Not My Job

Perhaps many of you have seen the picture on the internet where some road worker had been painting the center yellow line on the road and they had continued right over a possum carcass. The caption says, “not my job”.

People are very prone to passing the buck. We're very good at avoiding responsibility, being lazy, not doing what we're supposed to.

Perhaps you've been on the phone for technical support or you're dealing with some sort of bureaucracy and you get passed around in a big circle as it's not the job of each particular person to solve that problem. “Your call is very important to us.” It doesn't seem like it. Some websites specifically make it difficult to find contact information for support. (That's where it costs them money.) That's very frustrating! When you finally reach someone who can help you solve the problem, it's such a great feeling. I've found at work that it's much more efficient if I spend the time to figure out something myself than if I have to have someone else intercede.

Pro activeness in

Psalm 43 [later quoted in 1 Pet 3]

¹¹ Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD .
¹² Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
¹³ keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking lies.
¹⁴ Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

We are given duties today. We can either try to foist them off on someone else or get to work and do what needs to be done.

Responsibility to God

When God tells Jonah that he must prophesy against the Ninevites, Jonah actually tries to flee from God.

Jonah 1
¹ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
³ But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD .

Jonah seems to think that the Ninevites are unworthy of God's message, though God doesn't think so. So Jonah suffers several times in his attempt to flee from God. Jonah has this problem. “Not my job”. But God finally gets him to do this and the Ninevites repent of their ways and turn to God.

Teach others about Christ.

Mark 16
¹⁴Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
¹⁵He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Jesus told his disciples here to go out and tell the world about him. What would happen if they said, “not my job”? In fact, there is a bit of a problem with this as, when Peter gets around the Jews, he kinda gets snobby and withdraws a bit from the Gentiles as though it was not his job to teach the gentiles. But it was and there was no good reason for him to disassociate from them. The gentiles had done nothing wrong and he was doing it out of fear.

Paul confronts Peter about this:

Gal 2

¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Likewise, we may sometimes shy away from a job we can be doing out of fear. What will people think of us? It simply shouldn't matter.

It's interesting to see a couple of cases where people didn't want to do the job God assigned them but he made them do it anyway.

Moses

Exodus 4

¹⁰ Moses said to the LORD , "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
¹¹ The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? ¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
¹³ But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
¹⁴ Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. ¹⁵ You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. ¹⁶ He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.

God was not pleased when Moses keeps trying to get out of his mission to go to Pharaoh. “I'm not a good enough speaker. It shouldn't really be my job.” But he was forgetting that God could help him through the situation.

Paul

[about a visit he was planning to Corinth]

2 Cor 12

¹⁴Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. ¹⁵So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?

Imagine if Paul had said, “It's not my job. I will just lie around and depend on the hospitality of those I'm visiting.” He would have been a burden to them. Instead, he worked very hard and was a very important part of the beginnings of Christ's church.

This is somewhat related to our

Responsibility to the church

which is what we'll look at next.

Admonish one another...rather than being too shy because “it's not my job”

Rather, teach and help one another

Paul says, in

Colossians 3
¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So, this attitude here is not one of isolation. “Let him take care of his own spiritual life”. It is one of helping and encouraging one another. This has also been covered pretty well in recent lessons.

Responsibility to family

I think when I was a kid I was very careful to do the minimum chores possible. If I was assigned to load the large items in the bottom of the dishwasher, I wouldn't be caught dead loading any smaller item into the top of the dishwasher . . . especially if one of my siblings was supposed to do it. If I'd thought about it more, I'd have realized it was foolishness to act that way. I probably wasted more time trying to make sure I avoided any unassigned task than I would have if I'd just helped work till the job was done. This is just like the Pharisees and it's not what we're supposed to do.

[the Pharisees]

Mat 23

⁴They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

Col 3

²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Cain was one of the first to avoid responsibility to family.

Gen 4

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." ^[4] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
¹⁰ The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

[Cain tried to pretend he didn't know what had happened to his brother. “Am I my brother's keeper?” Of course, God knew. So, in this case, he was just trying to escape punishment for what he'd done.]

However, there's an important point we can take from this. You are your brother's keeper. You have a responsibility to your family to take care of them and help them... especially if you are the husband in the family.

Father/child responsibilities

Eph 6

¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²"Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise-- ³"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." ⁴Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

The Pharisees were guilty of trying to avoid God's commands.

Mark 7
¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,'^[1] and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'^{[2] 11}But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹²then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.

Responsibility to the helpless

Help those in need.

Mat 25

³¹"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

James 1
²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

[The widows and orphans at that time would have had an especially difficult time. They would still have a difficult time today. This is a general principal that we are to help those who are unable to take care of themselves. ]

Concerning widows

1 Timothy 5
³Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. ⁴But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

. . .

⁷Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. ⁸If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
⁹No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, ¹⁰and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
. . .
¹⁶If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

[This describes the duty each of us has to our family.]

Responsibility at work

At work, I find that I procrastinate the worst on tasks that have a lot of paperwork attached. We're getting more and more paperwork in our processes, so this delaying of paperwork isn't going to work. I've got to face the responsibility that there is work to be done whether it involves paperwork or not.

John Lubbock
The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it.

[How much more do we enjoy a rest when we work hard? A glut of rest can leave you feeling pretty empty sometimes. You can read Ecclesiastes to see the value that Solomon found in work.]

Warning against idleness in

1 Thessalonians 5
¹³Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Likewise,

2 Thessalonians 3
Warning Against Idleness
⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching^[1] you received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

[Have you ever noticed that laziness can be kind of infectious. If nobody around you wants to do anything, then you don't feel as much like doing anything yourself.]

Thomas Taylor
Too many young people itch for what they want without scratching for it.

Avoid the idle brother

2 Thessalonians 3

⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching^[1] you received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
¹¹We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹²Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. ¹³And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
¹⁴If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. ¹⁵Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

One problem with idleness is that if everyone waits for someone else to do something, it never gets done. My dad was telling me about a situation at work where they have 2 coffee pots. The one who empties the the pot has to make more. So, people pour some from one pot and some from the other so that the pots get logarithmically close to empty but take quite a while to actually be empty. But it's all just a waste of time trying to avoid any work. In the end, it's easier to just do the work rather than avoid it.