Life Work

Is it work to believe?

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” - John 6:27-40

Jesus tells them that the work of the Father is to believe in the Son.

That doesn't sound too hard, does it?  It doesn't seem like work. 

Is believing passive?  Is it something we just think about and accept, or does it involve action?

The challenge we have as Christians is to believe what cannot be proven, and we do that through faith.  We live in the hope of eternal life, and that may sound like a reward for our faith, but why would one want to live forever if they didn't believe?

The work Jesus was given to do on earth was to raise up all on the last day.  In order for us to be with him, we need to believe.

That is the main action we need to take.

But believing in Christ leads us to greater action.  It makes us compassionate and loving.

One does not believe God became one of us to save us and then ignores those who need help finding God through Christ.

So, while we have no real work to do other than to believe, our belief puts us to work for Christ.

We cannot pretend to love one another, for in doing acts of kindness we come to love each other.

Jesus knows that belief leads to action and action comes from love.

So our life work is to love one another as God loves us.

Easy peasy.

More to come...