How’s Business?

This is the simplest explanation of what Christians are supposed to be doing between their salvation and their entry into the eternal kingdom, either by death or by virtue of Christ’s return:  Investing!

The old King James Version says it like this: “Occupy till I come.” The New King James Version translates it: “Do business till I come.” Invest, occupy, do business—I like all of those.  That is what Christians are supposed to be doing with their time, energy and treasures—investing and producing an eternal profit in the business of the kingdom.  There is nothing more important—and more pleasurable—than that.

The problem is, we Christians tend to forget that we are not here on Planet Earth for our own benefit.  Along the way, we lose sight of the fact that the perfectly good oxygen we are taking in is not simply for our own pleasure.  The time and space we are occupying is not merely for our own temporal purposes—that would be a cosmic waste!

No, you and I are here on assignment for the King.  He has given us kingdom resources—influence, money, creativity, and vision. He has privileged us with opportunities to leverage every fiber of what we are and every last ounce of all that we have in a way that will produce now the stuff of eternity: Fame for the King, souls for his kingdom, and a foretaste of the abundant life (even if it is imperfectly and temporally expressed).  That is our business—nothing more than that; nothing less will do.

So—how’s business?

“The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in a church and by the works done therein…The whole world could abound with the services to the Lord; services – not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field.” ~Martin Luther

What If Good Took Over?

If you were to stand before God at the end of this day, what produce would you be able to show from your saved life?  Of course, you have been saved by grace, and not by works—so you can never earn your salvation.  But you can give effort to it.  Perhaps today is the day to give better, more focused effort in the business of the King!