What is meant by the Work of the Lord?
It is work—work with all the self-denial that accompanies steady work.
It is work for the Lord. When we say that a father works for his family, or a servant for his master, it does not mean that such an one simply goes about his own business, but it does mean that he has a particular person in view, and that he is working for him. We are such poor, frail creatures that there is a constant tendency to admit bye motives in our work. I know how hard it is to preserve a single eye to the glory of God. One’s own reputation and the great pleasure of one’s own success have a constant tendency to introduce false motives. What we want is to lose sight of self altogether, and to remember that if we are doing the work of the Lord, we are doing it for the Lord.
It is work from the Lord. It is the work to which the Lord has appointed each of us. When God called Barnabus and Paul, He said, “Separate them for the work whereunto I have called them.” [59a] Now we are not called to the Apostleship, but I believe there is not an individual amongst us who is not called by God to a certain work in His service. The Church of God is said to be “compacted by that which every joint supplieth.” [59b] There is not, therefore, a joint in the whole body that is not to supply something. All who are in Christ Jesus are the children of God, and all are called to work in His service, the strong man in the fulness of his strength, or the suffering invalid laid low with broken health.
This, then, being the character of the work of the Lord, let us turn to the encouragement which God has given, and the root from which it springs.