We look at more Proverbs (as a continuation of our previous study) to help us to understand our work and our attitude towards work. For the Christian, every moment of our lives is lived in wisdom. While we dwell in a fallen world, God knows how we struggle and He has equipped us in Proverbs to guide how we live our lives.
WORK THAT PURSUES GODLY SELF-CONTROL
In the Pixar hit movie “Inside-Out”, audiences are treated to the view of the Self which is controlled and run by a group of bickering emotions. In other words, the selves in the Self control the Self. What about you? Do you have self-control?
Proverbs 25:28 describes a man without self-control to a “city broken into and left without walls”, stressing the importance of self-control This is a picture of a city that has been overrun by the enemy, and where now no defences exist. It is utterly vulnerable to any thought and reactive to any situation.
In the proverb before, Proverbs 25:27, one who overeats too much of a good thing — honey – is a good illustration of the man with no self-control. He is paired with the man who pursues his own glory – another man unable to control himself
Why are we unable to control ourselves? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful. This is the claim the Bible makes about all our hearts that runs contrary to what the world thinks about the goodness of human nature – we are sinners, this is true..
According to Proverbs 4:23, the heart is the seat of our desires and from where we engage with reality in our decision-making. Sociologists have described the era that we live in as the age of authenticity and the pursuit of expressive individualism, where every individual is in pursuit of inner actualisation, where our emotions and inner realities take precedence of outer realitoes. When there is a disconnect between how we feel with the outside world, we have been tutored to insist that the outer world must change to suit our interior.
Yet Christian thought, from these verses contradicts this view of the world in stressing the importance of self-control. Biblical self-control is the ability to steer ourselves and get ourselves in hand. Self-control, therefore, is really important because for the Christian, we understand that we are not our best counsellor and advisor and we should not be left to our own devices. The advice we give ourselves is usually not the best because we can’t see ourselves truly or fairly. We tend to be hard on others and easy on ourselves when we should actually do the reverse. Thus, self-control often feels unnatural and we certainly do not find it easy.
What does self-control have to do with work? At work we are forced to ask what what our intentions and efforts are, and what our goals areIn other words, all of work requires some self-control as we apply a self-directedness and intentionality to our tasks, plans and pursuits.
Besides the self, what else could we be controlled by? The proverbs show us at least three alternatives: first, we could be controlled by vainglory or the need for power, to achieve a certain influence, to prove or be seen as something impressive (Prov 25:27-28).
Second, from Proverbs 29:11, we see that our own fleshly desires, evidenced by the venting of the spirit could also control us. Such desires could tend towards a greed for money, lust for sexual appetite, or seeking violent retribution in the name of justice, for instance.
Third, we could also be controlled by laziness (Prov 26:11-16). From these verses, we see the extent of this laziness — an unwillingness to leave one’s home (on the pretext that there is a lion in the streets), feed one’s self or even leave one’s bed (Prov 26:13-15). Notice that this laziness is also mixed with pride and a refusal to heed counsel (Prov 26:16). The persistence and insistence in his own ways is arrogant and prideful, like the dog that returns to his vomit (Prov 26:12). The illustration suggests that the individual knows that things are not working out, but we go back to it again and again. Are you doing this in your life – returning to what you know to be folly? One way to counter this is to have people in your life authorised to correct you Find such people who can speak the truth to you and allow them to tell you without justification or equivocation.
So what does godly self-control look like? Romans 8:9 speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in us if we have been born again, and we are under His control now. Those who have been regenerated by the Spirit know that they have a new self that has been born again and live to a holy God daily, and another self that needs to be put to death daily. The two selves present an ongoing tension in the regenerate Christian. Have you been born again? It is impossible to be a Christian and continue living for yourself.
Self-control is also the Christian’s daily life. That is why it is the final part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). We are constantly offering ourselves to Jesus and put ourselves to death. This also applies to our work!
When you are seated at your computer replying that email, your heart might be tempted to laziness and say “there is a lion in the street”. Or we may be tempted to procrastinate or defer it to someone else. Who has control over you at the moment?When you are praised at work, and you agree with it, who has your heart at the moment? Or when your colleague gets commended, and your heart says that it should have been yours, who is controlling your heart?
Let us not dichotomise the work that we do at our jobs and the Christian service we render to God in worship or at the weekend. The person that stands before God on Sunday in worship is the same person who writes the submission on Monday.
And so it should be in difficult moments of our lives. When the promotion passes us by. Or when the correction comes and you feel like your sense of self is crushed. These are the moments that we need to pursue godly self-control. We are to put up the walls of the city as we practice self-control. Be secure and safe in the control of God’s Spirit. Do not go to work without your God, without the godly self-control you need, for then you are like the city without walls. Our hearts will be prone to greed, pride and sluggardness if none of it is defended.
WORK THAT PLANS AND PREPARES
In Proverbs 24:27, we read: “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” This Scripture urges us to think about what we are doing before we start doing it, and to make preparations so the work can proceed and succeed. A person with no self-control cannot even begin to prepare, because the person has no intentionality and is at the mercy of circumstances, reacting to things. Thuswork must come with planning and preparation ahead of time.
This teaching is reinforced in Proverbs 27:23-27, where we find instructions to know the condition of our flocks and to give attention to our herds (Prov 27:23) for riches do not last forever (Prov 27:24). Wisdom is aware of the present and what the conditions of the day are. If we know the quality of our lambs and goats, it helps prepare for the future — so we can provide food and maintenance for our dependents (Prob 27:25-27).
