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WORK: IDENTIFYING BENEFICIAL LABOUR, |
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"For to the man that is good before Him He has given wisdom and knowledge and rejoicing, but to the sinner He has given the occupation of gathering and bringing together merely to give to the one that is good before the true God. This too is vanity and a striving after wind." (Eccles 2:26). "I considered all toil and all achievement and saw that it comes from rivalry between man and man. This too is emptiness and chasing the wind. The fool folds his arms and wastes away. Better one hand full and peace of mind, than both fists full and toil that is chasing the wind." (Eccles 4:4-6 NEB). VANITY: Futility, unreality, emptiness, of worldly wealth, of political distinction, of human achievements. Works of devotion to an idol is often the worship of a human in place of God; working to create an image in order to have one's vanity gratified by others. This is an unclean and unbeneficial work. And to assist in the creation and/or to sustain the riches of this world for the unGodly, is also vanity. EXAMPLE: All nations are now at enmity with each other, and with God, because their works are lawless. Mass murder is the end result of such enmities and divisions. (See Gal 5:19-21). Working directly or indirectly for a political regime of the "wild beast", entrusting it with one's will and support, is to admire it, and this is idolatry. (Rev 13:8,16). In addition, those listening to the "false prophet" (sects) are also not written down in the "scroll of life". (Rev 19:20. 17:8). LABOUR: Mental and physical exertion. However, inactivity in relation to the performance of unGodly labours may assist in one's sanctification before God. To exert oneself physically or mentally to make manifest His Will, while opposing "lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God", is the ultimate beneficial labour. An example of an unGodly labour that appears deceptively innocent is that of delivering mail: But such deliveries are also on behalf of the celebrators of Christmas, homosexuals, prostitutes, adulterers, extortioners, thieves, sects, and include the distribution of political propaganda for the "wild beast", etc. (i.e. a postman). |
"And I myself have seen all the hard work and all the proficiency in work, that it means the rivalry of one toward another; this also is vanity and a striving after the wind. The stupid one is folding his hands and is eating his own flesh. Better is a handful of rest than a double handful of hard work and striving after the wind. I myself returned that I might see the vanity under the sun: There exists one, but not a second one; also no son or brother does he have, but there is no end to all his hard work. Also, his eyes themselves are not satisfied with riches: "And for whom am I working hard and causing my soul to lack in good things?" This too is vanity, and it is a calamitous occupation." (Eccles 4:4-8). "For the Holy Spirit and we ourselves have favoured adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!" (Acts 15:28,29). "If a brother or a sister is in a naked state and lacking the food sufficient for the day, yet a certain one of you says to them: "Go in peace, keep warm and well fed," but you do not give them the necessities for their body, of what benefit is it? Thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself." (James 2:15-17). "So, then, let us pursue the things making for peace and the things that are upbuilding to one another. Stop tearing down the work of God just for the sake of food. True, all things are clean, but it is injurious to the man who with an occasion for stumbling eats." (Rom 14:19,20). "And the wild beast was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who rendered worship to its image. While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur." (Rev 19:20). "Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is." (Rev 22:12).
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