Today is Labor Day in the United States, a day to celebrate working men and women, a federal holiday since 1894. This holiday also marks the unofficial end of summer, always bittersweet for those of us to hate to see it go. But summer or fall, winter or spring, we labor away in the places God called us.

The Apostle Paul wrote quite a bit about working hard. He mentioned these trades in a discussion of how workers deserved their wages: the soldier, the vintner (grower of grapes), the shepherd, the plowman, and the thresher. Paul even referenced a line from Moses—You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.

Paul argued that even apostles, missionaries and ministers of the gospel deserve to reap a living from the field in which they work. Traveling and working ceaselessly for the kingdom of God, Paul rarely asked for funds, but he still depended on the good graces of those to whom he ministered. He even worked as a tentmaker at times, truly a bi-vocational missions worker. Why? Because Paul wanted to become all things to all people so that by all means he might save some.

We labor in a similar way, working for a living as well as sharing the good news of the kingdom of God. Our day jobs fade, but our labor in the Lord lasts long after we’ve retired from the field.

1 Corinthians 9

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