Does it surprise you that the Bible does call us to plan and prepare? It doesn’t give us spiritual mystic instruction – to pray and wait for things to happen. No, Scripture constantly insists on the cooperative nature of God’s Providence. While we must work, things aren’t done entirely on the basis of our labours. The Bible is clear that a sovereign God makes the sun rise and rain fall for the crops to grow. We have to tend to the ground in work. We must trust also God, while we planning and working. We must know our assets, understand the situation and make future preparations though we know that the future is not in our hands. Living in in a fallen world means human efforts might even fail to bear the fruit that we desire, and yield thorns and thistles instead.
We need to know this to be wise Christians. We must plan and prepare in a way that pleases God. James 4:15 is a verse that teaches how we should speak and pray about our daily work: “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” This is a verse we need to reject atheistic, proud presumption, and cling to trust in a sovereign God. So stick it somewhere in your work cubicle.
WORK OUT OF CONTENTMENT
Proverbs 27:1-2 describes for us behaviours that are discouraged. This includes: boasting about tomorrow (Prov 27:1). The speaker is likely referring to one who thinks that life is always going to be good and that favorable, fortunate circumstances will always be there. (c.f. Jas 4:15) The plans that he has for tomorrow drive his optimism.
Yet he does not realise “for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov 27:1). The speaker is not hedging, but is eager to remind us that we cannot see past our own heads and we ought to have a realistic view of ourselves and our limitations. We cannot even make tomorrow come. Know that there is a God in heaven who makes all things happen and we can’t control Him. No man can make God his debtor.
Have we prayed to God to ask Him to make our work day good? Instead, pray that if the Lord wills, may it run smoothly, but all to His glory.
We are encouraged to let others praise you and not your own mouth (Prov 27:2). We are not being shamed for praising ourselves. The greatest danger of our self-praise is that we start to believe that we’re really praiseworthy! Instead, the stranger observes us with distant objectivity and his praise is more real.
Why? We actually know very little about ourselves!
It is helpful for us to also read Proverbs 30:7–9 in complement, which says, “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
Here, the writer prays and asks that God secure him in faithfulness by giving him neither poverty nor riches. He foresees two situations: where he is full,successful and then tempted to deny God or being poor and stealing, and thus profaning the name of God.
This is a prayer for contentment, to see the world from God’s perspective. It is a prayer to see that what I have, my lot in life, is good and enough because God is wise and knows what I need. This is a staggering prayer because it requires us to have a heart that is different from the world.
Do you think about riches and poverty in this way? Do you see why godly self-control is so important? As Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:6, godliness with contentment is great gain. It provides an entirely different view of life itself. Will you be satisfied not with what God has given, but with God Himself?
What will happen to our work if we showed up without contentment? We would be controlled by striving ambition, controlled by greed and fear and easily tempted to act in dishonest, unethical ways. Let us examine our hearts as we think about work.
WORK WITH INTEGRITY
Proverbs 20:9-11 speaks of the need to think about work with integrity. Contrary to what most people think, the Bible doesn’t just tell us to “do the right thing” and then summon up the willpower to do it. What keeps us from doing the right thing is not our weak wills or a lack of determination If we think this way, we may our failure to do right may lead su to embrace feelings of guilt as failures, and we could end up running from the church. Instead, Proverbs 20:9 tell us that the reason why our conduct is bad and fail, is because we are sinners and our hearts are already out of shape. It is not because we don’t try hard enough. Neither is it because we didn’t resolve hard enough. No one can cleanse us from our own sins at the heart level.
Proverbs 20:10 speaks of what it looks like to work unjustly manipulating unequal weights and measures to cheat others in our dealings. Both dishonest acts are an abomination to the Lord. God Himself takes an offence! Thus, we need an integrated approach to work, all f lfe, and faithf itself. God cares about how we work, and whether we sin at work for He is a holy and upright God.
It is through our conduct that who we are is revealed. So, how do we find integrity at work? God has to come in to give us new hearts, integrated with a new self, and our conduct will change. God has to rip out the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. He has to give us a new life. That can only happen in Jesus Christ. His death is what gives us new life. His condemnation gives us a chance to live again. Because of Jesus, everything can change. This is what the resurrection is all about. Because Jesus broke out of that tomb, in Christ, we are no longer limited by ourselves and at the end of our hoarded resources. He has so much more to share! If you are a Christian today, your new life, lived as a Christian because of Jesus, is marked by a new heart with new desires that want to please Him.
Chrisitian integrity then is more than moral superiority or excellence. Integrity is the completeness, wholeness, fullness and is not divided. Integrity is the life that says “godly self-control have me, not sin, not sluggardness”. It is a life that seeks to do the best at work and seeks to conduct the self uprightly because we bear His name, and not for ours. It is important to live an integrated life where our faith and our work are one and not segmented! Life either belongs to Jesus or it does not. Does He have the right to claim it, unfold His will and mess it up according to His will, or He does not? Friends, we need to be clear about who we are in relation to Jesus. There are only 2 ways to live. How are you living today? If you are unsure about your answer, we encourage you to talk to a trusted Christian friend or your church’s pastor.
As we read these Proverbs and the other passages in this series, what is God saying to you through His word? More specifically from these verses in Proverbs, how do you see the impact of your sin at work - how do you need to grow in godly self-control? How does planned and prepared work honor and please God and not just my employer? Are you content in the Lord and working with integrity? How do you know?