1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write to you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. I. WORK IS A PART OF OUR DUTY. It is needful not only for the comfort or advantage of men, but for the continual existence of the race. And God has so framed us that we are dependent, not merely each man on his own work, but each man on the working of others. As a race and as a Church, we are not a vast collection of separate and independent individuals, but are united together as members of a family, nay, as members of one body. And "the increase of the body" depends on the effectual working of every part. It grows "by that which every joint supplieth." II. If this be true, then OUR WORK, THE ORDINARY BUSINESS OF LIFE, SHOULD BE REGARDED BY US AS A RELIGIOUS DUTY. So done to God that it shall be a part of our worship, an act of homage to God, like our prayers or alms. When we do our ordinary and earthly work in such a spirit as this, it lightens our burden, ennobles our work, and elevates ourselves. It secures that the work shall be honestly done to the best of our power, and turns the most earthly employment into a holy act of religious worship. What can be more secular than painting, sculpture, or architecture? Yet many painters, sculptors, and architects have sanctified their brush, chisel, mallet, by employing them in the service of God. Some have sanctified their voices by singing the gospel as much as others in preaching it. And what is more secular or earthly than money? Yet many have sanctified it by employing it in the service of God, and for the good of souls. Ah! it is not merely the thing we do, but the end for which, and the spirit in which we do it, that makes it religious, or an act of worship. (William Grant.) Parallel Verses KJV: But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. |
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