Breaking down the barrier wall between the sacred and the secular.

Please do not refer to me as being bi-vocational. That is an insult. I am omni-vocational. 

All that I do is to the Glory of God.  (At least that is my intent.) “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:11)

In another vein there is no such thing as para-church - it is all church! There is the church gathered (ekklesia) and there is the church scattered (diaspora) - Acts 1:8/8:1. Yet it is all one church. This treatise is directed to the diaspora. 

Martin Luther’s greatest contribution to the transformation of society may well have been what is called the Doctrine of Vocation.

Doctrine

Doctrine is a good thing - it is foundational, or at least should be - to all that we do as Christians. It becomes a problem when we hold as our doctrines the teaching of men - that is promoting customs to the level of sacred teaching.  Paul exhorted his young disciples as he neared the end of his race: “Watch your life and doctrine (instruction, teaching) closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Timothy 4:6 NIV (Titus 1:9; 1 Peter 3:15)  Without sound doctrine we have no moorings - tossed to and fro by every tempest. 

Vocation

But what is vocation? From the Latin, voco, vocare (“to call”), vocation is literally the “calling” which one enters into. This concept of vocation as a calling is broader than merely work for fiscal reward (paycheck). In this sense we should always see Almighty God as our provider, not our almighty job. His provision is His provision although it is spelled W.O.R.K.  It was the sacred duty and obligation of our original parent: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15.  The sense of toil (sweat of the brow) only came in after The Fall - before, work was a sacred call with a sense of fulfillment.

SDG

Johann Sebastian Bach applied this doctrine in his use of music to glorify God. Whether writing music for the church or for popular use, Bach signed his work “SDG” signifying Sola Deo Gloria. All is to be done to the glory of God alone.

John Piper writes: “The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. When the holiness of God fills the earth for people to see, it is called glory.”  God has promised to Himself, “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” Numbers 14:21.  This is the manifest commission of the Son prayed to His Father on behalf of His disciples and through them to us: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;: John 17:21 He has elected to use us as His instruments for His glorious purpose. 

Hear the Sound

We must hear the sound of the hammer breaking down the barrier wall between the sacred and the secular - for those who are the called elect of God all is sacred.  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17.  The question we must ask ourselves is, “How much is all?”  

Martin Luther, “God doesn’t need our good works; our neighbors do.” God doesn’t need them, we don’t need them, but our neighbors do.

Justification

The Reformed theologian Michael Horton writes:

You know, a lot of people think of justification (by faith alone) as the material principle of the Reformation, with Scripture alone as the formal principle, but one historian has said, actually, that in terms of the greatest impact on the culture, it was the doctrine of vocation that made the biggest difference long term. 

They weren’t just working for the weekend. They had a transcendent view of things. R.C. Sproul has been saying for years, “Right now counts forever,” and they had a real sense of that. Even when a milkmaid is milking a cow, Luther said, “She is glorifying God just as much as a preacher in a pulpit preaching a sermon.” 

And the gospel wasn’t just, “Let’s all go to work with a greater sense of the grandeur of what we are doing,” but really a sense of, “You have no one to pacify anymore.” Everyone was so anxious and spent all their energy, if they cared about it at all, on climbing their way to heaven. Well, we don’t have to. God has climbed down to us. Now what do we do? We love and serve Him by loving and serving our neighbors.  

Work Ethic

Joshua T. Phillips also contributes:

Every area of life should be dedicated to the glory and honor of God in fulfillment of our created purpose. Psalm 90:17 says, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” This idea was central in the message of the sixteenth century Reformers who set the stage for the “Protestant work ethic” with their holistic view of labor.

And I would add that it is this foundational concept - motivating principle - that has made this nation great.  Our downward spiral is directly related to the degree in which we have drifted.

John Calvin taught that there is comfort in knowing “that no task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God's sight.” The greater comfort, however, comes from the gospel, where Calvin says, “we are apprehended by God's goodness and sealed by his promises.”

Faith Alone

The Protestant understanding of vocation emerged from this already accomplished salvation. For Luther, the doctrine of justification by faith alone had everything to do with our status and place as workers. He complained “against” a false hierarchy of a spirituality of work, separating the “spiritual” from the “profane”—or to put it in modern terms, the “sacred” and the “secular.” Somehow, the priest and the bishop are more spiritual than the baker and the brick layer. But Luther, never to pull a punch, calls this sort of thing “guiles of the devil.”

The purpose of vocation then, Lutheran theologian Gene Veith says, “is to love and serve one's neighbor.” But the Christian is only free to love and serve one's neighbor when he is not working to justify himself before God. Justification by faith - and not by works - changes everything. 

Otherwise we have the creation of a welfare state - one group depending on another. And thus one ruling over the other.

Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.  “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;” Mark 10:42-43

Consummation 

“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:10 KJV  

Whether a king or a priest we are called to reign on the earth - representing a Kingdom that now is and is yet to come in its fullness.