More Thoughts on Philippians Or Why I Am Not God's Workhorse

Some of you may be wondering at the title of this blog post. Others of you may be recalling conversations in which I expressed a strong (though, admittedly, false) belief that what God really wants from me is a high output of work. And now the rest of you are up to speed. I, like most people, have a very dysfunctional relationship with work (this blog shows the flip side of my current topic). Alternating between extreme laziness and intense bursts of activity that result in burn-out, I don't just swing the pendulum; I rotate in an irregular orbit around the planet "Work". I'm actually in simultaneous orbit around many planets, caught in their gravity and unable to pull away. You could probably call this idolatry. Somehow work (or not working) becomes my hope of salvation, and I must obey the laws of my savior. Because I'm actually a Christian, I now have an internal dilemma. I know that Jesus is my savior, but I also don't fully trust him. In short, I am double-minded and unstable in all my ways (hence the pendulum-ing and orbiting). I've found Alan Hirsch's conceptualization of my problem and its solution to be really helpful:

In the Ancient Near East, they were polytheists. Our lives exist in different spheres, society, culture, politics, etc. Polytheism doesn't have a unified God that controls all spheres. Each sphere has its own god. Most of those gods didn't care much for human beings. It's dangerous. There's no cohesive sense. It's into this context that God says, "I am one." One God for every aspect of life. It's a claim to absolute loyalty.

Work is one of those "spheres" of life that I am deceived into believing has its own god. This god must be placated in certain prescribed ways. A sacrifice here, an offering there, and the god will give you what you want. Apparently, I like my gods to work like vending machines. Put in the correct coinage, push the appropriate button, and out comes the prize you've been craving. With work, it's log a certain number of hours, produce an appropriate amount of product, and you'll be rewarded with health, wealth, peace, and prosperity. Yeah, right.

What Hirsch describes is a God who is not satisfied with being objectified. He will not be manipulated. And He will settle for nothing less than all of me. This is not because He is objectifying me but because this is what a true relationship between God and His image-bearer is. It's no accident that God chooses marriage as a primary metaphor to describe His relationship with us. That level of devotion, of exclusivity and commitment, is the closest we can come to visualizing the tender, constant, faithful love offered to us and required from us by God.

So where does Philippians fit into this picture? I'll admit, it's probably a bit of a stretch; but Paul called out my work idolatry in Phil. 1:6, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ." Right off the bat, I'm hit with the realization that the "good work" is begun and completed by God, not me. Yes, I'm called to "work heartily", but this is merely an overflow of God's work in me. I'm also challenged by the fact that Paul did a lot of work in establishing the church at Philippi; but his confidence is rooted, not in his own ability to teach and disciple people well, but in God's faithfulness in Christ. Paul seems to have a much better handle on the fact that only God's work is salvific and guaranteed to last.

Paul also understands the relational nature of the gospel or, more accurately, the relational nature of God himself. In verses 7-8, his heart overflows with love for these people. They are not items to be checked off a task list, numerical proof of his work success, or pawns on a chessboard to be moved about to accomplish an agenda. And they are certainly not obstacles in the path of his getting some "real" work done, as is too often my view. No, he longs for them "with the affection of Christ Jesus." He learned to love others because he had first been loved by Christ.

God is not interested getting the maximum amount of work out of me with the least amount of contact between us. (That would be Quintiles.) God is interested in this, "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God." He wants my love for Him and for His people to grow in knowledge and depth of insight. This, and not my good works, is the vehicle by which His good work in me will be completed. This is how I begin to bring every sphere of my life under God's rule, seeing through His eyes and loving with His heart.