Fellow laborers

A common way the Bible describes Christians is as laborers. Laborer is not normally a term of respect. Someone who is a “common laborer” is usually an unskilled worker who does jobs requiring general work with little specialized skills. If you need someone to haul bricks at a work site, you hire a laborer. It is about as unglamorous as you can get. That is what makes it so appropriate in today’s world for the church. We are doing thankless, unwelcome and unglamorous work. You happily buy tickets to watch Tiger Woods or a concert or a play. You don’t pay good money to sit and watch a guy doing manual labor. Yet laborer is a common description of the life of Christian ministry.

I want to examine a couple of instances where we see the idea of “laborer” to describe Christian ministry and what those examples tell us in the bigger picture. In Phillipians 4, Paul writes:

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Phil 4:2-3)

Note the language Paul uses here. Labored side by side with me. Not labored under my supervision or under my direction, but labored with me (there is an interesting thought here regarding the rewards given the laborers in Matthew 20, but I don’t think it fits here). We are all working under the direction of Christ, side by side and with the same mission. At least that is how it is supposed to be.

Here is another example:

Now I urge you, brothers —you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men. (1 Cor 16:15-18, emphasis added)

Who are they to be subject to? Those with education or titles? Or those who devoted themselves to the service of the saints and to every fellow workers and laborer? The answer is pretty clear. We have the order backwards. We recognize men as leaders and then expect them to demonstrate being a servant instead of recognizing as leaders those who have shown themselves to be servants. I think you are going to be better off being subject to a man with a true servant’s heart than a man with a doctorate in theology. Those two extremes are not mutually exclusive, you can be a theologian and also be a servant. You in fact must be both! I would say that in general a better sign of a mature brother in Christ is a servants heart, not an academic degree.

In Acts 20 Paul writes of his own hard work to provide for his own needs and in 1 Corinthians 9 Paul speaks of not making use of his right to be supported financially. Paul did not take from the church, he gave to the church. He didn’t see himself as a lord over the church, he saw himself as a fellow laborer. It is tragic to see widows and the poor and the disabled donating to the local church to pay the salary of an able bodied man who could and should be working himself so that he can support the less fortunate among the Body. There are some who cannot work to support themselves and those saints should be supported by the Body. There are those who can work to support themselves and their families, and they should do so.

If you get a group of workers together and most stand around watching one or two do all of the laboring, they are not “fellow laborers”. They are observers. We are in union with Christ but that doesn't mean we are in a union!

Anytime we see some laboring and others observing, we have a problem. Ministry is synonymous with service and serving others by nature is something that requires sacrifice, sacrifice of time or money or prestige. It seems that the faith is not one that calls us to exalt the service of some above others, nor to seek glory and attention for ourselves. We are all called to ministry, to labor shoulder to shoulder with fellow believers. It is not glamorous work, it is not work that will bring us acclaim in this world but it is Kingdom work that we all have the call and the duty to perform.