(Article for
publication week of 10-23- AD 2014)
"And a
certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick , and ready to
die.....When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned him
about, and said unto the people that followed Him, 'I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel" (Luke 7:1,10).
We come now to
consider another practical point from the centurion, who the Lord said was of
"great faith." We showed you in the previous two articles that the
military is a lawful calling (for a man, not a woman), and that a Christian can
serve the Lord and be of "great faith" in any lawful calling. This
week, I want to consider from the scriptures, what is a "lawful"
calling.
First of all, by
a "lawful calling", I mean not any and every profession that may be
allowed by the laws of the State, but rather I mean lawful as God has commanded
(by explicit command or approbation)in His word. That is, I mean by a lawful
calling a trade, occupation or business that is in accord with the moral law of
God given in the Ten Commandments. This
is the sense of the Westminster Larger Catechism question and answer 141 where
we are taught one of the duties required by the eighth commandment is a
"lawful calling." It is obvious that if a man is not engaged in a
lawful calling, he is likely to try to provide for himself and his dependents
by stealing. The procuring of wealth by any unlawful means is a violation of
the eighth commandment and amounts to theft.
So, we need to
consider what is a lawful calling. We may learn what is a lawful calling first
of all by some things specifically commanded by God. For example, we read in
Genesis 2, that there was not a "a man to till the ground," and so
God created Adam and commanded him to dress and keep the Garden of Eden. So we
see that farming is a lawful calling as it was specifically commanded by God.
Then in the same chapter of Genesis, God commanded Adam to classify the animal
kingdom. God commanded Adam to be a zoologist, that is a scientist. When the
Eternal Son of God became Incarnate as the Son of Man, He followed the trade of
a carpenter. I think we see here God's blessing on the building trades in a
most wonderful manner by having His Son be a carpenter until such time as He
should begin His preaching ministry. God has plainly blessed and commanded
manual labour in I Thessalonians 4:11. But then the Eternal Son of God, who was
made flesh, when He began to be about thirty years of age began His earthly
ministry of preaching. Someone has astutely observed that God only had one
begotten (eternally) Son, and He made Him a preacher. Thus we see God's
high estimation of preaching. Those who
have a low view of the gospel ministry are not looking at things as God does,
or they would have a high estimation of preaching. These are a few things the
scriptures plainly say are lawful by God's specific command.
Then we see some
things that we know are lawful by God's approbation. We have noted one in our
text we have been studying in Luke 7:1-10, that is the calling of a soldier.
Our Lord did not command the centurion to try to get out of the Roman army.
John the Baptist told the soldiers who were converted under his preaching,
"do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with
your wages," but he did not exhort them to get out of the army.
Pursuing a lawful calling is a serious consideration.
It is a sin to be idle, for God has plainly said that any who will not work
should not eat (II Thessalonians 3:10). I think we can see in the examples we
have given that the principles of God's Law require us to pursue a calling that
is glorifying unto Him and useful to our fellow man.
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