You’re Fired!
Donald Trump is well known for his entrepreneurial prowess. It seems that everything he touches becomes a money-maker. Among his endeavors was a very popular television reality show called “The Apprentice.” In his show, Mr. Trump would select a group of individuals, and pare them down through various tasks and challenges to the point that he had only one of the original group left. This one would then become Mr. Trump’s apprentice. In the course of booting people from his show, Donald Trump became known for a hearty “You’re Fired!”
Though Donald Trump uttered his famous catch-phrase in connection with a reality TV show, those same words strike fear into the hearts of those who might be in danger of having their employment in the real world terminated. As awful and bone-chilling as it might be to be fired from your secular occupation, consider how terrible it would be to hear God pronounce these words in regard to your life as a Christian! Paul by inspiration wrote, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph.4:1). It should be of interest to note that if we have obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ, then our job—our vocation—is being a Christian! What I do to earn a living takes a back seat to my main task. The Father is certainly watching as we live our lives in His service, noting whether or not we are “doing our jobs.”
How many Christians today are in danger of being “fired” from their job of being a disciple of Christ? If you were an employer, how would you feel if your employees saw fit to show up for work only one out of every three days they were scheduled to be there? How would you feel if your employees thought that simply showing up constituted the totality of their work? How would you feel if your employees were always threatening to quit and find another place to work if everything didn’t go to suit them? How must God feel when we do not honor Him in worship with our presence and whole-hearted participation? How must God feel when the harmony of the local church is threatened by the grumbling and complaining of those who claim to love each other? Sadly, there are many Christians who allow everything under the sun to take precedence over their main task of living the Christian life. Sports, leisure, pleasure, occupations, personal happiness, etc., have become the “vocation” of far too many of the Lord’s people.
There is coming a day when God will pronounce those dreaded words that should strike fear into the heart of all who are not living as they ought. For those Christians who fail in their duty to live faithfully, God will say in the last day: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt.25:41). To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished from everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess.1:8-9). This is certainly one “firing” that none of us wishes to experience. Let us steadfastly endeavor to walk worthy of the vocation to which we have been called!
Patrick Morrison
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