HOW CAN I GLORIFY GOD IN MY VOCATION: 1 Corinthians 7:18-24
What do you spend most of your time doing? Your answer should be something like, “In my vocation.” Whether you are a homemaker or a breadwinner, it does not matter in this respect—you spend more time in your vocation than you do in anything else, even sleeping. The sad reality is that many Christians, it seems to me, have a low view of vocation and usually see it only as a means of making money. This is a travesty, because that means what professing believers spend a majority of their time doing is not regulated by God nor felt as though it matters to God.
Your vocational calling is about far more than financial provision. It is a means to glorify God by working hard, contributing to the good of others, providing, and by taking dominion in that particular assignment the Lord has providentially bestowed upon you.
The great truth is that God cares how you spend your time in your vocation, and He even gives us a tremendous amount of detail concerning how we can glorify Him in our vocations. God cares about your work every single day. I would encourage you to get Brandon’s forthcoming book. There is little today written about vocations, specifically with employees and employers and what God says to them, so Brandon wrote a book on it, gleaning from the Puritans and their spiritual descendants. But today, we will just be in our text of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 7:18-24.
DOCTRINE. You glorify God in your vocation when you labor to obey the commands of God in it, content with your assignment, and aiming to best serve Christ as His free slave.
I want to point out to you seven ways you glorify God in your vocation, and this assumes that you have a lawful vocation. If you are in some vocation that God says you should not be in via His Word, then you are not glorifying God in that vocation, but, rather, glorifying yourself. God may be using you as an instrument to do others good, but He even uses the wicked in that way. If you are not in a lawful vocation, warranted by Scripture, then you need to do an about-face. Examine yourself and the Scriptures and see if you are truly doing what God has assigned to you as a man or a woman, a husband or a wife, a father or a mother. Make certain you are in a lawful vocation and not kicking against the goads of the Scriptures while you chase your desires or what the world tells you is good. Here are seven ways you can glorify God in your lawful vocation:
I. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU LABOR TO OBEY THE MORAL LAW OF GOD IN IT. “Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God” (1 Cor. 7:18-19). Why do we not simply apply the Ten Commandments to vocational duties, seeing that the moral Law of God is summarily comprehended there? I encourage you to examine each pf the Ten Commandments and labor to apply them to your particular vocation. How can you obey each commandment, as God tells you to through Paul, in the context of your vocation? 1. Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.” 2. Exodus 20:4-6 “4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” 3. Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 4. Exodus 20:8-11 “8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 5. Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 6. Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” 7. Exodus 20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.” 8. Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.” 9. Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 10. Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” God’s moral Law is summarized in the Ten Commandments.
God’s moral Law, summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, shows you that you need Christ to save you; it shows you how to order societies; and it shows you how to live a life pleasing to God by the power of the Spirit, out of grateful joy for redemption in Christ. Therefore if you are going to live a life that most glorifies God and enjoys God, you need to memorize, learn, and apply the Ten Commandments to all aspects of life—individual, family, church, vocation, public square, civil government.
II. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU ARE CONTENT TO REMAIN IN THE LAWFUL VOCATION YOU WERE IN WHEN HE CONVERTED YOU. “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called” (1 Cor. 7:20). Matthew Poole commented, “The sense of the text is, that the profession of Christianity is consistent with any honest calling or course of life, and it is the will of God that Christians should not pretend their profession of religion, to excuse them from the duties of any relation wherein they are set.” Becoming a Christian does not require you to leave a lawful vocation. John Trapp wrote, “[Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called] and therein learn to ‘maintain good works,’ or to be their craftsmen, to excel in their profession.” Are you content in your vocation?
III. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOUR CHIEF AIM IS HOW TO BEST SERVE CHRIST IN YOUR VOCATION. “Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)” (1 Cor. 7:21). Christians should not be overly concerned with changing their outward circumstances. The chief aim and ask of a Christian in their vocation is “how can I best glorify God?” not “how can I best satisfy me?”
IV. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU LABOR AS ONE WHO IS FREE IN CHRIST. “For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:22a). Free from what? A Christian is free from the enslaving power of sin, the tyranny of the Devil, depending on their self-righteousness, the damnation of the Law, being controlled by man’s approval or rejection, fear of death, fear of the judgement, etc. Comfort yourselves with these truths, believers. What a privilege it is to be freedman of the Lord! Who cares what my servitude in this life might look like, I am free from my true enemies because Christ has loosed my chains my His blood. Are you free in Christ Jesus or are you still a slave to sin, the devil, etc.? “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8). Go to Christ in repentance and faith and He will set you free. You who are a freedman in the Lord, press on in faith rejoicing as you go.
V. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU LABOR AS ONE WHO IS A SLAVE OF CHRIST. “Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ” (1 Cor. 7:22b). QUESTION. What does it look like to be free in Christ and a slave of Christ at the same time? ANSWER 1. Saints have been set free from slavery to sin and Satan in order that they would serve the Lord Jesus Christ as His slave. You will be a slave, but who will be your Master? ANSWER 2. Saints have been set free from the damnatory power of the Law of God in order that they would delight in their duty to obey the Law of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God” (1 Pet. 2:16). Here is a wonderfully truth that the unconverted cannot wrap their minds around: Christ makes His people His slaves, and they love it. It is more honorable to be a slave of Christ than to be a king on the earth!
VI. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU LABOR AS ONE WHO HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY CHRIST. “You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men” (1 Cor. 7:23). Though I may be a slave to a man in my vocation, I must ultimately act like a slave of Christ, because He is the one who bought me with His precious blood. I must not be a man-pleaser in my vocation, I must be a Christ-pleaser. Concerning your vocation, believer, sing with the saints and angels, “Worthy are you…for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9-10). Think of the this when you go to the Lord’s Table, you saints!
VII. YOU GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR LAWFUL VOCATION WHEN YOU LABOR TO BRING GOD’S COMMANDS INTO YOUR VOCATION AND SO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE IS SOVEREIGN EVEN THERE. “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God” (1 Cor. 7:24). Thomas Boston said, “He that walks with God at all, will walk with him in his employment, of whatsoever sort it be: following it conscientiously, as under the eye of God.” Becoming a Christian does not require you to leave a lawful vocation, but it does require you to take God and His Law into your vocation.
CONCLUSION. Let me ask you to seriously consider the vocation you are currently in. Is it a lawful vocation? If not, get out of it and get in a vocation that will honor God. However, if your vocation is a lawful one according to the Scriptures, are you obeying the commands of God in it? Are you content? Are you best serving Christ there, or do you need to avail yourself of another vocation so you can better serve Jesus? Are you laboring as one who is free in Christ? Are you laboring as one who is a slave of Christ? Are you laboring as one who has been purchased by Christ and therefore not being a man-pleaser? Are you bringing God’s commands into your vocation and acknowledging He is sovereign even there? May God gives us the grace to each be able to say yes to these things.