In the New Testament the notion of a vocation (or being "called" to do something) has an added dimension. The primary sense is the job of helping in the furtherance of the gospel. Your "work" may be as an evangelist. Mine may be as a teacher, or as a prophet. Paul was called to be "a servant of Jesus Christ," and he exercised this vocation by going from place to place preaching, teaching, and writing letters. At the same time he had a means of livelihood, tentmaking, which he pursued to keep himself financially solvent and able to do his other job. But his main work was to bring the "good news" to people. In all of this, he was only making himself available to be used by God. What he accomplished was not to his credit, but to God's greater glory. As he says to the obstreperous Corinthians:
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For we are fellow workmen for God; you are God's field, God's building ( I Cor. 3: 6-9).
The New Testament word for "calling" is, significantly, from the same Greek root as the word "church." The Greek word for church (ekklesia, from which we get "ecclesiastical") means literally those who are "called out," or set apart from the rest of the world. Your "calling" is fulfilled within the fellowship of those who are "called out."
Now this does not mean that regular, ordinary jobs are unimportant. Writing to the Thessalonians (who could be just as obstreperous as the Corinthians), Paul faces the problem that a lot of Christians, expecting the immediate return of the Lord, have stopped working. Paul strongly condemns this:
We hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living ( II Thess. 3: 11, 12).
For those who will not follow this advice there is a short, succinct formula: "If any one will not work, let him not eat" ( II Thess. 3: 10).
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