A Story

Tom, who owns a business asks Jim to work for him. Tom promises weekly pay, health insurance, a pension plan, and a bonus on retirement, if Jim works steady for Tom, until Tom decides to retires Jim.

Jim agrees to work for Tom. Jim starts working, then starts to take off from work whenever he feels like it. Jim also starts to steal from Tom as well, and starts refusing to do the work Tom demands of him. Jim drives away customers, makes fun of Tom, and finally stops going in to work at all.

Jim still tells people that he works for Tom and has good pay and a great retirement plan. Jim says that he may not get the bonus at the end, but that's OK because he is getting everything else and still does as he pleases. Jim sends a lot of people to Tom, telling the people he sends that they too can do nothing and still receive a retirement. Jim tells people that Tom is obligated, and so everything is guaranteed.

If you were Tom, would you continue to give Jim a paycheck every week? Would you give him health insurance? And after a number of years, would you give Jim a pension for the rest of his life?

As Tom, you have Never given Any of these things to anyone who had not accepted your employment offer.

Is Jim right, is it true that because Jim worked for Tom for just one day that he is now entitled to collect years of pay, insurance and a pension? For one days work? Lets be honest, If you were Tom, would you really pay Jim for not working for you? Or would you fire Jim and put him back on the street with no pay of any kind?

If this was your business, what would you do??

In this parable, the employer, Tom, is representative of God. The weekly pay is fellowship with God. The health insurance is God's divine healing of our bodies. The pension plan is entrance into heaven. The bonus is the crown with jewels on it, and a mansion to live in for all of eternity. The work is spreading God's Word so that it will bring more souls to God.

Now God's Word, the Bible, tells us that God gives none of these to those who will not serve Him. Those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ. God's Word repeatedly refers to those who are faithful and profitable as the only ones who will receive.

Those who stop serving any employer, stops being paid, and those who come in and sit down instead of working are fired, thrown out, because they are unprofitable. Scripture tells us that the unprofitable (unfruitful) servant will be fired, thrown out into outer darkness, or into the fire.

Be warned, there has never, never, never, been a free lunch. A price must always be paid. And while we can never pay for God's gift of salvation, the gift is free, Jesus hung on the cross for us, but God does demand obedience to all that He commands us to do as the price we pay for all that He has promised us. The Bible shows us that throughout history, when man serves God, God showers all of his promises on the ones who serve Him. But whenever man stops serving God, God then takes away everything from him until he returns and start serving Him again.

How then can man reject all that God's Word tells us in favor of selecting just a few verses from God's Word and building your belief about God on just those few verses? That is just the thing that Jesus told the Pharisees they were doing, and if they didn't start doing it right, that they would not enter into heaven. Don't be like the Pharisees, don't be like Jim. Serve Our Lord God until HE retires us, then every promise will be made good.

The end

Rev. Jack Barr