(upbeat music) How do we determine the monetary value of our personal skills and gifts? And what are they worth to other Christians? This is a really practical question for a lot of you, applicable to anyone in a local church who has a skill set or a gifting that benefits others.

Today's question comes particularly from a listener in Los Angeles who writes this. Pastor John, hello and thank you for the APJ podcast. My question is a reoccurring heart issue for my life. I am a graphic designer. I'm trying to live out my gift according to 1 Peter 4.10, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

How can I obey this verse without feeling resentment and bitterness towards people, Christians and non-Christians who mainly contact me because I have a skill that can fulfill their need, but who use my skills and never pay me for them? I often feel used and deemed worthy of quote unquote friendship by what I can do, not who I am.

My assumption is that if I did not possess this graphic design gift, these people would never contact me. How do we think about the value of skills that are God given and about the right of making a little bit of money from these God given gifts to make a living?

Pastor John, what would you say? That's a really good question that many Christians need to think about because I have seen professionals in the church misused when people unthinkingly, I think it's usually unthinkingly, take advantage of the church family connections to get services that most people are paying for, to get them free.

Like a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a carpenter or a designer. And people just ask them to do little jobs or little consultations say in the evening or after church. That's their gift without even thinking how this may be unbiblical by mooching or exploiting. And I'll come back to those words, mooching and exploiting in just a minute.

So the first thing that I would say about the text of 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11, is that they're not speaking directly about professional services, but spiritual gifts in the church. It says, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Whoever speaks, like preaching or teaching, as the oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves in the strength that God supplies in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." But even though I think these are directly referring to spiritual gifts in the church, some of them are remunerated in the church.

For example, when Paul says that some elders who have the gift of teaching should be paid, that's elevating some of these to the point of professional skills. Let the elders who rule well, this is 1 Timothy 5, 17, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it's treading out the grain," and the laborer deserves his wages.

So I think some of those spiritual gifts rise to the level of vocational callings, which Paul says should be paid. And that means I think it is fair to draw some principles out of these texts that do in fact relate to the question of natural gifts or natural skills that a person has and which they use to make a living.

One principle is this, God intends for us to work in order to make a living and not be dependent on others when not necessary. Here's where I get that, 1 Thessalonians 4, 11, "Aspire to live quietly, mind your own affairs, work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one." So one of the functions of work is to make enough money so that you don't have to depend on others inappropriately.

So it's right to be paid for your work, the laborer deserves his wages, don't muzzle the ox while he's treading out the grain. Now, this does not mean, I don't want to overstate the case, this does not mean there's no room for merciful generosity to help those in need with your professional skill.

I mean, Christians all over the world do this, right? Dentists will take his Fridays off and go to an inner city and set up a little clinic and give free help to teeth. That's beautiful, I'm not at all discouraging that. In fact, Paul says that one of the reasons for working to make a living is so that we might have something to give.

(laughs) It's what he says in Ephesians 4, 28, he says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." So I'm not saying that those with special skills and gifts should never use them freely and generously to help others.

All the commands to be generous, to give to the needy, even to be willing to be taken advantage of, Jesus says, they're all still in the Bible. But what our friend is drawing our attention to in asking this question is that there is more than one kind of teaching in the Bible and neither should cancel out the other.

There's the command to give freely to the needy and there's the command to earn your living so that you and your family can eat and be clothed. So work to get to use and work to get to give are both in the Bible, right? Go to work so that you can get, so that you can use it to put a roof over your head and work and get so that you have lots to be generous with and help others.

They're both in the Bible and that's the challenge of love and wisdom that our graphic designer in this question is challenged with. But those in his network, his friends, his church, I think they need to hear another message from the Bible, namely the message found in 2 Thessalonians 3.

Remember, some Christians in the church in Thessalonica had become seized by a kind of hysteria about the nearness of the second coming of Christ and they had stopped working and started to live in idleness expecting the momentary return of Jesus while mooching off of those who kept on working for a living.

So here's how Paul responds to that. Verse six of 2 Thessalonians 3. Now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it.

That's amazing. Paul was so jealous not to give the impression that he could exploit the work of others while he lived in idleness that he didn't eat anybody's bread without paying for it. Amazing. But with toil and labor, we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.

Now that's the message some of the believers need to hear who are taking advantage of people's services without paying for them. It was not because we do not have the right, this is Paul continuing in verse nine, it was not because we do not have the right but rather to give you ourselves as an example to imitate.

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, if anyone's not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are walking in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. So the point that I'm drawing out of that text for our question is the network of Christians who are taking advantage of the work of others to get something that most people are paying for, they need to be taught, don't do that.

That is don't presume upon that, be willing to pay. If the skilled person wants to make a special gift to you, that's his to decide, not yours to expect. And to the graphic designer himself or herself, I couldn't tell which we're dealing with here, to him or her, I would say, pray that God would direct people's hearts in the right way.

In other words, pray for people, that he would wake up to what they're doing. And then perhaps talk to your pastor or teachers in the church to see if they can begin to apply the scriptures to this issue for a while in the church so that there's a culture in the church that includes both generosity and even willingness to be taken advantage of for Christ's sake, but also a sense that we must not mooch off of, we must not exploit those who are hard at work making a living, but rather take responsibility for our own needs instead of depending on others to give us freebies.

Behind both those aspects of church culture, generosity and responsibility, those are the two poles I'm talking about, behind both of those aspects of church culture is the grace of the Lord Jesus. He gives the grace to work and he gives the grace to give, and he gets the glory both ways.

- Yeah, really good balance here, Pastor John, thank you. And thank you for joining us today. Ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast, all at askpastorjohn.com. And speaking of learning to live out the authentic Christian life, what distinguishes the Christian life from the non-Christian life?

I'm your host Tony Rehnke, and we're gonna find out on Monday. We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)