Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Not slothful in business means to be diligent and industrious in work rather than lazy, fervent in spirit means to be earnest and vigorous in heart, and serving the Lord means to do all work as service to Him. Serving the Lord calls for the whole person with every ability consecrated to His glory, giving His work first place and laboring together with Him. Christians must not abandon temporal duties or withdraw from life, but remain industrious in business while fervent in spirit, showing faith by faithful action. Diligence in work must be joined to fervency of spirit, for neither quiet devotion without labor nor busy activity without piety is enough. Business must never crowd out worship and devotion, but be interwoven with living zeal and godliness in every transaction.
Words and Chapter Setting
Not slothful in business means not to be lazy in work but diligent, fervent in spirit means to be earnest and wholehearted in spirit, and serving the Lord means devotion to His service in whatever work is done. These three belong together as practical duties to carry into daily life, calling for diligence rather than carelessness, spiritual fervor, and service done to the Lord. They are among the chapter's instructions for the church and its workers, describing genuine medical missionary work and the spirit in which workers in Christian institutions are to serve.
The command stands within sincere love without hypocrisy that hates evil and clings to good, is kind with brotherly love and honors others above self, rejoices in hope, is patient in trouble, prays continually, shares with needy believers and practices hospitality. Prayer is to continue throughout daily life and labor, and drawing near to God brings His nearness and protection from temptation. It cures lack of unity and lack of love among church members by abhorring evil, refusing all union with sin, cleaving firmly to what is good and to whatever leads to God and promotes the well-being of others. In practice it requires self-denial and self-sacrifice that overcomes evil with good, firmly resisting the taste for frivolous things and useless ornaments and turning time, strength, money, every penny and shilling and pound from self-indulgence into channels that glorify God by relieving families poorly clad and lacking comfort, the poor, the hungry, the naked and the suffering, blessing humanity and advancing His cause. There is every encouragement to live this way because Christ who pledged His life to save the fallen race has pledged Himself to be a personal Intercessor who prays the Father for His people.
Romans 12 is very instructive, of high value, and a history for all churches, calling for the work of God to be carried on a higher plane of action, with all who hold position acting as shepherds who represent the great Shepherd. The whole church is to study its cautions and exhortations prayerfully to understand the gifts to the church that make it the light of the world, bring them into practical daily life, and prove God's will. Genuine faith is shown in daily transformed character, for those who put on Christ are transformed by the renewing of their minds; it is active and sincere, working diligently, remaining fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord even in commercial work and other difficult surroundings where business should be conducted according to Bible principles and God's way. This guards against exalting self and ruling over one another, requiring converted intellects, daily converting power and Christ dwelling within instead of cherishing inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong and living without repentance and daily conversion, lest self-deception prove the ruin of some who have once known the truth. Dominating, masterly working power that charges the Lord's people what they shall do and shall not do is not of God, is another gospel, is not the righteousness of Christ, is a spoil to the church, and must no longer be allowed.
The verse lays down a principle to be carefully studied and obeyed in small matters as well as large. Men appointed by God are sustained only as they do His Word, and doing it guards against Satan's devices to weaken, to lift up in self-esteem and exalt self in one's own opinion, and so to gain power over them. God, high and lifted up, uses men as His humble instruments as long as they work humbly seeking wisdom from Him.
The chapter makes plain that a variety of gifts are to be brought into the building of the temple of the Lord, each finding its proper place to grow into a holy temple, not shutting up within self but loving one another as brethren with kindness and courtesy in service to the Lord. The perfection of the whole depends on the perfection of the individual members as the perfection of the physical body depends on its organs. It requires thinking soberly instead of thinking of oneself more highly than one ought, wearing Christ's yoke and drawing under His leading by being not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Heeding its warning keeps a person in usefulness, requiring a changed attitude and self-control through intelligent, pure, cordial belief in the grace of Christ that brings salvation to all and places feet on the eternal Rock, making it possible to reach the standard of perfection and to keep past success.
Diligence in Ordinary Work
Not slothful in business means Christians must not cease temporal pursuits, abandon life's duties, or withdraw from society into mere prayer, quiet and religious contemplation, but must remain industrious in business while fervent in spirit serving the Lord, living in the world without belonging to it and considering how work and conduct can serve Him. Faith is shown by faithful action, active work and zeal in good works, with personal piety joined to training the mind to be familiar and intelligent in religious matters. Christ's near coming is no reason to become idle, and those able to work should not live idly or depend on others for support but should do daily duties, earn their own bread, work with the hands exercising physical as well as mental powers by earnest manual labor, which guards against temptation and disorder. Idleness wastes knowledge gained and limits usefulness to a fraction of what industry would accomplish, and such work is part of service to God when religion is kept pure with integrity and Christian principles upheld amid temptation and change.
Diligence forbids slow, bungling, sluggish, listless, halfhearted and inefficient habits, for these are defects to be corrected, not virtues to excuse, and service must be diligent, wholehearted, energetic and earnest rather than marked by slowness that wastes time or causes dangerous delay. Workers are to use mind and intellect as well as physical strength, putting mind and heart into the task, cultivating mental powers to render the very best service, for dullness and ignorance are no virtue. They are to work with care, method and effort, planning time, devising better methods, setting a time for each task and making every move count to do work well, secure best results, and make time for other duties. They are to learn every day to work more skillfully and quickly while remaining careful and conscientious, taking lively interest, responding willingly when extra help is needed, with slower workers learning from diligent ones so they serve effectively together and become workers in demand and appreciated everywhere. Faithful intelligent work with heart and spirit engaged applies to every kind of necessary labor, is honorable, and reveals a character God can approve.
Useful labor is necessary for physical, mental and moral well-being, and people are accountable to God for strength, time, abilities, health and property gained by them, and must use them well. Those with strength of body and no property must be diligent and fervent in advancing the cause no less than those with possessions, denying self in bodily spending and gratifying tastes and appetites to spare much for the cause and lay up treasure in heaven, for giving that puts self first and then does for the cause only what can be done as well as not is lame and not accepted. The duty is first to work to provide for one's own self and family and then to lay aside from what God has given for charitable purposes and to cast into the treasury, resolutely employing time to earn increase, for having no increase is no excuse since diligent exertion would produce increase and open ways for the earnest worker. Spending hours in idleness and needless visiting and talking violates the command, and those healthy and able must manage means carefully and have something to support God's cause instead of relying on help from others, using time and strength to honor God and help others with spiritual fervor. Labor became necessary because of sin, yet time and strength can support self, help others and advance God's cause, and diligence with self-denial improves health and frees resources.
Every man, woman and child is to be educated to do practical useful work and learn some trade such as tentmaking or other business, so members of the body are used to some purpose with industrious habits, and God will bless and increase the adaptability of all who educate themselves to work. Supporting people in idleness by private gifts or church money encourages sinful habits and must be conscientiously avoided. Even a man in good health who owns property and has no need to work for his own support must still labor to acquire means to advance God's cause and to guard his influence over others. Honest useful hand labor is honorable and health-giving, establishing health and physical strength by use and keeping all parts of the living body in health, and it is not humiliating, shameful or demeaning for teachers, educators of youth, ministers of the gospel or learned ministers to labor with their hands as circumstances demand. Parents should teach industry by example as well as instruction, using time and strength to support families and educate children, recognizing God as owner of all possessed and using His goods wisely in farm or business to advance His cause, bless others, keep the mind on heavenly things and spread light. Work does not degrade a person, for rebellion against God is the true dishonor, and diligent service joined to spiritual earnestness resists temptation by standing on the Lord's side with the Lord of truth within as faithful guardian.
Sluggishness and indolence are sin that leads to perdition and must be thrown off by going to work with the physical ability God has given. A useless inefficient life is cured only by determined persevering effort, and selfishness is cured only by denying self and working earnestly with fervor of spirit to be a blessing to fellow men. Faithfully doing the something God has given everyone to do makes life useful and brings blessing, and expecting to be saved while living idle is as foolish as expecting a harvest without sowing. Industry in providing for the family and having means to support God's work guards against temptation, while indolence wastes entrusted strength, wrongs the family, and with games, parties and pleasure gatherings opens avenues to temptation.
The hand of the diligent makes rich and he who deals with a slack hand becomes poor, though diligence does not always bring earthly prosperity because the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Drowsiness and idleness grieve the Holy Spirit, destroy true godliness, tend to poverty and want, and harm spiritual life, while diligence supports true godliness, exercises physical and mental powers for proper development, and can make a person a blessing. An active useful life spreads health and gladness like a flowing brook instead of becoming offensive like a stagnant pool.
