PROMISES OF GOD TO HIS WORKERS
A worker is he who carries out work. Work, in its turn, is the whole of the actions performed by somebody, something or a phenomenon (natural, social, psychological) with a certain result in sight.
Transposing this word to the spiritual area, we understand that a "worker" is everyone who carries out the work of God here on Earth. All who receive Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives submit themselves to the situation of servants. The servants obey the will of their Lord, acting to carry out what has been designated for them, therefore all are "workers".
At the end of the "Olivet discourse", two days before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus told a parable which, although told in the context of the final days before His second coming and the selection of those who will participate in His millennial kingdom, illustrates the Christian worker well. It is the "Parable of the Talents" found in Matthew 25:14 to 28, in which three servants of a lord, who was departing on a journey, received a sum of money each in proportion to their ability, in order to trade and produce profit for him.
The Lord Jesus is at present physically away, and also distributes responsibilities corresponding to the abilities of each one of His workers. It is common to confuse the "talents", a measure of currency used in the parable, with natural or acquired qualities, such as physical or mental abilities which we also call "talents". These qualities are what constitute the "abilities of each one", and it is in proportion to them that the responsibilities are distributed, the "talents" of the parable.
When the lord of the parable returned, he called his servants to account, and verified that the two who had received more to work with had worked well and obtained good results, proportional to the sums they had received. They effectively demonstrated they were true "servants" because they did what their lord had told and were successful.
One day the workers will have to give account to the Lord Jesus of the manner in which they carried out the tasks assigned to their responsibility. Will they have been diligent in His work, in the opportunities offered to them, with love and dedication, thus having something positive to show when the Lord returns? The more they will have involved themselves with in the Lord's work, more responsibilities will be entrusted to them: "For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance …". They will finally be honoured with the approval of the Lord, and rewarded with their appointment to something more important: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the joy of your lord." (Matthew 25:23).
In the parable there is a serious warning to the false workers, who are like the third servant of the parable, who did nothing beyond burying what he had received. He proved that in truth he did not love his lord, for he did nothing for his benefit and even insulted him when he came to give account. If, at least, he had deposited the money with the bankers, he would have received it back with interest and would have been approved.
If a worker really loves the Lord and feels incapable of taking on a responsibility, he at least has the opportunity of giving his financial support and so on to others who can use it for the Lord. As an example, we can mention several forms of support to missionary work, evangelisation, and others.
The wicked and lazy servant of the parable is a symbol of those who only profess to be of Christ, but in reality were never converted, in reality do not love Him and want to do nothing for Him, they even resent Him. They will be severely reprimanded by the Lord as useless servants, and condemned to hell.
The work of the Lord sometimes seems disappointing. The worker gets tired and sees little result, sometimes even none. How he would like to see souls coming to hear the Gospel, and receiving gladly the good news of salvation! But there is little interest, the enemy seems to prevail, the temptation to give up is great. But the Lord promises, in the words of Paul: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 15:58). Our work for the Lord, be it what it may, never will be in vain if it is done in His will. The result will be positive, even when we cannot see it before us.
God never forgets our work, and the love we show towards His name, in anything we do for Him, and for the well-being of the other workers, or saints: "For God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister." (Hebrews 6:10). All and anything we may do for the good of the work of Christ, such as financial contributions, sacrifices of prayer, dedication of time for encouragement, comfort and admonishment, accommodation, and much more - all will be recorded in the infallible memory of God. All is service to be rendered revealing our love and dedication to the name of God, and of His Beloved Son, and is never useless.
There will be a reward for every worker in proportion with his own work: "Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labour." (1 Corinthians 3:7-8). To plant and to water are different functions in a garden, and Paul here states that neither he, the preacher of the Gospel, nor Appolos, the teacher to the new converted, were important on their own, for it was God who gave the increase. The two are a unit, because without planting nothing sprouts, and without watering nothing survives. Each worker does his part and will receive a reward according to what his work deserves. This applies to all that is done in the work of Christ, where there are many workers, each one doing his part.
We find nowhere any teaching that a worker will receive a reward relating to the work of another, for example, a brother who prays and financially contributes towards the work of another worker directly involved in a missionary work is not responsible nor will be rewarded according to what the work the other does merits. Each is a worker, servant of the Lord, and his reward has to do exclusively with his own work, as we saw above.
Certain workers, in the desire to dedicate their full time to the work of God, give up secular work and its remuneration. Their sustenance should come firstly from those who are benefited by their ministry (1 Corinthians 9:14). But many do not make use of this entitlement, following Paul's example, in order to present the Gospel freely, becoming dependent entirely on the provision of God. Sometimes, like Paul, they find remunerated work in their area of activity, other times they count on the contribution of those of the people of God who have the available resources and are moved to co-operate with their brethren "on the front line" in this way, which is the privilege of the Christian (2 Corinthians 8:7).
In short, all are fellow workers of the work of God, all their resources for the work proceed from Christ, and it is God who gives the increase. They will be personally judged by the manner in which they employed their resources. If they collaborated with other workers, no doubt the judgement will still be based on the value of their own collaboration, but they will not also account for the part which belonged to the others.
R David Jones