Tag: duty

We are to occupy

One of the most difficult of Christ’s parables is found Luke 19, the Parable of the Minas (also spelled maneh. A maneh of gold was worth more than 102 pounds.). Basically, an incredibly wealthy ruler is called away. Before he departs, he calls his servants and gives them each a portion of his wealth to invest on his behalf.

Those who generated a profit were rewarded accordingly. The one who sat on the money instead of investing it was stripped of all he possessed.

What’s the point of the story? It’s found in verse 13. Occupy until I come.

When my kids were growing up, any time they complained they were bored, my wife would give them a chore to do, just to keep them occupied and out of her hair. My mother would tell me to find something to occupy my time. Both these are good examples of how we have distorted the true meaning of the word occupy. It originally meant something quite different.

The word occupy was originally a military term. It still is. An occupying army is one that has taken its objective, captured territory, and digs in. It is entrenched… literally. It’s always ready to defend its position, always in full armor, and always ready to go on the offensive at a moment’s notice. It works hard to keep and expand its territory.

The NKJV doesn’t use the word occupy, but instead reads “do business until I come.” This is more accurate. This is the intention of the speaker in the parable.

The parable is supposed to teach us two obvious things. First, we have but one life and we should use it to diligently work for our Master. Secondly, we do that work because our reward in heaven will be proportionate with our devotion to Him.

To say that Christ intended that we draw parallels from the military meaning of the word occupy, as we noted above, would be a distortion of Scripture, but it is interesting to note that an analysis of the word is not in conflict with the portrayal of a Christian as a soldier in the Army of The Kingdom of Heaven. This is perhaps why the word was used by early translators of the Bible.

An old hymn makes my point better than I ever could…

O land of rest, for thee I sigh!

When will the moment come

When I shall lay my armor by

And dwell in peace at home?
We’ll work till Jesus comes,

We’ll work till Jesus comes,

And we’ll be gathered home.

– Elizabeth K. Mills

John Allen Mathews was a preacher when he was a young man in the 1830s. In fact, he preached the Gospel to the Osage Nation. Later, he married an Osage woman and settled on the reservation where he went so far as to build a church on his ranch and held services for all who wished to attend, Osages, mixed-bloods, whites, and blacks.

John Mathews was also a slave owner, like his father, and grandfathers for generations. In 1861 Mathews led a raid against a Union town in southeast Kansas. He was subsequently hunted down and killed by a force led by Col. James Blunt, an abolitionist, a Christian, and a doctor who had recently settled in Kansas. I have never understood what turns neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and Christian against Christian.

I researched the lives of Mathews and Blunt and several other key players in the story for over twenty years hoping to gain insight into their thinking and discover the reason that seemingly good Christians get swept up in the currents of social and political drama. It is especially fascinating to me that there seem to be devout Christians on both sides of such issues.

I could have saved myself countless hours of research by simply waiting twenty years, for we see the same sort of political and social divide today that we read about during the Civil War.

There were millions like Mathews in the Civil War, Christians who pitted themselves against other Christians. Likewise, millions of Christians today take determinedly polarizing positions against their spiritual brothers and sisters; the similarity between 2016 and 1856 is incredibly frightening.

I find myself fighting against the currents of social and political extremism. As a conservative I wonder how anyone can call themselves a good Christian and align on the opposite side, just like I wonder how John Mathews could have been both a slaveholder and a Christian, but I refuse to let the cause of social conservatism take priority over my relationship with God.

It is difficult to temper myself, to remain rational. I unflinchingly stand for right, yet I realize it is not my place to criticize, name-call, or make an enemy of those with whom I disagree.

Here is my place, my duty as a Christian in these trying times: it is my duty to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Secondly, I am to love even those I consider wrong, just as i love myself. Thirdly, I am to pray for those same folks. They seem impossible, these tasks. But they are not requests; they are commandments.

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; – Matthew 5:43-45a

We’ll Work…

The Greatest Commandment: my personal challenge to love and not condemn others