Taking it to Work:
The word sacrifice, unless your a baseball player, is not a very popular word. I don’t even think the batter that hits the “sacrifice fly” is real happy with his pop-up, but at least it comes with an RBI (a run-batted-in for you non-baseball fans).
There is a big difference between a sacrifice in baseball, and a sacrifice in the Bible. In baseball, it’s a mistake, but you get something for it. In the Bible, it is an intentional act of love, and most often, you don’t get much in return . . . at least not on the surface.
What’s that have to do with the workplace? Do acts of love and sacrifice belong in the our places of employment? Well, we may not label them that way publicly, but in the eyes of God, any time we reach out to our neighbor (we have lots of “neighbors” at work) and give sacrificially to him, it is counted and remembered in eternity as an act of love. Jesus said that the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and He was not talking about a feeling here. By definition, love in this context is an intentional act of sacrifice on behalf of that neighbor. If you remember, Jesus himself said, “There is no greater love, than to lay ones life down for a friend.” That is the ultimate sacrifice, right? He also told the very clarifying parable of the Good Samaritan, showing us clearly what love looks like.
Love, in the biblical context, is often an action of sacrifice for another.
So, now your heading into work, or you will be soon. What can you do that is above and beyond for someone? Where do you feel God might be calling you do something sacrificially? It doesn’t have to be big. Maybe you bring donuts for the team because its Friday, and they’ve worked hard; give a lunch invitation because of a recent challenge in life; send a short email that encourages or congratulates; or write a check that you didn’t have to write, but you did,because of someone’s loss.
Now suppose these small acts of love were a weekly lifestyle of living out your faith in the workplace? What kind of difference would it make? Think about it, as His Word works in you, today.
Matt 22:38-39 (ESV) – This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
John 15:13 (ESV) – Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Luke 14:12-14 (ESV) – He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Luke 10:34-37 (ESV) – He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. ‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):
The love shown to a brother is not one of feeling, but one of sacrifice. How do you love another? In receipt, there is no love. Loss to another, willed against the natural man, is the highest gift. The old man before My Spirit enters, thinks only of self. He may appear generous, but only to receive that which is deemed more. Not so with the man of God. It is by My Spirit he is enabled to give deeply from his own need, to bless another. This sacrifice to another is the love of your God manifest. You may recognize My Spirit at work within you, as you find yourself giving freely to those about you. Love expects no return, and rejoices in the loss, that another may gain. Beyond man is this love to a stranger, one in need with no ability to repay. I lay down My life, even that those with enmity of My Father would be saved. I call you to this love, even to he who toils for self, that in your love, his heart may be softened to My Father’s call through you.
