When discussing the Christian call to service, we often hear references to Matthew 25, where Jesus speaks of a King who separates “sheep” from “goats” –those who are willing from those who refuse.

To the sheep, the King offers the following:

Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

To the goats, the King says, “Depart from me,you whoare cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and hisangels.

It’s all very hearty, but the final line is what seems to stick in popular discourse: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

It leads to a rather powerful tilting of the human order:Service to others is also service to God. Yet far too often we limit our view of such service, confining it to the realms of private charity, church ministry, personal relationships, or political activism. But although these are areas where the parable certainly applies, in his book,Work: The Meaning of Your Life, Lester DeKoster adds another realm to the mix.

Work is service to others, he argues, and thus, work is service to God.He interprets Matthew 25 accordingly:

The Lord does not specify when or where the good deeds he blesses are done, but it now seems to me that Jesus is obviously speaking of more than a vocational behavior or pastime kindnesses. Why? Because he hinges our entire eternal destiny upon giving ourselves to the service of others—and that can hardly be a pastime event. In fact, giving our selves to the service of others, as obviously required by the Lord, is precisely what the central block of life that we give to working turns out to be!

Is the Lord talking here about work? Yes, e to think so.

After a closer look at the textual implications, DeKoster offers a series of simple applications to demonstrate the how behind the what.

The following lists are pulled directly from mentary, which proceeds according to the specific necessities Jesus speaks to. In the book, he includes much more than these lists provide, but the lists themselves are still particularly helpful in illustrating the overarching point: opportunities for Christian service abound, and often in areas you least expect.

1. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

“God himself, hungering in the hungry, is served by all those who work in:

agriculturewholesale or retail foodskitchens or restaurantsfood transportation or the mass production of food itemsmanufacturing of implements used in agriculture or in any of the countless food-related industriesinnumerable support services and enterprises that together make food production and distribution possible

2.I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

“The Lord is ‘thirsty’ wherever water is needed and is served by all who knit the sleeve of civilization by working in:

municipal or private water servicespurifying watersexploration for or desalinization of waterwell-drilling, pipe-laying, plumbing installation, or maintenancemanufacturing or servicing water-related equipmentworking in the countless water-related goods and service industries

3.I needed clothes and you clothed me.

“Here Jesus is saying: I was in all who need shelter and clothing, and youare working in:

textilesbuilding and repairing of dwellingssales of clothing and shelter itemsfire or police or military protection of propertyreal estate and insurancethe (who knows how many) goods and service occupations related to shelter fort”

4.I was sick and you looked after me.

“Human health thrives on the boundary between the physical and the mental. And the Lord says, ‘I was sick,’ and you work in:

medical servicescounseling, visiting, healingthe making or selling of medicines or in related researchhealth insuranceserving others through working in any of the numerous physical or mental health-related occupations”

5.I was a stranger and you invited me in.

“‘I was a stranger,’ the Lord says, for all who munion munication, and you work:

for a panyat delivering the mailin the churchat keeping cars moving, roads open, mercial means of travel runningin the media and on TVin any of the innumerable avenues of service that keep people munication with each other and the world”

6.I was in prison and you came to visit me.

“God chooses to be found also among social ‘outcasts’…and you work in:

social services, professional or voluntarylaw or the courts on behalf of justiceeducationpolitics and governmentproviding employmenthuman rehabilitationany of the liberating services that so many desperately need”

Though these lists are extensive, they are not exhaustive. God is knitting an elaborate and diverse civilization through the work human hands, and more importantly, is changing hearts through the process, calling us to view and approach our work as the sacrifice it was designed to be.

“To work is to love—both God and neighbor,” DeKoster writes. “For the ‘love’ required by the Bible is the service of God through the service of man. And because God wills to be served through our service of others, he provides us with civilization to facilitate our working at our best.”

The future of civilization should be oriented around Christian love, but if we remember Jesus’ initial words, this is ultimately about the final judgement, i.e. the path to eternity. “The parable is teaching us that wewill ‘see’ at last what day-by-day living is all about,” DeKoster writes. “It’s a matter ing sheep or ing goat. That is the meaning of time spent on thejob and of time spent on all else.”

In striving to be sheep, then, let us not confine our willingness and obedience to the spare hours of the day, but rather expand our imaginations to the full web of economic interaction and cultural engagement. The scope and range of Christian service is deep and wide, and the least of these are probably closer than you think.

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