merit – The Lowedown

Ephesians 1

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:3-6, NIV)

The Daily DAVEotional

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is chock full of important doctrinal truths that are foundational to the Christian faith.

In the opening verses of his letter, Paul outlines a number of spiritual blessings that are all true for believers the very moment they come to faith in Christ.

The first major blessing that Paul mentions is that we’ve been adopted into God’s family as his sons (and daughters). We experience this new relationship with God the moment we put our faith in Him.

Paul mentions two things about this adoption.

The first thing that Paul says is that we were chosen.

I know a little bit about what it means to be chosen.

When I was in grade school and it came time for teams to be picked at recess, I was usually one of the last ones chosen. I was extremely small for my age and I wasn’t particularly athletic. Because I didn’t stand out, I was usually the last person available when teams were formed, which means I often ended up on a team only by default.

My early childhood experience of not being chosen created negative feelings of self-worth as I was keenly aware that being chosen was often based on characteristics that I simply did not possess.

A few years after my wife and I got married, the opportunity to be “chosen” came about in a different context.

My wife and I struggled with infertility and so we decided that the best option to start a family was to pursue adoption. After some research, we decided to apply to become adoptive parents though an adoption agency known as Bethany Christian Services. They promote what is known as open adoption, which means that there is a negotiated relationship between the birth mom and the adoptive parents.

The way this agency works is that birth moms who come into Bethany Christian Services wanting to make an adoption plan for their child look through a binder of profiles that represent the many different couples who are seeking to adopt. When they find couples that interest them, a meeting is arranged to get to know one another. After the meeting, if both the birth mom and the adoptive couple like each other, then a match is made.

In short, the birth mothers “choose” the families they want to meet who will potentially become adoptive parents to their child.

When my wife and I were navigating the process of adoption, we eventually got to a point where we needed to create a profile of ourselves to place in this binder.

We had jumped through all of the hoops, including filling out our application, undergoing a vigorous background check, getting references and having an in-home inspection to ensure our apartment was baby-proofed.

Once we had passed all of these checkpoints, we then had to create a profile of ourselves so that when birth mothers looked through the binder of couples, they would see our profile and possibly “choose” us.

I remember our social worker giving us a binder to look at so we could see samples of how other couples had presented themselves. Our task was to create 4-6 pages to introduce ourselves and market ourselves to the birth moms. The hope was to stand out in such a way that at least one birth mom would notice us and seek a meeting.

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As I looked through the many profiles, I couldn’t help but think to myself that “these other couples are my competition.” I also noticed that many of the couples had nice homes and seemed to be better off financially than we were. We were living in an apartment at the time and, as missionaries, we certainly did not have lucrative jobs financially.

The thought that crossed my mind was, “what birth mother is ever going to pick our profile out of this binder? We have nothing to offer from a worldly perspective.”

The thing is that this is NOT how God chooses. He didn’t choose you from a book of resumes or a binder of profiles. You weren’t chosen based on your stellar achievements or amazing accomplishments.

The text says that we were chosen “before the creation of the world”, which is the second truth about adoption in this passage.

This means that God chose before any of us were born. Therefore, His choice could not have been based on anything we did because we weren’t alive yet to do anything that might merit God choosing us.

If you’ve placed your faith in Jesus, Scripture says that you now have a new relationship with God. You’ve been adopted into God’s family by His choice. He didn’t choose you (or me) because we were the best athletes, the smartest students, the funniest people, the most well-adjusted or the best-dressed. His choice wasn’t based on our success, our belief in ourselves or our family name.

His choice wasn’t based on any of the things that we tend to think of when we think about qualities that are necessary to be chosen. God’s choice is based simply, and only on His love, which is unconditional.

This is a hard concept to imagine because for most of us, we operate in a world and a culture where merit is everything. Think about it. If you want a good job you have to stand out. You have to have a good pedigree. You need good grades and a degree from a good school. You need a proven track record and stellar references. The ultimate trump card is knowing someone who has an in – someone who can use their influence on your behalf.

