Ruth's Question: "What are they doing for God?"

By David Ryser

Some time ago, my wife and I were at the house of some friends just hanging out with them and enjoying them.  While there, we met Ruth and her husband who are wonderful Christian people who love God with all their heart.  As Christian people will do when meeting for the first time, we got to know one another by sharing about our faith journey and our lives in general.  The next day, Ruth was talking with one of our hosts and asked concerning my wife and I, “What are they doing for God?”

This is a common question in Christian circles, but it got me to thinking about the relationship between doing and being.

Ruth and her husband express their faith publicly/corporately in a traditional church setting.  By traditional I mean they go to a church building where there is a worship service with singing and preaching.  An offering is taken.  Christian education is provided at various age and interest levels, and worship services appropriate for different ages are conducted simultaneously with the main service.  My wife and I do not currently express our faith publicly/corporately in a traditional church setting; thus, Ruth’s genuine curiosity about what we are doing for God.

The question--and its context--reveals a lot about how we view our relationship with, and our service to, God.  My first thought when considering the question “What are they doing for God?” was to wonder just what it is that God can’t do and thus needs me to do it for Him.  I couldn’t think of anything.  I then began to ponder the mountain of scripture verses that command Christians to do things for God.  There aren’t any.  There are, however, several verses that speak of what God does through us.

This set me to thinking about wineglasses.

According to the Bible, wine is a gift from God given to mankind to gladden the heart.  But even the best wine is of little practical use unless some way is provided to transport the wine from the container to my lips.  This is where the wineglass comes into the picture.  Typically the wine is poured from the bottle into the wineglass, and then it is taken to the person who will consume the wine.  When someone tastes fine wine, the wine is praised--the glass is not.  I am not the wine (a common biblical metaphor for the presence, love, and power of God); I am only the glass.

I am only a vessel used to transport the wine.  I don’t do anything for the wine except carry it.

Does the wineglass matter at all?  Sure it does, but not as much as we’d like to think it does.  Have you ever been handed a glass of water, sipped the water, and then made a face and declared, “This water tastes terrible”?  We all know what a person means when they say, “This water tastes terrible,” but the statement itself is absurd.  Water does not taste terrible.  Nor does water taste good.  Water has no taste.  Water is tasteless.  When we say the water tastes terrible, what do we taste?  We taste the impurities in the water.  Assuming that the water is clean, these impurities come from the glass.  Even though the water is pure, the water is disparaged because of the uncleanness of the glass.

Most non-Christians I know do not hate God.  How can they hate Him?  They don’t even know Him.  Their perception of God is formed by observing and listening to those who claim to be God’s children.  They suppose we carry the presence of God just as we carry the DNA of our earthly parents.  They assume there is a family resemblance between God and His children.

They think God looks and act like us.

The story is told of a Hindu leader who came to the conclusion that his people were oppressed by the caste system, and the solution to this problem was for him and the people to convert from Hinduism.  He began to research the religions of the world to choose one to embrace.  Concerning Christianity, he wrote that when he considered the lives of Jesus and the apostles, he was convinced he and his people must become Christians; however, when he considered the lives of those he knew who called themselves Christians, he was equally convinced he and his people must not become Christians.

He eventually converted to Islam, and 2,000,000 people followed him.

The apostle Paul often implores Christians to live godly lives.  He commands them not to sin; but rather, he directs them to walk in purity, holiness, and love toward others.  He never tells them to do this in order to earn God’s blessings or to avoid hell. He always commands them to do this in order to glorify God and honor His name.  He writes that the name of Jesus is blasphemed by unbelievers because of the behavior of those who call themselves His children.

Too many people do not even want to know God because we have misrepresented Him in the world by our words and conduct.

This brings me back to Ruth’s question.  What do I do for God?  Nothing.  I am only a vessel that carries the life and love of God to people who are in desperate need of both.  The issue is not so much what I do for Him as it is what He does through me.  My job is to carry the wine and make sure the glass is clean (Matthew 23:25, 26).  I carry His wine with me wherever I go and share it with anyone who wants a drink.  Sometimes there are great miracles performed along the way, but typically I simply share a word of encouragement or just brag on God.  Sometimes I write an article.  More than a few times, God has told me to make someone laugh.

That sounds silly, but people pay thousands of comedians millions of dollars to make them laugh.  The Bible says that laughter is heart medicine.  I may not be a great comedian, but I work for free.

Because it is my heart’s desire to glorify God and effectively minister His Kingdom to people, I am far more concerned with being rather than doing.  This bothers many Christians because they think I’m advocating some sort of spiritual navel-gazing that has no practical value in the work of proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of God.  I have discovered, however, that the effectiveness of what I do comes out of what I am.  I can do the works of God and yet end up doing more damage to His Kingdom than if I’d done nothing at all (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

I cannot make His pure wine taste any better; I’m content if I just don’t make it taste nasty because of my impurity.

It is the life of Christ living in us and flowing out of us (John 7:38, 39) that brings life, healing, and deliverance to people.  Before we go and pour out this wine on others, we might want to take a sip ourselves and test to see if we are tainting it in any way.  If the wine tastes bad, it’s not because the wine is bad.  The glass is dirty.  Am I saying we need to be perfect before we can minister to others?  No, but if the life of Christ dwells in us and is regenerating us, shouldn’t we at least be getting better?

And what about Matthew 7:3-5?

Cleaning the glass is a painful, and an oftentimes unpleasant, process--and the Holy Spirit is a no-nonsense glass inspector.  If we have not yet allowed God to clean our glass, there is no better time to begin than right now.  Let’s get our glass clean and then pour out the wine of God that gives life and refreshment to all who will drink of it.

Then we will be living and demonstrating the Gospel…and not just proclaiming it.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com