Diligence applies to time and means, for moments matter and everyone engaged in the work should do their best rather than act carelessly or give excessive time to holidays. Minutes are not to be wasted in needless talk or standing idle, nor in talking when work should be done, nor in making others idle through conversation, but believers should take hold of the work in earnest, work faithfully for the Master, encourage one another to take responsibilities seriously, and labor in temporal and spiritual matters with urgency because the night is at hand when no one can work and the day is approaching. Assigned work is to be carried out calmly and promptly without rushing or creating confusion, with human workers doing their part faithfully while letting the Lord guide. Religion requires careful use of time, thoughtful management of labor, sound judgment and economy in spending money judiciously, with faithfulness and trustworthiness in little things, for idleness, slack habits and neglect cause avoidable losses, while diligent management avoids losses and preserves income and tithe and gives the privilege of a rich blessing in helping others and helping associates learn principles of economy.
Fervor in Serving Lord
Serving the Lord calls for the whole person — body, soul, life, and every God-given ability and capability — consecrated to God's glory and the promotion of His glory, governing conduct at all times. There is no allowance for lazy, negligent work or lack of zeal, for God has a righteous claim to constant service and supreme love. No one is a sincere Christian without being a laborer together with God in the family of workers, living in copartnership with Him and giving His work and His cause first consideration. Young men show this by serving with the whole heart and using entrusted abilities for His glory, with continual practice developing the true dignity He desires in His workers. Such earnest active service is responsible human effort in cooperation with God, doing the appointed part in humble dependence on divine help while God works in the person both to will and to act.
It is the Lord's spoken command to serve with all diligence, using physical and mental powers and God-given talents to make every advancement toward physical and mental perfection, to meet and overcome difficulties, and to glorify God. The opposite is wasting talents through a sloth-bound, do-little attitude that relaxes physical and spiritual muscles, ceases to progress, stagnates mind and body, and defrauds the soul of its richest treasures, with God as witness to whether each transaction is diligent service or waste. Diligence in daily business must be joined with fervor of spirit so temporal matters do not absorb the whole person. The carpenter, merchant, lawyer, farmer, and every worker in his own line prays while working, draws near to God, refreshes his spirit in the Lord, finds object lessons in what his hands handle, and is thus prepared to work for the Master. Labor with the hands is service for God, and opening the home for social meetings, inviting neighbors, and earnestly seeking to make meetings pleasant and agreeable to unbelievers is working in Christ's lines, bringing spiritual growth to the worker and touching hearts, demanding whole heart, soul, mind and strength without holding back until a stipulated price is paid.
Being fervent in spirit belongs to true worship and calls for a living, energetic religious life sustained daily by God's life-giving power, hidden with Christ in God, expressed in much prayer, humble walking, and personal effort. It means earnest, vigilant, watching and waiting and working service, with personal piety cultivated, cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, receiving the mind of Christ, being imbued with His Spirit, having lips touched as with a burning coal from the altar, and the accumulated rubbish of evil words removed. In public work it means short, pointed discourses of no more than thirty minutes, short prayers in meetings with long communion in private, genuine unselfish interest in others, and zeal and earnestness proportionate to the greatness of the truth held, uniform and holy in character rather than cold, tame, or lifeless. Fervor means turning wholly from sins and selfishness to have a life cleansed from all sin, with a changed heart giving visible evidence to unbelievers, a condition for entering through the gates into the city, for no unclean person will enter that blessed abode. It is vigorous Christianity gained by using the fullness of grace provided through the merits of Christ, having the mind of Christ, walking as He walked and working as He worked in constant self-denial and daily reaching out to do others good, and wrestling in earnest prayer with God to resist the temptations of the enemy. It calls for increase of energy and zeal joined with the love of Christ rather than a cold, calculating policy, and true zeal rather than rashness mistaken for zeal, shown in a general seeking of the Lord and a humbling of the heart.
God is honored by cheerful, grateful service in whatever work or place He gives, done with all one's might with wholehearted zeal rather than idleness. Through faith and patience those who serve in this way inherit the promises. Even work that feels like drudgery is ennobled when done cheerfully, with dignity, and as service to the Lord, with noble principles making it acceptable in God's sight and joining even the lowliest servant on earth with the highest servants in heaven. God's servants must labor earnestly rather than lazily, willingly accept sacrifice and hardship, and serve with a cheerful, wholehearted spirit, for those who love ease and refuse the burden will not be acknowledged as self-sacrificing servants, and God will raise up others who work in earnest and recognize their times of ease. This calling is answered by cheerfully accepting duty, relying on divine strength, and faithfully working to strengthen what is right and bless others, without indolence or selfish concern for worldly approval. Applied to those laboring in God's cause, it calls for faithful, cheerful, self-sacrificing work rather than idleness, delay, or care for one's own ease.
True service means serving the Lord and Master with whole heart and soul, with love of the truth in the heart, not admitting love of the world or giving service to another leader than Jesus Christ. It is not satisfied by outward activity, professed harmony with brethren, or accepting responsibilities while inward thought and practice are wrong, for activity alone leaves one in peril and all works must bear the test of God's Word. Serving the Lord means resisting the selfish, covetous spirit and ungodliness of the world, remaining steadfast in truth, and preserving integrity by God's grace, with Christ as the Master to whom believers look for wisdom and God's Word as standard, carried out with meekness and contrition. It means laying aside self and exalting Jesus, refusing to follow impulse and personal will and ways, and following Christ with the whole heart in entire consecration, which makes churches vigorous and alive with holy endeavor rather than bustle, patience rather than parade, prayer and persevering effort, and gives the individual assurance and peace. It calls for steadfastness to principles of truth, holding firm to the end the beginning of confidence, maintaining aggressive warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and fulfilling Christ's commission to teach all nations instead of cherishing selfishness and the covetous spirit of the world. It is the privilege and happiness of God's servants to obey all His requirements, with all desires directed heavenward rather than serving worldly interests or making gold and silver their god, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which opens a great work and field of usefulness where words and works become a savor of life unto life.
Even without speaking to congregations, such service leads souls to Jesus and fulfills Christ's commission by finding souls in need of a Saviour, using entrusted intellect and wealth in God's service to impart truth to others as God's stewards acting in His stead, while unfaithfulness, indolence and neglect misapply God-given capabilities and cause souls that might have been saved to be lost. No one is safe who offers dull, sleepy, indifferent, half-dead or lukewarm service. God demands earnest devoted work, and those who serve are to work earnestly to save souls, be filled with the life-giving influence of God's Spirit, and be fervent with His love rather than lukewarm. Faithful service means working earnestly and diligently for the Master, continually increasing abilities to do better work, and using the means God has provided to labor intelligently.
Realizing that spiritual service is work done for God gives every duty a greater sense of sacredness and brings life, vigilance, and persevering energy to its performance. Listlessness and inefficiency are not piety. Nothing is drudgery to one who submits to God's will, and doing it unto the Lord throws a charm over the work God gives. Everyday duties done for the Lord and in view of eternity become acts of devotion with constantly increasing usefulness, and the realization of sharing in the great work of warning the world, saving souls, and being God's helping hand and channels through which His love daily flows to the perishing ennobles and sanctifies the true worker, filling him with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Pure, undefiled religion is intensely practical, only earnest wholehearted labor avails in saving souls, shown by dealing justly and loving mercy, especially through compassionate service to blind, needy, and otherwise unfortunate people.
The verse gives a rule for business life: be diligent rather than slothful, fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord, for God approves efforts to cultivate Christian graces and disapproves slothfulness and indifference. Christian faith is active and faithful, not idle, bringing God's will and ways into every part of life so worldly transactions do not crowd out thoughts of God, with diligence and godliness belonging together and a person able to serve and represent Christ in business. It is the way to prepare for His soon coming, each child given the work of getting ready for His appearing by using and improving every entrusted talent, with God not accepting slothful, indifferent work. It means being diligent with the talent of time and exercising lent talents fully rather than slothful and satisfied with a haphazard experience, improving habits of thought and action and being transformed in character to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus instead of remaining spiritually dwarfed. It requires overcoming lower lustful passions and cutting away baser propensities to be worked by the Holy Spirit, being cleansed and purified by the washing of the Word, beginning with God-fearing effort in the home, in right management and in bringing children to Christ. Those earnestly striving for the world to come live by Christian principles in every concern of life with the same sincerity at all times and in all places as in worship, making the Word of God the standard of duty, cultivating the graces of the Holy Spirit with daily meekness, and keeping speech guarded, pure, and polished by study of the life of Christ, free from slang, rough words, cheap talk, jesting and joking that eclipses the light so Christ is not discerned.
