Jesus Christ the Carpenter – our perfect example
Dear Friends,
Jesus Christ the Carpenter is our perfect example at work and He would be the last discussed in this mini-series.
Previously, we have looked at several examples of Old Testament workers: Adam, Cain, and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, the Temple Builders, and Daniel and his friends. We have also recently looked at a couple of New Testament workers, Peter, and Paul. You can go back and review these previous examples at https://fmministry.co.uk/our-blog
There are other Biblical examples of workers that we could have discussed, but I believe the Holy Spirit leading is to move on to the next and most likely the final mini-series of this blog. Therefore, we round up the examples of workers with Jesus Christ the Carpenter, our perfect example.
Jesus the Carpenter our perfect example in the Bible
The entire Bible is written for and about Jesus so as expected it is a huge task to try and capture all relevant details in a short blog.
As previously shared, Jesus is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1:3) and in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body (Colossians 2:9). These scriptures give us confirmation that we can know the full nature and character of God through Jesus Christ.
The entire life of Jesus Christ illustrates characters we must emulate, such as obedience to God, humility, love, compassion, caring, trustworthiness, truthfulness, respect, loyalty, welcoming, gentle, just, fair, generous, etc. He came on the earth to provide us the examples for which we should all be grateful.
As this blog is about how to be true disciples of Jesus Christ in the workplace, an attempt was made to do a focus Bible search of Jesus’ work as a Carpenter. As we have all been told, this was His profession until age 30 when He commenced full-time ministry for the last 3 years.
Mark 6:3 identifies Jesus Christ as a Carpenter, and Matthew 13:55 confirms He is the son of a Carpenter. Apart from these, I could not find other direct examples which show that little is written in the Bible about Jesus Christ the Carpenter.
There are speculative works, by others, not directly based on the Bible, regarding the significance and meaning of Jesus Christ’s carpentry profession. You can read a couple of examples of such at http://bit.ly/Jesusandthemeaningofthecarpenter and http://bit.ly/Jesussignificanceofcarpentry
On the other hand, the Bible gave us extensive coverage of Jesus’s full-time ministry in the last 3 years of His life. God is not an author of confusion and He does not waste words in scripture. My understanding, therefore, is that God does not want us to put too much emphasis on our secular job, but rather to see ourselves doing the ‘Kingdom work’ in our secular jobs.
In other words, our secular work will only count if it is focused on eternity and God’s Kingdom principles.
How can I follow Christ the Carpenter’s example?
Apart from Jesus Christ, and Joseph, all other examples of workers we have looked at in the Bible were not perfect. Jesus is however the only perfect man that ever walked the planet. The Bible only did not reveal a bad side of Joseph so that he can be described as a ‘type of Jesus’, providing a foreshadow of Him. You may read more about Joseph’s Christ-likeness at https://fmministry.co.uk/how-can-i-be-a-true-follower-of-jesus-christ-at-work-example-joseph-a-type-of-christ
Jesus’s perfect living example as a man on the earth was because He obeyed the Father throughout, He overcame all temptations and did not fall into sin. Jesus, who is God Himself chose to obey God the Father, causing Him to lose everything for a while, even to lose His life on the Cross. He chose to surrender to the will of the Father to redeem all humanity. Thank you, Jesus!
The lesson for all of us from Jesus the Carpenter is that obedience to God is key. We show that we are a true follower of Jesus Christ in work if we obey GOD, and we show bad following if we disobey HIM.
We are required to take good care of ourselves by having a good balance of work and rest, and we should work in partnership with God and others. We should also use all other principles of work that we have discussed such as vision and creativity, leadership, and good character.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man when He lived on the earth for those 33 years. But Jesus himself taught that there is nothing He did that we, His disciples cannot do if we remain fully connected to God and submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, full obedience to GOD in work is achievable for all of us.
How shall we conclude?
I hope the entire blog and the mini-series of work examples have been of benefit to all of us. The aim is that whatever our vocation or job title, people will be amazed at our achievements and how we conduct ourselves.
May it be said of us as it was of Jesus in Mark 6:3 ‘’Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him’’. You may want to replace ‘carpenter’ with your profession and substitute the relative names also!
Just as with Jesus, the unbelieving world will mock us and take offense at us when we fully obey God but that is to be expected. According to 1 Peter 2: 21 – 22 Jesus Christ endured suffering for us even though He did not do anything wrong, leaving us an example to follow.
May we all be encouraged to persevere to take our jobs as God’s Kingdom work no matter the circumstances.
I would like to round up this blog by reminding us of few steps I already proposed for Christians to take in the workplace:
- Pray daily for wisdom and faith to obey God in the workplace
- Let as many people as possible in work know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ
- Live and work as an ambassador of Christ, being the salt and the light of the workplace both in words and character
- Pray daily for everyone in the place of work
- Make friends and connect with various people in the workplace
- Start or join a Christian Fellowship in the workplace
Our next mini-series of blogs will focus on the last – Christian fellowship in the workplace.
Please note that Fishers of Men Ministry is interested in offering support and encouragement to individuals and workplace fellowship groups so please drop us an email if you need advice or support in the area. You can also check out our website to see how you can get involved in this work https://fmministry.co.uk/getting-involved
I hope you have benefited from reading this blog and if so, please share with others. Please also continue to send your feedback and comments to hello@fmministry.co.uk or use the comment box below.
God bless you and let us keep growing in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ
Adesina