Dr. Metzger cites the teaching of a well-known pastor encouraging
men to become "producers." To this I say "Amen!" for too many men and women today (of all generations) are
completely self-absorbed consumers and even those who style themselves as producers do so by objectifying others. Western culture is far too consumption oriented...not just economically, but relationally. Everything seems to be about what we can get or
enjoy with little consequence for how it affects others. However, to be a Christian man
or woman involves repenting of such self-focused consumer thinking. We need to
be better at producing but not at the expense of others. Instead what we
produce should be for the benefit of others. Too many for too long have been
like the consuming locust of Joel 2. May what has been consumed by sin—whether personal
selfishness, ethnic arrogance, or national power brokering—begin to be restored
by the Holy Spirit begin working in and through God’s people in the world
today.
Stealing
“Let
the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his
own hands (Eph. 4:28a)
We are by nature of our very creatureliness consumers. There
is nothing wrong with that. Jesus taught that we can ask God for our daily
bread without hesitation (Matthew 6). God shows his loving-kindness by
providing for the needs of all his creatures be it man, ox, or bird. However, when
we are focused primarily on our own wealth, comfort, power, and pleasure we
steal from God and from others what is not rightfully ours. Paul writing to the
Ephesians admonished they that the community of Christ followers must be
different as a result of Christ’s love,
The devil is a thief (John 10:10) and roars and ravages
wherever he goes. Once we looked like that father...but we did not so learn
Christ. We are to put off the old self and put on the new self in Christ (Eph.
4:20-24). The people of Christ cannot but grieve the Holy Spirit when they look
(in word and deed) more like the thief than the Good Shepherd. So let us stop stealing and begin doing "honest work" that doesn't produce at the expense of others.
Sharing
“…so
that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Eph. 4:28b)
It is important to note that the reason for laboring in the
life of the former thief is not merely to be able to stop stealing to support
oneself, but to start sharing with those in need. We were not created to live
alone in self-sufficient and sanitary sectors of the kingdom. We were made for
community and all the relational interdependence that entails. We labor to
produce so that we might share. However, sharing in not a one-way street. If we give to others like we are their savior without also receiving we are not functioning as a communer. If we only take what others offer we are not
functioning in the love of Christ. There is no one in Christ who doesn't have something that God has given them that needs to be used for the body to grow.
Speaking the Truth
The truth we need to speak to each other is that we need
each other. No man is a rock or an island but we are all to function as essential
parts in one common body. Our gifts are given not for personal power,
popularity, or pleasure—they are given for the mutual building up of the
communal body of Christ.
And
he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and
teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the
body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and
fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning,
by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are
to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from
whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is
equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it
builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
The truth is that such community depends on our all being responsible
enough to die to ourselves in order to serve each other, and humble enough to receive
from each other what we are lacking. This is the love by which the body builds
itself up. For us to be "communers" we must both labor in love to be "producers" and repent of the pride that might lead us to believe that we don't need to be "consumers" of what others provide.
Just saying’…in love of course!
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