Pushing the New Testament Teaching

The New Testament does not give us specific answers to twentieth century problems of vocation, neatly laid out on a silver platter. But it does offer some basically sound principles. Let us see how our Protestant forefathers worked these out.

Here is what happened in the early centuries of the Church: The world was looked upon as so evil that, although the ordinary Christian might remain within the world and pursue his trade of butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, the really dedicated Christian would withdraw from the world and follow a specifically "religious" calling, entering a monastery. If you made a report card for various medieval friends of yours, this would be roughly the way it would come out:

John Smith, butcher C --
Father Jones, ordinary priest B
Abbot Doe, monk A

Now the Protestant Reformers changed all that. They cut across this distinction between "secular" and "sacred" vocations. They felt that this was God's world and that he wanted men to serve him within that world, not by withdrawing from that world. It was Luther's contention, for example, that the housemaid could serve God in her calling just as effectively as the nun could in hers; that the shoemaker could serve God in his calling just as effectively as the monk could in his. For Calvin, the entire world was to be a monastery, that is, a place where the life of service and praise of God could be lived to the full. From their standpoint, then, our report card would have to be revised so that potential grades would read thus:

John Smith, electrician A
Pastor Jones of the local church A
Professor Doe, theologian A

Thus Protestants believe that no one calling is intrinsically more sacred or "religious" than any other. It is not God's intention that everyone be a minister or a missionary or a director of religious education; God also "calls" people to carry out their Christian concern in politics, business, schoolteaching, and other professions. Such people can realize God's will in their vocations as they do their jobs with integrity. The first job of the lab technician who is a Christian is not to sing in the church choir; it is to do his experiments thoroughly, honestly, and scientifically. He must not do a shoddy job in the laboratory to get to choir practice on time.