Balanced Piety and Watchfulness
Christian character is a happy, symmetrical blending of inward piety and outward earnest work, neither spending life in prayerful meditation and contemplation alone to the neglect of diligent labor nor engaging in busy bustle, excitement, display and hurry to the neglect of personal piety and fervency of spirit. The all-round perfect man in Christ joins diligence in work with fervency of spirit in service to the Lord, for quiet prayerfulness without faithful outward service is not enough and busy zeal without personal devotion is not enough. True service is consecrated to God through surrender of the soul and love, sustained by grace supplying the soul and by a pure consecrated life, and a strict routine of duties and ceremonies without the Spirit's vitality is not true service. Mere bustle or activity is not enough unless the whole person is devoted to God, making use of every opportunity and gift to represent Christ through sincere prayer and watchfulness.
Waiting for the coming of the Lord is vigilant working and not idle expectancy, idle waiting, or rest in mere profession, meditation and prayer. Waiting and watching and praying and working are to be blended together, and this union balances the Christian character and makes it well developed and symmetrical. The soul's lamp must be kept trimmed and filled and burning with the oil of the grace of God, while the body is given physical exercise to accomplish the work of spreading the gospel, for the soul needs the riches of grace and worldly activities must not crowd out service to the Lord. With the end at hand and the soon coming in the clouds with power and great glory, believers are to point from what is to what is fast following after and clear the King's highway to prepare a people, as Enoch walked with God in God's way while bearing a continual witness for truth. In this way faithful servants cooperate as God's earthly agents with divine intelligences to carry out His plan for the salvation of those for whom Christ died, communicating received light and knowledge, growing to the full stature of men and women in Christ, developing character in obedience under the Captain of salvation, and preparing so the day of the Lord does not come upon them as a thief.
Diligence in business must never be put above the service and worship of God but must be mingled with living zeal, devotion, piety and godliness interwoven into every transaction. Energy in work joined to living zeal honors God, while work done without that devotion fails to honor Him and, even while professing to serve Him, is robbery toward God and the greatest mistake of life. Putting business first wrecks faith and makes shipwreck of faith for thousands in all ages, driving the religion of Christ from the soul to make room for speculation and business enterprises. It leaves God and heaven out of account, neglects home religion and breaks down family altars, abandons first love, counts heart-searching as wasted time, neglects the Bible, lets a multitude of cares crowd out and overbalance truth, puts out spiritual eyesight, and shows the need for the heavenly anointing.
However lawful and honorable a business may be, it must not be allowed to unduly absorb the mind, occupy the time, or absorb the whole life, for God will not accept a divided heart. Christians may engage in business without sin, but they must not let the pursuit of wealth absorb energy or crowd out prayer, Bible study and service to God, since business becomes spiritually harmful when worldly concerns take priority over eternal things and leave no time to seek God. Talents and opportunities entrusted by God are to be used wisely for His work and glory with spiritual fervor and prayerful devotion, while business cares are kept from overwhelming spiritual life and weakening commitment to God's cause. Secular duties glorify God only when Christ is first and godliness is strengthened in every action by the standard of the Word, with purity of soul guarded, influence used to help others, and a special personal work for souls done at all times and places beyond weekly worship.
Diligence never excuses continually overtaxing mental and physical powers in pursuit of gain until supreme love to God and unselfish love to neighbor are disregarded, for that is sin and serving other gods before Him. When another object usurps the devotion belonging to God it becomes an idol, and whatever receives the freshest hours of the day, the closest thought and study, and the greatest skill is what is dearest and most valued. Work should bring hope, courage and amiability rather than hopeless exhaustion, and it is better to leave some tasks unfinished than to break down the body, endanger vitality, violate the laws of nature, and lose strength for the next day. The mind must be strictly guarded against both idleness, which lets God-given powers rust and brings temptation, and a whirl of worldly business, which imperils mind and body, clogs the channel of light, withholds imparted grace and power from the source of all power, decreases strength to impart to others, and robs neighbors of kindly words and deeds that would help them upward. Those in important positions of responsibility must take time to watch and pray, assure themselves of the presence of Jesus, and counsel with Him about the work placed in their hands as Enoch of old did, rather than gathering business to the soul and leaving Christ out for lack of time to commune with Him or putting confidence in finite human strength. Without such fervency words and works are against Christ, what is brought to the foundation is hay, wood and stubble, and lives are darkened by the shadow of sin uncheered by the light of Christ's presence, calling for separation from what corrodes the mind and spoils religious experience in order to make sure work for eternity while time passes.
Church Members and Gifts
Every member of the church has an appointed place of diligent, fervent service to the Lord, with different members fitted for different classes of work blending into a complete whole. As members of the heavenly family they help and strengthen one another in this service, keeping heaven in view and overcoming as Christ overcame. The diligence required is not careless or lazy work but earnest spiritual service in the work God assigns each person within the church. Differing gifts given according to grace are to be used faithfully, with no one counting a special gift above all others, but each gift connected with the gifts of others, each filling its place and all appreciated as essential for advancing God's cause. This variety of gifts is to be brought into the building of the temple of the Lord, each finding its proper place to grow into a holy temple, not shut up within self but loving one another as brethren with kindness and courtesy. Such service represents God and His cause in the midst of rebels and enemies by whom the will of God is neglected and His honor despised, in a crooked and perverse nation.
The work of God is to be carried on a higher plane, with all who hold position in the church acting as shepherds who represent the great Shepherd. Dominating, masterly working power that charges the Lord's people what they shall do and shall not do is not of God but another gospel, not the righteousness of Christ, a spoil to the church, and must no longer be allowed. The same failure appears in directing and controlling others, making rules and agreements and then failing to keep promises, changing and breaking them and promising without performing while still seeking more power and responsibility without practicing Christian principles. True industriousness and spiritual earnestness in serving the Lord rather than self is not measured by fluency, knowledge of grammar, or business ability, for God is not dependent on those things and cannot use the self-sufficient. It requires a humble and contrite heart willing to be molded, staying near the Saviour, closely yoked with Christ, and living by every word from God, so that diversity of gifts and many talents become a rich blessing to others, as shown when Christ chose fishermen who knew God.
The church must arise and shine with every member at his post of duty, becoming intelligent about talents and consecrating soul, body, and spirit to God to do the work given him, with no idlers in the Lord's vineyard. Those who fail to serve diligently and earnestly will be brought to account by God. God calls for staunch, loyal, and faithful workers who cannot be bought or sold, who are diligent and earnest rather than slothful, fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord under individual responsibility to God as a sacred trust.
Diligence, fervency, and service are required from publishing-house workers, sanitarium physicians and nurses, and ministers through converted intellects, daily converting power, and Christ dwelling within. This replaces cherishing inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong, ruling over one another, and living without repentance and daily conversion, and belongs to cautions and exhortations to be studied prayerfully to understand the gifts that make the church the light of the world. Professed religion requires diligence in daily work rather than idleness, including using the six working days productively and providing for one's family, so that a changed, diligent life stands as a practical witness to the world.
Paul's Manual Labor Example
Paul lived out diligence in work joined to fervor in spirit and service to the Lord in skilled, quick, thorough tentmaking. He labored together with Aquila and Priscilla at the trade, and did not count that time as lost or as inconsistent with preaching the gospel. His intelligent hand labor itself preached with his hands as truly as his voice preached, for he worked diligently and thoroughly while continuing to seek spiritual knowledge, witness for truth, and help others. Such labor shows that preaching the gospel excuses no one, not even a learned minister, from physical work, and that manual labor is not demeaning.
His ordinary toil gave him access to people he might not otherwise have reached and kept him in touch with the Great Teacher while he worked. It opened continual opportunities to witness, to help others, to give fellow laborers instruction in spiritual things, to educate believers in unity, and to hold prayer and praise meetings with those associated with him in the trade as a testimony to the value of truth. Skill in common work is a gift from God to be used wisely, and everyday toil done faithfully honors Him. That faithful, industrious work supported Paul himself without making him less fervent or less able in communicating the gospel, proving that business skill and manual labor do not weaken ministry but help bring people to the truth.
Callings in Daily Life
Ministers are to persist in Scripture study to make every moment fruitful, using time industriously and faithfully rather than idly in their calling. Diligence, fervor of spirit, and devotion to serving God are essential qualifications for ministry, and without them there is no duty to travel and preach. A minister must work faithfully in both public and social duties, persevering through toil, hardship and conflict, with no place for laziness, self-indulgence, carelessness, irreverence or half-heartedness. One whose influence has been injurious through opposition, envy, distrust and fanaticism, so the church cannot depend on him, does best to stay home and attend diligently to business instead of preaching and caring for the flock until he shows entire reform, conversion, victory over jealousy and thorough restitution. Faithful workers endure hardship, opposition, reproach and even death for Christ, and those unwilling or unfit to teach sacred truth should choose other work.
