Effort vs. Earning*

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Devotion:

            I recently completed a dissertation for a ThD degree. I began the work with the quotation above. As I came to study these words more carefully, I came across the phrase “and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. These words left me surprised because I had never thought about what it might mean to teach disciples everything that Jesus had commanded before.

            Sure, the church goes out and makes disciples near and far. They get them to confess Jesus as Lord maybe pray a “magic” prayer then convince them to become immersed in the waters of baptism. (Or in my Presbyterian tradition just sprinkle a little water on them) and that pretty well sums up the effort we put into seeing that these baby Christians are living a Christian life. That got me to thinking that we might be missing something important in our discipleship efforts. So, I devoted the remaining one hundred or so pages to researching what it might look like to teach these new believers everything that Jesus commanded his first disciples.

            The wall I came up against when researching this topic was grace verses works. We Christians are taught to believe that God’s grace is enough. We do not need to put in any effort toward earning our salvation. The problem with this statement is that Jesus himself did many works. Good works that needed to be done. If we were to live as his disciples, we are called to imitate what Jesus did. Jesus fed the hungry throngs, so should we be feeding the hungry ones. While we may not be able to perform all the miracles that Jesus did. Jesus, himself, told us that we would do better works than he had done.

            It occurred to me that the major issue at play here was effort versus earning. While there is nothing, we can do to earn our salvation. Jesus has already taken care of that. We are called upon to exert effort in bringing God’s kingdom here on earth. We pray every Sunday “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Being pew potatoes just was not going to cut it. We must teach those we disciple to exert their efforts to bringing God’s kingdom of love here and now. As Peter wrote “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, (2 Peter 1:5)

            Let us pray that we will give our best to transforming our lives into true followers of Jesus.

Prayer:

            Lord thank you for securing salvation for us so that we do not have to worry about earning it by good works. Enliven and empower us, however, to strive earnestly to bring your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Keep us in your care. Help us to be diligent workers in and for your kingdom. That what ever we do in word or deed, may we do it all in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father through him. Amen.

 

*Inspiration for this post is from “The Great Omission” by Dallas Willard