Earn Your Keep, But Keep What You Earn

This blog is an excerpt from one of my newest books – Relationships of the Natural and Supernatural kind – it reflects on how a believer is to be in areas of relationships and a position of a career as a child of God, whether in ministry or a worldly position.

1 Tim 6:6-12 ^(NKJV) Godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ⁸ And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Being content with what God is doing on our behalf and not letting ourselves become desirous of more money or more material things, or even power or authority, is a work of faith for a believer.

Greed, which typically stems from pride, can lead many to evil ideas and even destroy a believer’s faith. Therefore, believers should seek righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. ⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Having money is a good thing, but having a love for it that leads to evil is not. And can place one in a realm where no faith to believe God as your source of all things exists. In today’s world, many have become money-driven seekers, driven by greed and selfishness.

¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Believers must stay away from such things and continue in pursuit of righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. ¹¹ But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Notice it says pursue righteousness, contrasting to what many believe when learning that we are of the righteousness of Christ by faith. 2 Cor 5:21 ^(NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The significance of righteousness for a believer is paramount to the birth of a child to parents with whom it has a relationship through its biological DNA. Righteousness ensures we are of God and have been made alive in the spirit, with an image and likeness like His, a relationship ingrained in our spiritual DNA.

Believers are offspring of the highest, joint heirs with Jesus, His Son, and blessed because of it. You’re asking, what has this got to do with careers? It is all about the fact that you, as heir with Jesus, have access to resources not of this world. And though you work or fulfill a career, the money paid to you is part of that resource. Therefore, what believers do in the workplace is always seen to have an influential presence in the areas we often call our jobs. Whether you are a corporate executive or a worker at some level of employment, a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ will impact that place.

Your witness as a believer is to be one of integrity and honor, which is the best we can be. We may deal with influences in our work areas, such as others who voice opinions and ideas, and even someone’s manner of life that is not of God. Yet we are to be watchful over our lives and not allow ourselves to be brought under the world’s influences because there is a greater one at work in us, and we need to show Him to all the world. 1 John 4:4 ^(NKJV) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

While many believe this greater one is the Holy Spirit, the fact is He, or God, is present in us; there is the same sense of presence as when Jesus says to Phillip to see me is to see the Father in me. This is very important to the person to whom you lend responsibility. John 14:7-11 (NKJV) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” There is significance to believers being different in the workplace as it sets them apart, not as someone lording over anyone, but as an image of the one who needs to appear, Jesus.

⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Some will never accept you as different as they are unable to believe even what they see, but it cannot keep us from being who we are in Jesus Christ, offspring of the highest.

¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe it or not, you, as a believer, have the same one abiding in you to do the same work. Think about that for a minute. The words of God you speak to others, you do not speak by your authority, but the Father’s, if by the Holy Spirit. If He who is in you does the work, then whose work will be seen by those around you? ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. 

A believer’s relationships through ministry or career are no less important to God than any ministry work those in His employment perform. As in every relationship of the natural or supernatural kind, what you, as a child of God, do can make all the difference between life and death for someone else. Blessings you receive from God are yours, and the relationships you have are yours to keep or lose based on what you do, not on what they do.