Businessmen become Christlike by letting Bible religion pervade business and transacting all affairs after God's methods, not from faulty disposition or unsanctified, ungoverned impulse. Diligence joined to fervor in serving Christ as Master requires holding fast integrity by grace at any cost, refusing to be bought or sold and refusing all confederacy with Satan's maxims of pretense and selfish gain. God's Word is the standard of duty so that every act is pure, honest, of good report and transparent, with no unholy practice, unsound custom, covetous deed or even appearance of evil, and houses and lands are rejected as the measure of character. Business is never an excuse to set religion aside, and faithful service excludes dishonesty, false representation and taking advantage of others, preserving moral integrity that can stand God's inspection. Gain through unjust management is not success or blessing, even one dollar gained by turning a stranger from his right, and increase not obtained by justice and equity in keeping the way of the Lord is a curse. True religion appears in words, deportment and every act, with faith and daily work going hand in hand and God's commandments kept strictly in worldly details, testing each task by God's will to please the Redeemer until every moment bears the impress of holy faith. If business presses too closely upon spiritual and eternal interests it must take its subordinate place, so believers walk in light heavenward as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
The call to be diligent rather than idle, earnest in spirit and serving the Lord applies with special urgency to united energetic sale and circulation of Christ's Object Lessons to free the schools from debt. Every branch of God's cause deserves such diligence, but this work deserves it most at the present time, with all putting shoulder to the wheel in earnest united effort to finish what is well begun. Everyone who possibly can is to join the workers, with each stroke telling for the Master. The words are to be taken as a motto repeated again and again for strength in duty when going forth, bracing for duty by earnest prayer and expecting the Lord's help as laborers together with God.
God's servants must combine vigilant waiting with vigilant working, not living a merely quiet, prayerful, meditative religion but being living, wide-awake, energetic, fervent Christians filled with zeal to give the blessings of truth to others. They keep the lamp of the soul trimmed and burning while seeking, praying for and laboring for souls who need light, communicating truth by earnest faithful effort and doing everything without delay through appeals and fervent prayer to save sinners. All powers are to be given to His service, every opportunity improved to increase usefulness in religious lines, especially in working earnestly and wisely for the proclamation of the third angel's message, instead of losing precious opportunities while Satan works to hold them back. Those who have had light flashing on their pathway for years must put it to use instead of standing idle, letting it shine on others who have truth to receive, keeping judgment in view and learning the effect of speech upon those met there. Active disciples both hear and do Christ's words in consecrated devotion to work God's works, receiving new life from heaven, and through such servants the Lord can do great things even with simple instrumentalities in the hastening time of peril when fair-weather disciples will not answer. Every church member possessing true godliness and knowledge of the Word may become a working agency laboring with dignity and confidence yet humble dependence.
In publishing and institutional work, active energy must be governed by serving the Lord rather than self, with God as supreme counselor and manager and His honor as chief concern. This rule extends wherever the work extends, including the General Conference, forbidding self-service in God's cause. Those engaged in any department of God's work have responsibility as real as ministers preaching the gospel, and God calls for unselfish diligent workers whom He blesses. Missionary activity is not truly fruitful when driven by a self-governed spirit rather than the Spirit of Jesus, for outward busyness must be joined to a Christlike spirit and respect for sacred work. Those in important positions need Jesus and must take time to watch and pray to stay earnest in spirit, assuring themselves of His presence and counseling with Him about the work placed in their hands as Enoch did, rather than gathering business to the soul and leaving Christ out for lack of time or violating conscience by trusting finite human strength.
Self-denying sacrifice belongs to diligence and fervor, denying ease and self-gratification, staying ready at home or abroad, and watching for every opportunity to sacrifice for God's cause and do good to others. Those with no property but strength of body are accountable to God for strength and must be diligent and fervent in advancing the cause, not leaving sacrifice to those with possessions. They are to spend less on the body and on gratifying tastes and appetites in order to spare much for the cause and lay up treasure in heaven, for giving that puts self first and then does for the cause only what can be done as well as not is lame and unacceptable. Time is not one's own but belongs to God by purchase, and Christians as soldiers bought at a price must always be at their post, overcoming love of ease with a spirit of sacrifice in remembrance of what Jesus suffered. Taste for frivolous things, useless ornaments and worldly habits is to be resisted, turning time, strength and money from self-indulgence into channels that glorify God by relieving the poorly clad, hungry, naked and suffering and spreading present-truth literature.
In family life diligence, spiritual earnestness and service to the Lord require charitable Christlike forbearance and mutual regard between husband and wife. A father and minister must not love ease but work with painstaking diligence, constant effort, constant watchfulness and fervent spirit in duty to children, devoting sufficient time to family prayer with the whole household present. He acts as house-band and priest centering the family, offering morning and evening sacrifice with confession of known and secret sins and united praise, diligently teaching truth and God's commandments when rising and sitting and going out and coming in, keeping the mind uplifted in a praying mood. Persistent watchfulness and earnest prayer without relaxing are required, for defective education that indulges passion and leaves disobedience unpunished leaves youth not religiously inclined. Sloth in business condemns careless slack conduct in temporal affairs, since indolence in practical work also appears in church duties and hinders spiritual service, while diligence, energy, perseverance and willingness to exert oneself are needed in both, lest love of fiction absorb the mind, spoil fitness for work and lessen relish for God's Word.
Young people and students must work diligently and wholeheartedly in whatever occupation they enter, serving the Lord through faithful work, for idleness and careless effort are the opposite of faithful stewardship. They are to unite physical labor with study, cultivate personal piety instead of devotion only to books, cooperate with God, bear responsibility and keep the heart with diligence in common everyday duties, so as to become dependable in emergencies as diligent workers and vigilant watchers. They must not be idle or fail to strive against wrong habits, but renounce evil habits and associations at every step, trusting the Lord's Spirit for strength, with earnest prayer shown by vigorous effort to obey God's commands. Diligence is joined to rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, instant prayer, care for saints and hospitality, with brotherly love preferring one another in honor and cultivating affection for parents and brethren. Eternal interests must not be sacrificed for studies and applause, growing less in divine life while seeking to excel through Satan's sophistry, nor must fiction spoil fitness for work. Diligent useful service to Christ guards against temptation, whereas idleness, games, parties and pleasure gatherings open avenues to it, and consecrated persevering use of every capability for God's glory brings eternal reward.
Readiness means departing from all iniquity, putting off darkness and being clothed with righteousness, living prepared to meet the Lord since no one knows when probation closes and refusing to remain sinful and defiled. Obedience brings praise to God and enables Him to work mightily, while unbelieving, unconverted, unsanctified members weaken the church, stand in their own light and remain captive to the deceiver. Professors of Christ must leave sin behind and show faithful obedient zeal as soldiers of Christ ready to meet Him.
Faithful earnest labor is a wise and perfectly safe investment with valuable profit and no danger of failure, securing treasure in heaven and title to eternal life. Duty at the post is to be done every time regardless of feelings, impulse, wishes or ease, enduring hardness as soldiers of the cross following the Captain without the camp bearing reproach. This includes ruling with diligence, giving with simplicity, showing mercy with cheerfulness, loving without dissimulation, abhorring evil, cleaving to good, rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to saints and showing hospitality. Labor with eyes fixed on the prize is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, working without expecting reward in this life or having every obstacle removed, becoming free and joyous by conversion and consenting to Christ's yoke of obedience and service until difficulties are removed and murmurings stilled. Eager active service is the life insurance policy securing a portion in the city of God, a welcome by Christ and a crown of life never taken away except by personal choice, gained by obedience to all God's law rather than feeding the mind on novels and stories that teach nothing of eternal life.
Serving the Lord brings religion into business life through steady energy in business joined to deep interest in spiritual things, influencing others by word and example toward the same diligence and fervor. It means laboring together with God to build His work and leading youth to Jesus as opportunity offers, rather than mingling amusement with labor or spending work time in talk and amusing stories, lest God-given opportunities for spiritual influence be lost. Faithfulness belongs in everyday details, with industry and zeal in appointed duties, using a farm or business as God's property wisely to advance His cause, blessing others, keeping the mind on heavenly things and spreading light. Sabbath-school workers serve with strong faith, warm sympathy and unselfish sacrifice for conversion and training of youth, and all are to do their utmost with earnestness without boasting, teaching accountability to God. Prompt decisive action at the right time in God-given circumstances brings success, while delay and neglect bring failure and dishonor, and holy purpose inspires unity, hope and eagerness where indifference fosters carelessness, idleness and love of pleasure.
Diligence rather than laziness with fervent spirit applies to every branch of the work and especially to canvassers. It means resolutely employing time to earn increase for the treasury, doing one's utmost with earnestness, and becoming efficient in every line as producers willing to learn and take hold wherever called. A true worker is not indolent but serves willingly with humble heart, free from jealousy and selfishness.
