because we're called to a transformation of
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  our character.
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  We're called to a radical generosity fueled by
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  the Holy Spirit.
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  Again, in freedom, without compulsion, as Paul says
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  in a different passage.
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  The whole point is to change who we
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  are as human beings, not to get our
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  behavior to conform to a specific rule.
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  So where does that leave us?
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  What's the alternative?
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  How do we keep in step with the
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  spirit?
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  As Paul says, it's really fascinating because Paul
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  is addressing so many internal dynamics, but then
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  he keeps turning to social answers as well.
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  He keeps looking at how we interact with
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  each other.
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  So for example, he's talking about not gratifying
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  the desires of the flesh.
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  But then he says, starting in verse 25,
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  if we live by the spirit, let us
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  also keep in step with the spirit.
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  Let us not become conceited provoking one another.
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  Inveying one another.
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  So his first application after this whole teaching,
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  his, his vice list, his virtue list, keeping
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  in step with the spirit is let us
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  not become conceited provoking one another, envying one
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  another.
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  It's a social application within the body of
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  Christ.
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  So Paul's saying, if you want to keep
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  in step with the spirit, the first thing
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  is to pay attention to how are you
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  treating your brothers and sisters in Christ.
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  So now if we take this into the
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  workplace, some of us may have brothers and
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  sisters in Christ in our workplace.
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  Some of us may have other human beings
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  in our workplace, but how we treat those
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  people, regardless of whether their belief is or
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  not, that's an indication of what's really going
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  on in our hearts.
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  Again, you can tell the root by the
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  fruit, the words and the actions of how
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  we interact with other people.
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  That's what demonstrates what's in our heart.
• 15:24
  It's determined by what's in our heart.
• 15:27
  As Paul continues to unfold these applications in
• 15:29
  chapter six, he says this, do not be
• 15:32
  deceived.
• 15:33
  God is not mocked.
• 15:34
  For whatever one sows, that will he also
• 15:37
  reap.
• 15:38
  For the one who sows to his own
• 15:39
  flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.
• 15:42
  But the one who sows to the spirit
• 15:44
  will from the spirit reap eternal life.
• 15:47
  And let us not grow weary of doing
• 15:48
  good, for in due season we will reap
• 15:51
  if we do not give up.
• 15:52
  So then, as we have opportunity, let us
• 15:55
  do good to everyone and especially to those
• 15:57
  who are of the household of faith.
• 16:00
  He repeats the same cycle again.
• 16:02
  He does a little bit of teaching about
• 16:03
  the Holy Spirit.
• 16:04
  He says, if you sow to the Holy
• 16:05
  Spirit, you from the Holy Spirit reap eternal
• 16:07
  life.
• 16:08
  You sow to the flesh, you from the
• 16:09
  flesh reap corruption.
• 16:10
  It's basically just another metaphor for the same
• 16:12
  thing he's been saying before, that look, you
• 16:14
  really do need outside help.
• 16:16
  You really do need the Spirit of God
• 16:17
  inside of you.
• 16:18
  And you really need to be active in
• 16:20
  that.
• 16:20
  And as you're active in that, that's where
• 16:22
  the life comes from.
• 16:24
  It's by our interaction with the Holy Spirit.
• 16:26
  That's what eternal life is.
• 16:27
  It's the life that we live in God,
• 16:29
  in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• 16:31
  But then his application of that is social.
• 16:33
  It's so then, as we have opportunity, let
• 16:35
  us do good to everyone.
• 16:36
  And especially those who are of the household
• 16:38
  of faith.
• 16:39
  So if you want to live out life
• 16:40
  in the Spirit, do good to people.
• 16:41
  Go around doing good things, especially for brothers
• 16:44
  and sisters in Christ, but really for everybody,
• 16:46
  especially doesn't take away from the other one.
• 16:48
  And so when you think about your workplace
• 16:50
  and you're thinking about what it means to
• 16:52
  bear the fruit of the Spirit in your
• 16:53
  workplace, the way that you interact with other
• 16:55
  human beings in your workplace should be your
• 16:57
  first focus.
• 16:58
  We'll talk about prayer and other things that
• 17:00
  influence our life with God at work.
• 17:01
  But really the question is, how am I
• 17:04
  loving and serving other people during the workday?
• 17:07
  That's the question.
• 17:09
  If you just focus on that, that will
• 17:10
  guide you toward the fruit of the Spirit
• 17:12
  more than anything else.
• 17:13
  That's your true north.
• 17:16
  And when we do that, we come up
• 17:18
  against those works of the flesh really fast.
• 17:21
  We realize how bad we are at loving
• 17:23
  other people and how much we need God's
• 17:25
  grace, how much we need that outside help
• 17:27
  to make a change in our hearts.
• 17:29
  And that's what we're going to start talking
• 17:30
  about with our next episode is the part
• 17:33
  of the fruit of the Spirit that I
• 17:34
  love to hate, self-control.
• 17:36
  But the good news is this change is
• 17:38
  possible.
• 17:39
  This change is real because the Holy Spirit
• 17:41
  is in us.
• 17:42
  And we're going to start looking at that
• 17:43
  in more detail really soon.
• 17:47
  Lord Jesus, thank you for dying and rising
• 17:49
  again, for opening God's covenant to us as
• 17:53
  we trust in you.
• 17:54
  And we do ask that you would help
• 17:56
  us not to view life as just following
• 17:58
  the rules, but as an interaction with your
• 18:00
  Spirit, do your work in us as we
• 18:03
  do our work with you.
• 18:05
  Amen.
• 18:09
  Thanks for listening.
• 18:11
  Finding God at Work is a production of
• 18:13
  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
• 18:16
  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
• 18:18
  life.
• 18:19
  You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
• 18:21
  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
• 18:23
  of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
• 18:25
  and Thursday.
• 18:26
  To get resources to go deeper with each
• 18:28
  podcast series, read our blog, and get info
• 18:31
  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace.
• 18:33
  Go to our website, missioncentral.church.