Art and Work Part 4: Links in the Chain of Time

As we saw last week, God gives Christians (and thus Christian musicians) time to develop in their callings.  Why does God have us work hard across time to be sanctified (which is what development in your vocation as a musician, or any other calling, must be considered)?  Why does He not cause us to instantly excellent and mature in our walk and giftings?  

Witness 1 Corinthians 3:5-15: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.  So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.  According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw; each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (NKJV)

From this passage we can discern (at least) three answers to the question of why God has the work of our development unfold across time.

First, we see that God takes time to graciously allow us through our gifts and vocations to take part in His work.  We are truly, as verse 9 of the above passage teaches, “God’s fellow workers.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 reads, “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God Who works all in all.”  What this means for those of us who are musicians, is that God mercifully has spread His work across time to allow all of His children to take part in that work as His co-workers (a gracious act of love, since He, as God, certainly doesn’t need to).  Thus, our work as Christian musicians today contributes to the Kingdom of God, just as the music of our elder brothers David, Asaph, J.S. Bach, Isaac Watts, etc., did in their days; different eras, yet all contributing to the same glorious work. 

Second, our development in ministry doesn’t proceed in a vacuum; we need, and are needed by, our fellow Christians as we all perform different functions and mature in our callings at different times and rates of speed.  Paul points out that he “. . .planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. . .Now he who plants and he who waters are one. . .” (1 Cor 3:6, 8a)  Later in the epistle, Paul teaches, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all” (1 Cor 12:7).  Your gifts and calling (musical or otherwise) are needed for the Church to be properly edified and to grow (Eph 4:11-16).  As a musician or artist, you should easily see that your gifts and ministry grow as God uses those in like ministries to teach you and exemplify how a musical or artistic ministry should mature and become progressively better.  You should also realize that one day, if you faithfully work to mature in your ministry, God will put you in a position to disciple believers who are beginning to develop gifts and ministries like the one(s) you fulfill.  Discipleship is handed from more mature to less mature Christians in a chain across time until Jesus returns.

Finally, God gives us time to develop in our callings in order that we may be formed more perfectly in the Image of Christ (Heb 12:1-2).  As we externalize our salvation (Phil 2:12-13), so that the works that flow from our obedience (or lack of it) may accumulate to be tried by fire at the Last Day, gaining us either reward or loss (1 Cor 3:13-15).  God gives us time to figure out our calling correctly, to get it right, and not get it all wrong like the wicked slave in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30.  In other words, He gives us the rope to either hang ourselves or to demonstrate the work that the Holy Ghost is working in and through us.  He gives us time to act responsibly with our gifts and callings.

So we see that, God gives us development time that we might take part in His ongoing work, help and be helped by other Christians in God’s work, and accumulate works that will yield us reward or loss on the Day of Consummation.  Next week, we will look at how we should Biblically think about our work.