Not slothful in business means to be diligent and industrious in work rather than lazy, fervent in spirit means to be earnest and vigorous in heart, and serving the Lord means to do all work as service to Him. Serving the Lord calls for the whole person with every ability consecrated to His glory, giving His work first place and laboring together with Him. Christians must not abandon temporal duties or withdraw from life, but remain industrious in business while fervent in spirit, showing faith by faithful action. Diligence in work must be joined to fervency of spirit, for neither quiet devotion without labor nor busy activity without piety is enough. Business must never crowd out worship and devotion, but be interwoven with living zeal and godliness in every transaction.
Words and Chapter Setting
Not slothful in business means not to be lazy in work but diligent, fervent in spirit means to be earnest and wholehearted in spirit, and serving the Lord means devotion to His service in whatever work is done. These three belong together as practical duties to carry into daily life, calling for diligence rather than carelessness, spiritual fervor, and service done to the Lord. They are among the chapter's instructions for the church and its workers, describing genuine medical missionary work and the spirit in which workers in Christian institutions are to serve.
The command stands within sincere love without hypocrisy that hates evil and clings to good, is kind with brotherly love and honors others above self, rejoices in hope, is patient in trouble, prays continually, shares with needy believers and practices hospitality. Prayer is to continue throughout daily life and labor, and drawing near to God brings His nearness and protection from temptation. It cures lack of unity and lack of love among church members by abhorring evil, refusing all union with sin, cleaving firmly to what is good and to whatever leads to God and promotes the well-being of others. In practice it requires self-denial and self-sacrifice that overcomes evil with good, firmly resisting the taste for frivolous things and useless ornaments and turning time, strength, money, every penny and shilling and pound from self-indulgence into channels that glorify God by relieving families poorly clad and lacking comfort, the poor, the hungry, the naked and the suffering, blessing humanity and advancing His cause. There is every encouragement to live this way because Christ who pledged His life to save the fallen race has pledged Himself to be a personal Intercessor who prays the Father for His people.
Romans 12 is very instructive, of high value, and a history for all churches, calling for the work of God to be carried on a higher plane of action, with all who hold position acting as shepherds who represent the great Shepherd. The whole church is to study its cautions and exhortations prayerfully to understand the gifts to the church that make it the light of the world, bring them into practical daily life, and prove God's will. Genuine faith is shown in daily transformed character, for those who put on Christ are transformed by the renewing of their minds; it is active and sincere, working diligently, remaining fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord even in commercial work and other difficult surroundings where business should be conducted according to Bible principles and God's way. This guards against exalting self and ruling over one another, requiring converted intellects, daily converting power and Christ dwelling within instead of cherishing inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong and living without repentance and daily conversion, lest self-deception prove the ruin of some who have once known the truth. Dominating, masterly working power that charges the Lord's people what they shall do and shall not do is not of God, is another gospel, is not the righteousness of Christ, is a spoil to the church, and must no longer be allowed.
The verse lays down a principle to be carefully studied and obeyed in small matters as well as large. Men appointed by God are sustained only as they do His Word, and doing it guards against Satan's devices to weaken, to lift up in self-esteem and exalt self in one's own opinion, and so to gain power over them. God, high and lifted up, uses men as His humble instruments as long as they work humbly seeking wisdom from Him.
The chapter makes plain that a variety of gifts are to be brought into the building of the temple of the Lord, each finding its proper place to grow into a holy temple, not shutting up within self but loving one another as brethren with kindness and courtesy in service to the Lord. The perfection of the whole depends on the perfection of the individual members as the perfection of the physical body depends on its organs. It requires thinking soberly instead of thinking of oneself more highly than one ought, wearing Christ's yoke and drawing under His leading by being not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Heeding its warning keeps a person in usefulness, requiring a changed attitude and self-control through intelligent, pure, cordial belief in the grace of Christ that brings salvation to all and places feet on the eternal Rock, making it possible to reach the standard of perfection and to keep past success.
Diligence in Ordinary Work
Not slothful in business means Christians must not cease temporal pursuits, abandon life's duties, or withdraw from society into mere prayer, quiet and religious contemplation, but must remain industrious in business while fervent in spirit serving the Lord, living in the world without belonging to it and considering how work and conduct can serve Him. Faith is shown by faithful action, active work and zeal in good works, with personal piety joined to training the mind to be familiar and intelligent in religious matters. Christ's near coming is no reason to become idle, and those able to work should not live idly or depend on others for support but should do daily duties, earn their own bread, work with the hands exercising physical as well as mental powers by earnest manual labor, which guards against temptation and disorder. Idleness wastes knowledge gained and limits usefulness to a fraction of what industry would accomplish, and such work is part of service to God when religion is kept pure with integrity and Christian principles upheld amid temptation and change.
Diligence forbids slow, bungling, sluggish, listless, halfhearted and inefficient habits, for these are defects to be corrected, not virtues to excuse, and service must be diligent, wholehearted, energetic and earnest rather than marked by slowness that wastes time or causes dangerous delay. Workers are to use mind and intellect as well as physical strength, putting mind and heart into the task, cultivating mental powers to render the very best service, for dullness and ignorance are no virtue. They are to work with care, method and effort, planning time, devising better methods, setting a time for each task and making every move count to do work well, secure best results, and make time for other duties. They are to learn every day to work more skillfully and quickly while remaining careful and conscientious, taking lively interest, responding willingly when extra help is needed, with slower workers learning from diligent ones so they serve effectively together and become workers in demand and appreciated everywhere. Faithful intelligent work with heart and spirit engaged applies to every kind of necessary labor, is honorable, and reveals a character God can approve.
Useful labor is necessary for physical, mental and moral well-being, and people are accountable to God for strength, time, abilities, health and property gained by them, and must use them well. Those with strength of body and no property must be diligent and fervent in advancing the cause no less than those with possessions, denying self in bodily spending and gratifying tastes and appetites to spare much for the cause and lay up treasure in heaven, for giving that puts self first and then does for the cause only what can be done as well as not is lame and not accepted. The duty is first to work to provide for one's own self and family and then to lay aside from what God has given for charitable purposes and to cast into the treasury, resolutely employing time to earn increase, for having no increase is no excuse since diligent exertion would produce increase and open ways for the earnest worker. Spending hours in idleness and needless visiting and talking violates the command, and those healthy and able must manage means carefully and have something to support God's cause instead of relying on help from others, using time and strength to honor God and help others with spiritual fervor. Labor became necessary because of sin, yet time and strength can support self, help others and advance God's cause, and diligence with self-denial improves health and frees resources.
Every man, woman and child is to be educated to do practical useful work and learn some trade such as tentmaking or other business, so members of the body are used to some purpose with industrious habits, and God will bless and increase the adaptability of all who educate themselves to work. Supporting people in idleness by private gifts or church money encourages sinful habits and must be conscientiously avoided. Even a man in good health who owns property and has no need to work for his own support must still labor to acquire means to advance God's cause and to guard his influence over others. Honest useful hand labor is honorable and health-giving, establishing health and physical strength by use and keeping all parts of the living body in health, and it is not humiliating, shameful or demeaning for teachers, educators of youth, ministers of the gospel or learned ministers to labor with their hands as circumstances demand. Parents should teach industry by example as well as instruction, using time and strength to support families and educate children, recognizing God as owner of all possessed and using His goods wisely in farm or business to advance His cause, bless others, keep the mind on heavenly things and spread light. Work does not degrade a person, for rebellion against God is the true dishonor, and diligent service joined to spiritual earnestness resists temptation by standing on the Lord's side with the Lord of truth within as faithful guardian.
Sluggishness and indolence are sin that leads to perdition and must be thrown off by going to work with the physical ability God has given. A useless inefficient life is cured only by determined persevering effort, and selfishness is cured only by denying self and working earnestly with fervor of spirit to be a blessing to fellow men. Faithfully doing the something God has given everyone to do makes life useful and brings blessing, and expecting to be saved while living idle is as foolish as expecting a harvest without sowing. Industry in providing for the family and having means to support God's work guards against temptation, while indolence wastes entrusted strength, wrongs the family, and with games, parties and pleasure gatherings opens avenues to temptation.
The hand of the diligent makes rich and he who deals with a slack hand becomes poor, though diligence does not always bring earthly prosperity because the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Drowsiness and idleness grieve the Holy Spirit, destroy true godliness, tend to poverty and want, and harm spiritual life, while diligence supports true godliness, exercises physical and mental powers for proper development, and can make a person a blessing. An active useful life spreads health and gladness like a flowing brook instead of becoming offensive like a stagnant pool.
