Is it Nuclear or Heaven on Earth?

In the past three weeks, we’ve talked about The Cultural Mandate from Genesis 1:28 to subdue and cultivate the earth in order to bring flourishing to all people; The Great Commandment to love God and love others; and finally, The Great Commission to teach others everything that we’ve been taught about Jesus. 

But how do we hold three of these at once? And how do they play out in the marketplace? How about in the workplaces of America?

 Let me draw an ugly picture first – the picture of what it looks like when we live out of balance. If you look at Wall Street or corporate culture or political behavior, most of what they do is in obedience to The Cultural Mandate. They are indeed subduing the earth! But, and this is a big “but,” they do so in ignorance of The Great Commandment and The Great Commission. What do you get when you teach believers to live out The Cultural Mandate but ignore The Great Commandment and Great Commission? 

You get the world as we know it today. 

A lot of people make a lot of money and keep it all for themselves. But God’s intention for business, and really for any job, was for flourishing to happen, for loving to happen, and for people to find out about Jesus naturally. When we take just one of the directions from God and ignore the others, things fall apart and what we end up with is a culture that is ignorant of Jesus, ignorant of God, self-centered, and falling apart. 

However, when you combine The Cultural Mandate with The Great Commandment in The Great Commission, you will see a nation humbled before God, with love flowing to all of our neighbors, flourishing in every neighborhood, and with millions hearing about Jesus because of Christ-followers living out their faith at work. Talk about an ideal world! Sign me up today!

If your work doesn’t reflect The Cultural Mandate, Great Commandment, and Great Commission all combined into one, maybe it’s time to re-dedicate your life to the mission that you’ve been given the mission of following Jesus in your work! iWork4Him is dedicated to helping equip you to do just that. A great place to start? The iWork4Him Covenant.

- Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Called to Make Disciples

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ”

— Matthew 28:19-20

What happens when The Cultural Mandate, The Great Commandment, and The Great Commission collide? Simple: we find our purpose and calling as followers of Christ.

Jesus spent 3 1/2 years teaching his disciples. So, in all that time, what exactly did he teach them? 

How to live life. How to execute The Great Commandment. How to love God and love others. How to follow him. And at the end of it all, how to pass the same understanding, the same calling, on to others. 

It’s important to note that before Jesus spent 3 1/2 years teaching his disciples, he was involved in, and then ran, a family business – a carpentry business. And after 30 years of experience loving the people in his city, Jesus went on to teach the disciples how to replicate his holy behavior in the marketplace across the globe. The Great Commission was the culmination of Christ’s commands when he said, “go and teach the nations everything I have commanded you, teaching them everything that I have taught you.”

As Jesus-Followers, our calling is to teach others what we know about Jesus; sometimes, that’s other Christians and sometimes other pre-believers. The bottom line is the commission is for all of us. This doesn’t just apply to pastors and missionaries; it applies to workplace believers, the “carpenters” of today. The Great Commission is for everyone. 

Every week at work, your behavior should reflect this Great Commission. So, I want to challenge you this week: each day when you leave for work, picture yourself as a missionary headed off to a place full of people who need to know Jesus. 

Demonstrate that you know Jesus by the acts of your love and your behavior. Share with others about Jesus through the natural conversations that happen at work. Join the iWork4Him Covenant and commit to pray, work, care, and share in the name of Christ. 

How does this fit in with The Cultural Mandate and The Great Commandment? Find out at next week’s blog.

- Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Called to Love

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these. ”

— Mark 12:30-31

What happens when The Cultural Mandate, The Great Commandment, and The Great Commission collide? Simple: we find our purpose and calling as followers of Christ. 

 Last week, we talked about The Cultural Mandate to bring flourishing to the world through our work. This week, I want to focus on The Great Commandment. In Mark 12, Jesus is asked by a teacher of religious law what the greatest commandment was. Jesus’s answer?  

 Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This sums up the law and the prophets. So basically, in two sentences, Jesus summarizes the entire Old Testament.  

 It was always about love.  

 God created humans because of love. He caused them to multiply because of love. He gave them work because of love. In fact, 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” So, it makes sense that the way people would know that you love God is when you love people.  

 Does your work reflect God’s love? Too often, as Christ-followers, our work behavior doesn’t match our Christian behavior. Too often, our behavior doesn’t reflect this Great Commandment to love God and love people.  

When you see that Jesus summarized 800- 900 pages of the Bible in two sentences, did the significance of his statement resonate with you? The commandment is to love.  

 How can you show your love for God and those around you today? 

 Stay tuned for week four of this blog series to see how all of these pieces come together as one: The Cultural Mandate, The Great Commandment, and next week we talk about The Great Commission. Until then, take a listen to this incredible sheWorks4Him podcast episode with Rachel Rose Nelson, who is gathering together businesses to fight human trafficking and exploitation. Talk about love in action!

- Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Called to Flourish

“Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’ ”

— Genesis 1:28

What happens when The Cultural Mandate, The Great Commandment, and The Great Commission collide? Simple: we find our purpose and calling as followers of Christ. 

 Right after God created Adam and Eve, He gave them The Cultural Mandate to fill, govern, and develop the earth (Genesis 1:28). God gave Adam and Eve a job before sin ever entered the world. So often, we think that work is the result of sin. But nothing could be further from the truth!  

 God gave us work as a gift. 

 In Genesis 1:28, the Lord tells humankind to cultivate the earth, bring about flourishing, multiply, and expand across the planet! When you think about what it means to “subdue the earth,” as another translation says, I want you to look around. Everything you can see, including the phone you may be reading this blog on, came from below the ground. All of it is made from the 118 elements on the periodic table, 90 of which are naturally found on Earth, and a further 28 produced artificially from the first 90.  

 Our very societies today reflect the execution of The Cultural Mandate! We have subdued the earth, and it is good.  

 But does all our subduing of the earth truly bring about flourishing?  

 Not without the other two pieces of the puzzle - because after God gave us work, sin entered the world. And sin corrupted our perception of The Cultural Mandate – turning work into a chore, a labor, a paycheck rather than an opportunity to bring about flourishing in the world.  

So today as you work, think on these things and remember: Everything you do is meant to bring about flourishing for other people.  

 God designed you for good works, for YOUR work. It is a gift for you.  

I want to invite you to listen to this recent podcast episode with Brenda Long from Food for the Hungry. This incredible organization has taken The Cultural Mandate to new levels by partnering with others to bring flourishing to ALL people. 

- Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!