Torch, Spring 2004

Spring 2004 / TORCH 11 a body having no superior or inferior parts. The unified body of Christ should live out the gospel in a way that respects their separate and distinct roles for service to their fellow human sojourners and to their Savior. We join with our students and graduates as a team in this endeavor. Our service should be to meet the needs of others. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph. 4:28). Our service should be to those who are weak. “I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). John Calvin expressed his view of mutual service in this way: It is not enough when one can say, “Oh, I work, I have my trade, I set the pace.” This is not enough; for one must be concerned whether it is good and profitable to the community and if it is able to serve our neighbors … And this is why we are compared to members of a body. The life of the godly is justly compared to trading, for they ought naturally to exchange and barter with one another in order to maintain intercourse . 3 Our work should be a testimony to the unsaved. “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without …” (I Thess. 4:11). Our mutual gifts, skills, interests, personality, character, and values are all needed as a contribution to one another in community, and all are our gift of worship to our Savior. Therefore, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” (Col. 3:23). We take joy in pledging ourselves, entering into the conflict, articulating, meshing, and touching blades, by working on behalf of Cedarville and its students. But more importantly, we work on behalf of our Savior, by Whom we’ve been created, for Whom we enthusiastically engage, and to Whom we offer back our praise for our creation and call to minister to our world. Endnotes 1 Pelikan, J. (Ed.). (1959). The Babylonian captivity of the church. In Luther’s works , (Vol. 36.). Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press. 2 Tyndale, W. (1842). A parable of the wicked mammon . London, England: Palmer and Sons. 3 Calvin, J. (1982). Calvin’s doctrine of the Christian life. Tyler, TX: Geneva Divinity School Press. T L ew Gibbs became the director of career services at Cedarville in 1996, after serving 31 years with IBM. He is committed to providing Cedarville students and graduates with training in lifelong career-related disciplines. A frequent guest on the radio program “Money Matters,” Gibbs is currently partnering with a Cedarville graduate to write a book on character-based hiring in corporate America. He has had related articles published in the ACST Journal, Christianity Today, and Torch . Gibbs and his wife, Sheron, reside in Cedarville. All three of their grown children earned their undergraduate degrees at Cedarville University.