Diligence applies to time and means, for moments matter and everyone engaged in the work should do their best rather than act carelessly or give excessive time to holidays. Minutes are not to be wasted in needless talk or standing idle, nor in talking when work should be done, nor in making others idle through conversation, but believers should take hold of the work in earnest, work faithfully for the Master, encourage one another to take responsibilities seriously, and labor in temporal and spiritual matters with urgency because the night is at hand when no one can work and the day is approaching. Assigned work is to be carried out calmly and promptly without rushing or creating confusion, with human workers doing their part faithfully while letting the Lord guide. Religion requires careful use of time, thoughtful management of labor, sound judgment and economy in spending money judiciously, with faithfulness and trustworthiness in little things, for idleness, slack habits and neglect cause avoidable losses, while diligent management avoids losses and preserves income and tithe and gives the privilege of a rich blessing in helping others and helping associates learn principles of economy.
Fervor in Serving Lord
Serving the Lord calls for the whole person — body, soul, life, and every God-given ability and capability — consecrated to God's glory and the promotion of His glory, governing conduct at all times. There is no allowance for lazy, negligent work or lack of zeal, for God has a righteous claim to constant service and supreme love. No one is a sincere Christian without being a laborer together with God in the family of workers, living in copartnership with Him and giving His work and His cause first consideration. Young men show this by serving with the whole heart and using entrusted abilities for His glory, with continual practice developing the true dignity He desires in His workers. Such earnest active service is responsible human effort in cooperation with God, doing the appointed part in humble dependence on divine help while God works in the person both to will and to act.
It is the Lord's spoken command to serve with all diligence, using physical and mental powers and God-given talents to make every advancement toward physical and mental perfection, to meet and overcome difficulties, and to glorify God. The opposite is wasting talents through a sloth-bound, do-little attitude that relaxes physical and spiritual muscles, ceases to progress, stagnates mind and body, and defrauds the soul of its richest treasures, with God as witness to whether each transaction is diligent service or waste. Diligence in daily business must be joined with fervor of spirit so temporal matters do not absorb the whole person. The carpenter, merchant, lawyer, farmer, and every worker in his own line prays while working, draws near to God, refreshes his spirit in the Lord, finds object lessons in what his hands handle, and is thus prepared to work for the Master. Labor with the hands is service for God, and opening the home for social meetings, inviting neighbors, and earnestly seeking to make meetings pleasant and agreeable to unbelievers is working in Christ's lines, bringing spiritual growth to the worker and touching hearts, demanding whole heart, soul, mind and strength without holding back until a stipulated price is paid.
Being fervent in spirit belongs to true worship and calls for a living, energetic religious life sustained daily by God's life-giving power, hidden with Christ in God, expressed in much prayer, humble walking, and personal effort. It means earnest, vigilant, watching and waiting and working service, with personal piety cultivated, cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, receiving the mind of Christ, being imbued with His Spirit, having lips touched as with a burning coal from the altar, and the accumulated rubbish of evil words removed. In public work it means short, pointed discourses of no more than thirty minutes, short prayers in meetings with long communion in private, genuine unselfish interest in others, and zeal and earnestness proportionate to the greatness of the truth held, uniform and holy in character rather than cold, tame, or lifeless. Fervor means turning wholly from sins and selfishness to have a life cleansed from all sin, with a changed heart giving visible evidence to unbelievers, a condition for entering through the gates into the city, for no unclean person will enter that blessed abode. It is vigorous Christianity gained by using the fullness of grace provided through the merits of Christ, having the mind of Christ, walking as He walked and working as He worked in constant self-denial and daily reaching out to do others good, and wrestling in earnest prayer with God to resist the temptations of the enemy. It calls for increase of energy and zeal joined with the love of Christ rather than a cold, calculating policy, and true zeal rather than rashness mistaken for zeal, shown in a general seeking of the Lord and a humbling of the heart.
God is honored by cheerful, grateful service in whatever work or place He gives, done with all one's might with wholehearted zeal rather than idleness. Through faith and patience those who serve in this way inherit the promises. Even work that feels like drudgery is ennobled when done cheerfully, with dignity, and as service to the Lord, with noble principles making it acceptable in God's sight and joining even the lowliest servant on earth with the highest servants in heaven. God's servants must labor earnestly rather than lazily, willingly accept sacrifice and hardship, and serve with a cheerful, wholehearted spirit, for those who love ease and refuse the burden will not be acknowledged as self-sacrificing servants, and God will raise up others who work in earnest and recognize their times of ease. This calling is answered by cheerfully accepting duty, relying on divine strength, and faithfully working to strengthen what is right and bless others, without indolence or selfish concern for worldly approval. Applied to those laboring in God's cause, it calls for faithful, cheerful, self-sacrificing work rather than idleness, delay, or care for one's own ease.
True service means serving the Lord and Master with whole heart and soul, with love of the truth in the heart, not admitting love of the world or giving service to another leader than Jesus Christ. It is not satisfied by outward activity, professed harmony with brethren, or accepting responsibilities while inward thought and practice are wrong, for activity alone leaves one in peril and all works must bear the test of God's Word. Serving the Lord means resisting the selfish, covetous spirit and ungodliness of the world, remaining steadfast in truth, and preserving integrity by God's grace, with Christ as the Master to whom believers look for wisdom and God's Word as standard, carried out with meekness and contrition. It means laying aside self and exalting Jesus, refusing to follow impulse and personal will and ways, and following Christ with the whole heart in entire consecration, which makes churches vigorous and alive with holy endeavor rather than bustle, patience rather than parade, prayer and persevering effort, and gives the individual assurance and peace. It calls for steadfastness to principles of truth, holding firm to the end the beginning of confidence, maintaining aggressive warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and fulfilling Christ's commission to teach all nations instead of cherishing selfishness and the covetous spirit of the world. It is the privilege and happiness of God's servants to obey all His requirements, with all desires directed heavenward rather than serving worldly interests or making gold and silver their god, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which opens a great work and field of usefulness where words and works become a savor of life unto life.
Even without speaking to congregations, such service leads souls to Jesus and fulfills Christ's commission by finding souls in need of a Saviour, using entrusted intellect and wealth in God's service to impart truth to others as God's stewards acting in His stead, while unfaithfulness, indolence and neglect misapply God-given capabilities and cause souls that might have been saved to be lost. No one is safe who offers dull, sleepy, indifferent, half-dead or lukewarm service. God demands earnest devoted work, and those who serve are to work earnestly to save souls, be filled with the life-giving influence of God's Spirit, and be fervent with His love rather than lukewarm. Faithful service means working earnestly and diligently for the Master, continually increasing abilities to do better work, and using the means God has provided to labor intelligently.
Realizing that spiritual service is work done for God gives every duty a greater sense of sacredness and brings life, vigilance, and persevering energy to its performance. Listlessness and inefficiency are not piety. Nothing is drudgery to one who submits to God's will, and doing it unto the Lord throws a charm over the work God gives. Everyday duties done for the Lord and in view of eternity become acts of devotion with constantly increasing usefulness, and the realization of sharing in the great work of warning the world, saving souls, and being God's helping hand and channels through which His love daily flows to the perishing ennobles and sanctifies the true worker, filling him with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Pure, undefiled religion is intensely practical, only earnest wholehearted labor avails in saving souls, shown by dealing justly and loving mercy, especially through compassionate service to blind, needy, and otherwise unfortunate people.
The verse gives a rule for business life: be diligent rather than slothful, fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord, for God approves efforts to cultivate Christian graces and disapproves slothfulness and indifference. Christian faith is active and faithful, not idle, bringing God's will and ways into every part of life so worldly transactions do not crowd out thoughts of God, with diligence and godliness belonging together and a person able to serve and represent Christ in business. It is the way to prepare for His soon coming, each child given the work of getting ready for His appearing by using and improving every entrusted talent, with God not accepting slothful, indifferent work. It means being diligent with the talent of time and exercising lent talents fully rather than slothful and satisfied with a haphazard experience, improving habits of thought and action and being transformed in character to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus instead of remaining spiritually dwarfed. It requires overcoming lower lustful passions and cutting away baser propensities to be worked by the Holy Spirit, being cleansed and purified by the washing of the Word, beginning with God-fearing effort in the home, in right management and in bringing children to Christ. Those earnestly striving for the world to come live by Christian principles in every concern of life with the same sincerity at all times and in all places as in worship, making the Word of God the standard of duty, cultivating the graces of the Holy Spirit with daily meekness, and keeping speech guarded, pure, and polished by study of the life of Christ, free from slang, rough words, cheap talk, jesting and joking that eclipses the light so Christ is not discerned.
