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Laborers Together With God

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 7, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 23.

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“Laborers Together With God”

By I. H. Evans

It was Paul who wrote to the church at Corinth, “We are laborers together with God,” and it is for the church militant to cherish this blessed privilege to the end of time.
In this life men are often laborers together. When such is the case, they plan alike, they co-operate, and lend mutual assistance and encouragement to each other. They assist in bearing burdens; they help each other in times of need, they unite their strength to accomplish an end.
But in this text we learn that man and God become “laborers together.” Thus they are united in their plans, and in the object of their labors. Man is united with God in thought and purpose; God unites his wisdom and strength with that of man; thus they become “laborers together.”
The object of this unity is man’s salvation. God is determined that man shall have an opportunity to escape from the wages of sin. Death is man’s enemy, and will finally be destroyed; but till that day, sin and death will destroy all who refuse salvation through Jesus Christ.
God has turned heaven into a hospital for sin, and all the heavenly host are God’s messengers to lead man to Calvary. Angels are his “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Christ gave himself and all he had for man, and the Holy Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.”
But heaven is not enough to be enlisted in behalf of man’s salvation. God wants his children to be united with him in this great work. To us he has committed the greatest of all trusts,—the preaching of the gospel. Nor does he send us forth as laborers alone; for, “Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” “We are laborers together with God.” Thus God unites man with the heavenly host to save sinners.
The one great work to be done is soul-saving. The rejoicing in heaven is over the sinner that repenteth,—the lost that is found. Heaven makes but little count of the cost of a soul’s redemption. Money, effort, self-denial, hardships, and death are all balanced as nothing against the value of a lost soul redeemed.
“We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. . . . Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
The workman must give all that he holds dear if he would be a “worker together with God.” All can not labor in the same way. Some must be at the battle’s front; some must be God’s reserve; and some must be producers and givers, that others may be sustained in their more public efforts.
The position one occupies in God’s service matters little, as far as being counted a “worker together with God” is concerned. The consecration of one’s best endeavors, the unselfish service we render to God is what counts.
All can have a part in God’s great work who will. Some must go and some must remain at home; but yet all can be “workers.” Those who remain can give of their means and earnings for the soldiers in the field.
Giving is as directly a part of God’s service as any other line of work. He who contributes of his means to support the workers in the field, is partaker with them in their labors.
Besides our regular Sabbath offering, the General Conference has arranged that two annual offerings for foreign missions shall be taken each year. One is the annual offering which we love so much, and which brings into the mission treasury such large returns, and the other is known as the midsummer offering.
This year the midsummer offering for missions is to be taken Sabbath, June 30. This money goes to maintain the workers in the various parts of the wide harvest-field. We hope for a large offering on this occasion.
The sowing time is now; but the reaping will surely come. In that day a harvest of ripened sheaves will be gathered for the Master’s kingdom.
Let us give with a liberal hand, not grudgingly nor sparingly; for “the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.”
“We are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” I. H. EVANS.