An Approved Worker

Do you see your faith as work? Are you a worker of your faith? Are you working on your faith? Is the work you are doing approved by God? Are you a worker approved by God?

We have been saved by grace through faith, see Ephesians 2:8-9; however, our faith requires work.

Paul wrote the church in Ephesus saying, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Philippi expressing this truth when he said, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12, ESV).

Dallas Willard expressed this theological truth in The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, saying, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.”

While we do not work to earn our salvation, we do the work of our salvation as we obey God and as we do the work of our faith, living out the will of God, studying the word of God, and putting the word of God and our faith into practice in our daily lives.

This is why the Apostle Paul encouraged his young disciple Timothy with these words, saying, “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-15, ESV).

As workers approved by God, we are called to do the work God has called us to do by rightly understanding and applying God’s word to our lives. We are called to do the work of the faith by  knowing God’s word and by doing God’s word.

May we be workers approved by God as we study and rightly understand and apply God’s word in our lives as we do the work of the faith and as we live out our faith.

A Collect for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 23): “O God, our refuge and strength, true source of all godliness: Graciously hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).