Balanced Piety and Watchfulness
Christian character is a happy, symmetrical blending of inward piety and outward earnest work, neither spending life in prayerful meditation and contemplation alone to the neglect of diligent labor nor engaging in busy bustle, excitement, display and hurry to the neglect of personal piety and fervency of spirit. The all-round perfect man in Christ joins diligence in work with fervency of spirit in service to the Lord, for quiet prayerfulness without faithful outward service is not enough and busy zeal without personal devotion is not enough. True service is consecrated to God through surrender of the soul and love, sustained by grace supplying the soul and by a pure consecrated life, and a strict routine of duties and ceremonies without the Spirit's vitality is not true service. Mere bustle or activity is not enough unless the whole person is devoted to God, making use of every opportunity and gift to represent Christ through sincere prayer and watchfulness.
Waiting for the coming of the Lord is vigilant working and not idle expectancy, idle waiting, or rest in mere profession, meditation and prayer. Waiting and watching and praying and working are to be blended together, and this union balances the Christian character and makes it well developed and symmetrical. The soul's lamp must be kept trimmed and filled and burning with the oil of the grace of God, while the body is given physical exercise to accomplish the work of spreading the gospel, for the soul needs the riches of grace and worldly activities must not crowd out service to the Lord. With the end at hand and the soon coming in the clouds with power and great glory, believers are to point from what is to what is fast following after and clear the King's highway to prepare a people, as Enoch walked with God in God's way while bearing a continual witness for truth. In this way faithful servants cooperate as God's earthly agents with divine intelligences to carry out His plan for the salvation of those for whom Christ died, communicating received light and knowledge, growing to the full stature of men and women in Christ, developing character in obedience under the Captain of salvation, and preparing so the day of the Lord does not come upon them as a thief.
Diligence in business must never be put above the service and worship of God but must be mingled with living zeal, devotion, piety and godliness interwoven into every transaction. Energy in work joined to living zeal honors God, while work done without that devotion fails to honor Him and, even while professing to serve Him, is robbery toward God and the greatest mistake of life. Putting business first wrecks faith and makes shipwreck of faith for thousands in all ages, driving the religion of Christ from the soul to make room for speculation and business enterprises. It leaves God and heaven out of account, neglects home religion and breaks down family altars, abandons first love, counts heart-searching as wasted time, neglects the Bible, lets a multitude of cares crowd out and overbalance truth, puts out spiritual eyesight, and shows the need for the heavenly anointing.
However lawful and honorable a business may be, it must not be allowed to unduly absorb the mind, occupy the time, or absorb the whole life, for God will not accept a divided heart. Christians may engage in business without sin, but they must not let the pursuit of wealth absorb energy or crowd out prayer, Bible study and service to God, since business becomes spiritually harmful when worldly concerns take priority over eternal things and leave no time to seek God. Talents and opportunities entrusted by God are to be used wisely for His work and glory with spiritual fervor and prayerful devotion, while business cares are kept from overwhelming spiritual life and weakening commitment to God's cause. Secular duties glorify God only when Christ is first and godliness is strengthened in every action by the standard of the Word, with purity of soul guarded, influence used to help others, and a special personal work for souls done at all times and places beyond weekly worship.
Diligence never excuses continually overtaxing mental and physical powers in pursuit of gain until supreme love to God and unselfish love to neighbor are disregarded, for that is sin and serving other gods before Him. When another object usurps the devotion belonging to God it becomes an idol, and whatever receives the freshest hours of the day, the closest thought and study, and the greatest skill is what is dearest and most valued. Work should bring hope, courage and amiability rather than hopeless exhaustion, and it is better to leave some tasks unfinished than to break down the body, endanger vitality, violate the laws of nature, and lose strength for the next day. The mind must be strictly guarded against both idleness, which lets God-given powers rust and brings temptation, and a whirl of worldly business, which imperils mind and body, clogs the channel of light, withholds imparted grace and power from the source of all power, decreases strength to impart to others, and robs neighbors of kindly words and deeds that would help them upward. Those in important positions of responsibility must take time to watch and pray, assure themselves of the presence of Jesus, and counsel with Him about the work placed in their hands as Enoch of old did, rather than gathering business to the soul and leaving Christ out for lack of time to commune with Him or putting confidence in finite human strength. Without such fervency words and works are against Christ, what is brought to the foundation is hay, wood and stubble, and lives are darkened by the shadow of sin uncheered by the light of Christ's presence, calling for separation from what corrodes the mind and spoils religious experience in order to make sure work for eternity while time passes.
Church Members and Gifts
Every member of the church has an appointed place of diligent, fervent service to the Lord, with different members fitted for different classes of work blending into a complete whole. As members of the heavenly family they help and strengthen one another in this service, keeping heaven in view and overcoming as Christ overcame. The diligence required is not careless or lazy work but earnest spiritual service in the work God assigns each person within the church. Differing gifts given according to grace are to be used faithfully, with no one counting a special gift above all others, but each gift connected with the gifts of others, each filling its place and all appreciated as essential for advancing God's cause. This variety of gifts is to be brought into the building of the temple of the Lord, each finding its proper place to grow into a holy temple, not shut up within self but loving one another as brethren with kindness and courtesy. Such service represents God and His cause in the midst of rebels and enemies by whom the will of God is neglected and His honor despised, in a crooked and perverse nation.
The work of God is to be carried on a higher plane, with all who hold position in the church acting as shepherds who represent the great Shepherd. Dominating, masterly working power that charges the Lord's people what they shall do and shall not do is not of God but another gospel, not the righteousness of Christ, a spoil to the church, and must no longer be allowed. The same failure appears in directing and controlling others, making rules and agreements and then failing to keep promises, changing and breaking them and promising without performing while still seeking more power and responsibility without practicing Christian principles. True industriousness and spiritual earnestness in serving the Lord rather than self is not measured by fluency, knowledge of grammar, or business ability, for God is not dependent on those things and cannot use the self-sufficient. It requires a humble and contrite heart willing to be molded, staying near the Saviour, closely yoked with Christ, and living by every word from God, so that diversity of gifts and many talents become a rich blessing to others, as shown when Christ chose fishermen who knew God.
The church must arise and shine with every member at his post of duty, becoming intelligent about talents and consecrating soul, body, and spirit to God to do the work given him, with no idlers in the Lord's vineyard. Those who fail to serve diligently and earnestly will be brought to account by God. God calls for staunch, loyal, and faithful workers who cannot be bought or sold, who are diligent and earnest rather than slothful, fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord under individual responsibility to God as a sacred trust.
Diligence, fervency, and service are required from publishing-house workers, sanitarium physicians and nurses, and ministers through converted intellects, daily converting power, and Christ dwelling within. This replaces cherishing inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong, ruling over one another, and living without repentance and daily conversion, and belongs to cautions and exhortations to be studied prayerfully to understand the gifts that make the church the light of the world. Professed religion requires diligence in daily work rather than idleness, including using the six working days productively and providing for one's family, so that a changed, diligent life stands as a practical witness to the world.
Paul's Manual Labor Example
Paul lived out diligence in work joined to fervor in spirit and service to the Lord in skilled, quick, thorough tentmaking. He labored together with Aquila and Priscilla at the trade, and did not count that time as lost or as inconsistent with preaching the gospel. His intelligent hand labor itself preached with his hands as truly as his voice preached, for he worked diligently and thoroughly while continuing to seek spiritual knowledge, witness for truth, and help others. Such labor shows that preaching the gospel excuses no one, not even a learned minister, from physical work, and that manual labor is not demeaning.
His ordinary toil gave him access to people he might not otherwise have reached and kept him in touch with the Great Teacher while he worked. It opened continual opportunities to witness, to help others, to give fellow laborers instruction in spiritual things, to educate believers in unity, and to hold prayer and praise meetings with those associated with him in the trade as a testimony to the value of truth. Skill in common work is a gift from God to be used wisely, and everyday toil done faithfully honors Him. That faithful, industrious work supported Paul himself without making him less fervent or less able in communicating the gospel, proving that business skill and manual labor do not weaken ministry but help bring people to the truth.
Callings in Daily Life
Ministers are to persist in Scripture study to make every moment fruitful, using time industriously and faithfully rather than idly in their calling. Diligence, fervor of spirit, and devotion to serving God are essential qualifications for ministry, and without them there is no duty to travel and preach. A minister must work faithfully in both public and social duties, persevering through toil, hardship and conflict, with no place for laziness, self-indulgence, carelessness, irreverence or half-heartedness. One whose influence has been injurious through opposition, envy, distrust and fanaticism, so the church cannot depend on him, does best to stay home and attend diligently to business instead of preaching and caring for the flock until he shows entire reform, conversion, victory over jealousy and thorough restitution. Faithful workers endure hardship, opposition, reproach and even death for Christ, and those unwilling or unfit to teach sacred truth should choose other work.
