Calling, Career, and God's Glory

Justin Taylor had a posting on Piper's pre-pastorate years and his calling to move from serving as a seminary professor to a church minister. Here is the highlight, which I think is key in helping all of us, clergy or otherwise, to make career-related decisions or even any major decision in our lives.

One of the ways God has said to me “Move Piper,” is this: when I read Philippians 1:19-26, there is in me a tremendous longing. Last October it became an irresistible longing to be an instrument in God’s hands to fulfill these goals in a local church.

At this point in my life I say, and I believe God is saying to me, “The potential, Piper, for magnifying me is greater now in the pastorate than in the professorship.” That’s why the move. When I become a pastor, I am going to have one all-encompassing goal, a very simple goal, that in nothing I might be ashamed but that in everything I might magnify Christ whether by life or by death.

If we believe that, as Wolterstorff wrote in his book Until Justice and Peace Embrace, "A career turned toward this world with God behind one’s back is not inferior to a career turned toward God", then it does not matter what career choice we take in this life as long as its major activities in that career are not evil. The key question for us then (as Piper showed above) is which career magnifies God in a greater way. If our career is a means to response to the larger-than-life call of God then we should prayerfully deliberate on the career that will make God's glory be manifested in its brightest spark through our temporary life.

Seeing Glory, Experiencing Joy

Our family bible study group recently started the expository bible study on the epistle of 1 John. Here is my take on the first four verses.

Our Christian faith can only be genuine if we experience the joy that results from seeing God's glory in Christ
1 John 1:1-4

I was intrigue to read John used a different word (theaomai) in the phrase "we looked upon" (1 John 1:1), which is distinct from the word (horao) used in the phrase "we have seen", precisely in the same verse? Why didn't he use horao for the fourth time? What is so special about theaomai?

A simple search using KJV's Strong Number which is available online tells me that the word 'theaomai' (which for untrained ear sounds like Siomay) actually means: "to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate (often used of public shows)". The word 'theater' is derived from this word. When we go to theater to watch orchestra, opera, broadway show, we put extra energy to pay attention to the show (not only because we pay $65 to get B reserve seating but because we want to enjoy the special performance).

Interestingly, and certainly not coincidentally, John used the same word in his gospel (John 1:14): "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have SEEN his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth". Or we BEHELD his glory. Or we LOOKED UPON his glory.

There is something about beholding or viewing with intensity the glory of Christ that takes a profound effect in the viewer.

What is the effect of seeing or beholding the glory of God in Christ? JOY. "And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete" He wrote 'our' joy and I think that's more accurate than 'your' joy, meaning it's the joy experienced by John and other apostles from beholding Christ the word who became flesh.

Seeing the glory of Christ, beholding His glory gives John joy as he fellowships with Christ. Or to put it differently, his fellowship with Christ brings him joy because he beholds Christ, view attentively the manifestation of his glory.

John wrote his epistle that so that his joy may be complete, because he wants us to experience the same thing, that is for us to fellowship with Christ with joy by beholding His glory. The glory that is now preserved in the Scripture. Today we see the glory by hearing the Word of Life from the Scripture read, meditated upon, chewed on, preached, etc.

How easy it is for me to lose the joy of living in Christ or reading His word or serving God because I lose the awareness of His glory and instead become preoccupied with my own glory. Personal devotion, ministry, and relationships with others become monotonous routines because we lose sight of Christ's beauty, holiness, and majesty.

When John wrote 'we looked upon', the theater he referred to was probably the transfiguration of Christ that Peter, James, and John saw with lots of anticipation in Mark 9. That glimpse of Christ's glory must have changed his life, giving him a inside-out, life-transforming joy that sustained him to stay at the foot of the cross when others have abandoned Christ.

The life-transforming effects of beholding God's glory is a key theme in the NT:
- 1 John 1:1 and 1 John 1:4 suggests that it results in joy
- John 1:14 and 1:16 suggests it results in receiving 'grace upon grace'
- 2 Cor 3:18 suggests it results in our becoming transformed 'from glory to glory'

What are we to do then? APPLICATION? Here is a couple points that fits me personally:

1. We who profess we are Christians, have we really seen/beheld the glory of God? That is have we been met Christ personally, awe-struck by His holiness, captivated by His beauty, and overwhelmed by His majesty that sin loses its power within us and the world no longer appeals to us? Have you experienced the joy of salvation that does not give us fire insurance from hell, but re-orients the sources of joy in our hearts from anything but Christ to Christ alone?

2. Have do we grow in faith joyfully, from grace to grace and from glory to glory? How do we help others to grow in faith? How should I preach? How should church programs be developed? The answers to all these questions is: By focusing on God's glory in Christ.

I won't grow in faith by reading about God (theology). Atheists love it too.
And so is the Devil.

I won't grow in faith by obeying ten commandments or the sermon of the mount.
That makes me a religious snob, a Pharisee.

The church won't grow in faith through sophisticated programs, uplifting music, heartwarming fellowship, or inspirational sermons (e.g., health-and-wealth preaching or moralistic preaching that convicts people and sentenced them into guilt).

I will grow, you will grow, the church will grow if we focus on seeing the glory of God manifested in Jesus Christ, namely in the person and work of Christ, in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, or put simply in the GOSPEL.

Let us continue to drink from the Gospel which was maintained by the apostles through their writing (1 John 1:4) to experience the life-transforming joy of the Lord that strengthens us.