Saturday, February 22, 2014

Apostle Paul worked with his hands, Lord Jesus worked with his hands.

The only time when Apostle Paul and Lord Jesus did not work with their hands, is when they were working on the gospel, day in and day out.

Acts 20 at Ephesus, to the elders

Acts 18 at Corinth

1 Corinthians 4:12

1 Thessalonians 4:11

In Thessalonica, worked with his hands, also received from Philippians

2 Thessalonians 3

Ephesians 4:28

I have a book with the interesting title, "Our Work Loves Our Neighbor: Did Jesus Waste Most of His Life?" I do not agree with some of it, but it says some interesting things: for example, Jesus spent probably 80% of his career doing a secular profession - carpentry. Perhaps God considered it to be important enough that His son Jesus spent so much time in a secular profession?

1) when he sent out disciples, he told them to accept food and shelter in return for their work; he said workman is worthy of his wages.
2) Jesus also needed food and shelter and clothing
3) Jesus was a tekton
'To be clear, we don’t have any record in the New Testament about Jesus working with wood, laying stones, or helping his pop out in the shop. The only references we have to Jesus’ vocation are the two times when He’s called a tekton or the son of a tekton (the word often translated “carpenter”).
“Is not this the carpenter (tekton), the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” (Mark 6:3).
“Is not this the carpenter’s (tekton) son? Is not his mother called Mary?” (Matt 13:55)
Now, tekton could refer to a carpenter or a stonemason, but the word simply refers to “one who works with his hands.” If someone wants to describe a carpenter, the phrase they’d use would be “a tekton of wood;” if a mason, then “a tekton of stone.” The absence of either stone or wood as a modifier indicates that the gospel writers didn’t specify which occupation Jesus and his father were engaged in. Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55 simply say that they worked with their hands—they were laborers who performed physically demanding and socially shameful jobs.
And I think this is the point. In highlighting Jesus’ occupation, the point is not that Jesus was a carpenter and not, say, a fisherman or a mason (or a mason and not a carpenter, etc.), but that Jesus was a blue-collar workerand not a white collar worker; a peasant and not a noble; a man of humble origins and was not born into a family of high social standing.'