The field is the world...

Workplace violence... I am never surprised when I read about it. Never excusable, but sadly, I understand it.

I have worked jobs that were dreadfully boring, physically demanding, jobs that I hated... I was there because I had to be, because that was what was available. That most around me felt the same way made it even more special.

No matter how your day started, it just took punching in and hooking up with a few coworkers. Nothing was ever the way it should have been. The foreman was a sellout; or the boss's cousin; he always knew less than we did about how to do our jobs. The suits were there to make money. Period. The slightest slights among coworkers turned into a roomful of nuclear warheads armed and ready. And you could pretty well count on tomorrow being as bad as today.

How are things in God's workplace?

The answer may include the general state of affairs in the church where you attend, but that would be an incomplete answer. Jesus said, “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom” (Mt 13:38) Christians understand that our place of employment is the world.

Do we facilitate a healthy workplace environment? There is a lot that we are not accountable for... things that are completely out of our control. But: how we, as God's spokespersons, relate to the world around us is contagious. We will either dishearten and warp our precious coworkers or encourage them to keep on loving Jesus and talking the Gospel.

“Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, [but] gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” (Tit 3:1-2)

The Apostle Paul warns us “to speak evil of no man” (Tit 3:2)

We like verse 5, about how we are saved, not by our own efforts, but by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. What we overlook is the direct cause and effect between being renewed by the Holy Spirit and being gentle and kind to others... ALL others. ALL here includes politicians. It includes the president of your country. 

The duty of Christian conduct towards all men is the proper consequence of the universality of God's grace to all men. (JFB)

Such irony. I am the apolitical one, the one who feels little affinity for one country over another in the grand scheme of things. And here I am asking others to be respectful and meek and gentle to those in power... ALL of them.

As a citizen of the United States, I have the right to free speech... a very real privilege. As a citizen of a much higher country, though, I wonder if I should exercise that right in the same manner and spirit as do others who may not belong to God. Inalienable rights established by a country's constitution do not supersede God's command to exercise gentleness, meekness and kindness to all, regardless of who or what they are, or whether their favorite color is red or blue.

Is talking politics and politicians some sort of a licit, "gentle-free" zone... where a kind of sanctified bad-mouthing is allowed?  I think we should shed the pretense of "sanctified".

Gentle here means: "yielding, considerate, not urging one's rights to the uttermost, but forbearing and kindly...Very different from the...spirit of aggression towards others... JFB

NEWSFLASH: Did you know that the world is in bad shape and getting worse? Nearly 2000 years ago, the Apostle John wrote that the whole world lies in wickedness. (1Jn 5:19) When has that ever NOT been true?

People who do not know God will act badly... wickedly... cruelly. Yet we act surprised when they do.

What are we going to do about it? Muddy the waters with more defamatory commentary? Make it harder for people that need Jesus to find Him? Discredit our cause? Nudge the impressionable into a deeper negativity... towards a paranoia that mutates into polarization and unlove... long before an opportunity to present the Gospel materializes?

Is that how the "good seed" operates in God's workplace?

Our steady "it's-bad-and-getting-worse" palaver feels more like a form of workplace violence. It is contagious. It foments nonthink, caricature, gut-reactions. There is something about defamation, ridicule, running down, pointing out faults and shining a light on scandal that we should never forget:

We don't need to be Christians - we don't need the power of the Holy Spirit - to do ANY of that.

“And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2Co 5:18)

-------