Businessmen become Christlike by letting Bible religion pervade business and transacting all affairs after God's methods, not from faulty disposition or unsanctified, ungoverned impulse. Diligence joined to fervor in serving Christ as Master requires holding fast integrity by grace at any cost, refusing to be bought or sold and refusing all confederacy with Satan's maxims of pretense and selfish gain. God's Word is the standard of duty so that every act is pure, honest, of good report and transparent, with no unholy practice, unsound custom, covetous deed or even appearance of evil, and houses and lands are rejected as the measure of character. Business is never an excuse to set religion aside, and faithful service excludes dishonesty, false representation and taking advantage of others, preserving moral integrity that can stand God's inspection. Gain through unjust management is not success or blessing, even one dollar gained by turning a stranger from his right, and increase not obtained by justice and equity in keeping the way of the Lord is a curse. True religion appears in words, deportment and every act, with faith and daily work going hand in hand and God's commandments kept strictly in worldly details, testing each task by God's will to please the Redeemer until every moment bears the impress of holy faith. If business presses too closely upon spiritual and eternal interests it must take its subordinate place, so believers walk in light heavenward as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
The call to be diligent rather than idle, earnest in spirit and serving the Lord applies with special urgency to united energetic sale and circulation of Christ's Object Lessons to free the schools from debt. Every branch of God's cause deserves such diligence, but this work deserves it most at the present time, with all putting shoulder to the wheel in earnest united effort to finish what is well begun. Everyone who possibly can is to join the workers, with each stroke telling for the Master. The words are to be taken as a motto repeated again and again for strength in duty when going forth, bracing for duty by earnest prayer and expecting the Lord's help as laborers together with God.
God's servants must combine vigilant waiting with vigilant working, not living a merely quiet, prayerful, meditative religion but being living, wide-awake, energetic, fervent Christians filled with zeal to give the blessings of truth to others. They keep the lamp of the soul trimmed and burning while seeking, praying for and laboring for souls who need light, communicating truth by earnest faithful effort and doing everything without delay through appeals and fervent prayer to save sinners. All powers are to be given to His service, every opportunity improved to increase usefulness in religious lines, especially in working earnestly and wisely for the proclamation of the third angel's message, instead of losing precious opportunities while Satan works to hold them back. Those who have had light flashing on their pathway for years must put it to use instead of standing idle, letting it shine on others who have truth to receive, keeping judgment in view and learning the effect of speech upon those met there. Active disciples both hear and do Christ's words in consecrated devotion to work God's works, receiving new life from heaven, and through such servants the Lord can do great things even with simple instrumentalities in the hastening time of peril when fair-weather disciples will not answer. Every church member possessing true godliness and knowledge of the Word may become a working agency laboring with dignity and confidence yet humble dependence.
In publishing and institutional work, active energy must be governed by serving the Lord rather than self, with God as supreme counselor and manager and His honor as chief concern. This rule extends wherever the work extends, including the General Conference, forbidding self-service in God's cause. Those engaged in any department of God's work have responsibility as real as ministers preaching the gospel, and God calls for unselfish diligent workers whom He blesses. Missionary activity is not truly fruitful when driven by a self-governed spirit rather than the Spirit of Jesus, for outward busyness must be joined to a Christlike spirit and respect for sacred work. Those in important positions need Jesus and must take time to watch and pray to stay earnest in spirit, assuring themselves of His presence and counseling with Him about the work placed in their hands as Enoch did, rather than gathering business to the soul and leaving Christ out for lack of time or violating conscience by trusting finite human strength.
Self-denying sacrifice belongs to diligence and fervor, denying ease and self-gratification, staying ready at home or abroad, and watching for every opportunity to sacrifice for God's cause and do good to others. Those with no property but strength of body are accountable to God for strength and must be diligent and fervent in advancing the cause, not leaving sacrifice to those with possessions. They are to spend less on the body and on gratifying tastes and appetites in order to spare much for the cause and lay up treasure in heaven, for giving that puts self first and then does for the cause only what can be done as well as not is lame and unacceptable. Time is not one's own but belongs to God by purchase, and Christians as soldiers bought at a price must always be at their post, overcoming love of ease with a spirit of sacrifice in remembrance of what Jesus suffered. Taste for frivolous things, useless ornaments and worldly habits is to be resisted, turning time, strength and money from self-indulgence into channels that glorify God by relieving the poorly clad, hungry, naked and suffering and spreading present-truth literature.
In family life diligence, spiritual earnestness and service to the Lord require charitable Christlike forbearance and mutual regard between husband and wife. A father and minister must not love ease but work with painstaking diligence, constant effort, constant watchfulness and fervent spirit in duty to children, devoting sufficient time to family prayer with the whole household present. He acts as house-band and priest centering the family, offering morning and evening sacrifice with confession of known and secret sins and united praise, diligently teaching truth and God's commandments when rising and sitting and going out and coming in, keeping the mind uplifted in a praying mood. Persistent watchfulness and earnest prayer without relaxing are required, for defective education that indulges passion and leaves disobedience unpunished leaves youth not religiously inclined. Sloth in business condemns careless slack conduct in temporal affairs, since indolence in practical work also appears in church duties and hinders spiritual service, while diligence, energy, perseverance and willingness to exert oneself are needed in both, lest love of fiction absorb the mind, spoil fitness for work and lessen relish for God's Word.
Young people and students must work diligently and wholeheartedly in whatever occupation they enter, serving the Lord through faithful work, for idleness and careless effort are the opposite of faithful stewardship. They are to unite physical labor with study, cultivate personal piety instead of devotion only to books, cooperate with God, bear responsibility and keep the heart with diligence in common everyday duties, so as to become dependable in emergencies as diligent workers and vigilant watchers. They must not be idle or fail to strive against wrong habits, but renounce evil habits and associations at every step, trusting the Lord's Spirit for strength, with earnest prayer shown by vigorous effort to obey God's commands. Diligence is joined to rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, instant prayer, care for saints and hospitality, with brotherly love preferring one another in honor and cultivating affection for parents and brethren. Eternal interests must not be sacrificed for studies and applause, growing less in divine life while seeking to excel through Satan's sophistry, nor must fiction spoil fitness for work. Diligent useful service to Christ guards against temptation, whereas idleness, games, parties and pleasure gatherings open avenues to it, and consecrated persevering use of every capability for God's glory brings eternal reward.
Readiness means departing from all iniquity, putting off darkness and being clothed with righteousness, living prepared to meet the Lord since no one knows when probation closes and refusing to remain sinful and defiled. Obedience brings praise to God and enables Him to work mightily, while unbelieving, unconverted, unsanctified members weaken the church, stand in their own light and remain captive to the deceiver. Professors of Christ must leave sin behind and show faithful obedient zeal as soldiers of Christ ready to meet Him.
Faithful earnest labor is a wise and perfectly safe investment with valuable profit and no danger of failure, securing treasure in heaven and title to eternal life. Duty at the post is to be done every time regardless of feelings, impulse, wishes or ease, enduring hardness as soldiers of the cross following the Captain without the camp bearing reproach. This includes ruling with diligence, giving with simplicity, showing mercy with cheerfulness, loving without dissimulation, abhorring evil, cleaving to good, rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to saints and showing hospitality. Labor with eyes fixed on the prize is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, working without expecting reward in this life or having every obstacle removed, becoming free and joyous by conversion and consenting to Christ's yoke of obedience and service until difficulties are removed and murmurings stilled. Eager active service is the life insurance policy securing a portion in the city of God, a welcome by Christ and a crown of life never taken away except by personal choice, gained by obedience to all God's law rather than feeding the mind on novels and stories that teach nothing of eternal life.
Serving the Lord brings religion into business life through steady energy in business joined to deep interest in spiritual things, influencing others by word and example toward the same diligence and fervor. It means laboring together with God to build His work and leading youth to Jesus as opportunity offers, rather than mingling amusement with labor or spending work time in talk and amusing stories, lest God-given opportunities for spiritual influence be lost. Faithfulness belongs in everyday details, with industry and zeal in appointed duties, using a farm or business as God's property wisely to advance His cause, blessing others, keeping the mind on heavenly things and spreading light. Sabbath-school workers serve with strong faith, warm sympathy and unselfish sacrifice for conversion and training of youth, and all are to do their utmost with earnestness without boasting, teaching accountability to God. Prompt decisive action at the right time in God-given circumstances brings success, while delay and neglect bring failure and dishonor, and holy purpose inspires unity, hope and eagerness where indifference fosters carelessness, idleness and love of pleasure.
Diligence rather than laziness with fervent spirit applies to every branch of the work and especially to canvassers. It means resolutely employing time to earn increase for the treasury, doing one's utmost with earnestness, and becoming efficient in every line as producers willing to learn and take hold wherever called. A true worker is not indolent but serves willingly with humble heart, free from jealousy and selfishness.