That’s the worldly understanding of choice. Fortunately for us, that is NOT how God operates. If it was, I’m certain that I’d still be on the sidelines, having been excluded from the fun because I wasn’t good enough to get picked.

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Reflection

Growing up, were you the kind of kid who usually got selected or the kind of kid who didn’t get selected? How did that impact your view of yourself and others?

What are some common things we tend to get chosen for? What kinds of qualities or characteristics are generally necessary to be chosen for those things?

I often have asked people this question: How do you think God chooses who makes it into heaven and who doesn’t? What do you think is His criteria?

What do you think it means that God’s only choice for adopting you, choosing you, was love?

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Matthew 20

¹“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ²He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

³“At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. ⁴So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. ⁵At noon and again around three o’clock he did the same thing. ⁶At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

⁷“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’

“The owner of the estate told them, ‘Then go on out and join the others in my vineyard.’

⁸“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. ⁹When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. ¹⁰When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. ¹¹When they received their pay, they protested, ¹²‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

¹³“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? ¹⁴Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. ¹⁵Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?’

¹⁶“And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then.”
(Matthew 20: 1-16, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

Have you ever been treated unfairly or unjustly? As a kid, when things didn’t work in my favor, I would usually cry out, “that’s not fair!”

But what is fairness? What is just and what is unjust?

In this passage from Matthew 20, Jesus shares a story that may cause you to rethink your view and understanding of fairness and justice.

In the scenario, a vineyard owner goes out early in the day and hires a number of day workers to work in his fields. He agrees to pay them the normal accepted wage for their labor.

At mid-morning the owner hires more workers, agreeing to pay them whatever is right at the end of the day. The owner hires more laborers at noon and again at 5:00, just one hour before the end of the day.

When the work day ends and it’s time to settle up with the workers, those who had worked only 1 hour receive their pay, which turns out to be a full day’s wages.

Naturally, those who worked the full day think they will receive more since they worked longer.

But when the time comes to pay those who worked all day, they receive the same amount that the owner paid those who worked only 1 hour. The workers who worked all day are incensed. How could the owner pay them the same amount even though they worked a whole day when the last group worked only for one hour? It doesn’t seem fair!

What do you think? Was the owner being unfair? Your answer may reveal how you view God and His system of fairness.

The problem is not that the owner is unfair. The problem is that our understanding of fairness is wrong. People tend to operate on a merit based system, or a meritocracy, where those who work harder and achieve more are rewarded more. As a result, we’re conditioned to believe that those who worked less somehow got more. BUT THEY DIDN’T. They got the same outcome and the same payment as those who had worked the full day.

God, who is represented by the vineyard owner, does NOT operate in a meritocracy. God operates in an environment of grace and generosity. He lavishes grace on whomever He chooses. While some might look at this story and conclude that God gave a higher hourly wage to some over others, which seems unfair, Jesus invites the reader and His audience to look at this scenario in a different way.

Instead of assuming God is treating some favorably over others, the point of the story is that God shows compassion and graciousness on some while not disaffecting others. In other words, those who came to work late were generously given the same portion as those who worked the whole day.

Here’s the key point: Those who worked the whole day were not negatively disaffected by the owner’s generosity. They were simply annoyed because of their own greed and envy.

If you think of the daily wage as representing salvation, then in this parable, anyone who responds to the invitation of the owner, no matter how early or late, receives the same outcome – eternal life! It’s not possible for some who respond early to receive a greater amount of eternal life than someone who responds late. The outcome is the same – anyone who responds to the owner (God) will receive the gift of eternal life (a full day’s wage), no matter when they respond.

So what do you think? Does this story demonstrate that God is unfair to some? NO. If anything, it shows how gracious and generous He is while also showing that those who THINK He’s unfair are often motivated by their own jealousy and envy.

Reflection

How have you interpreted and understood this passage in the past? How have you explained the fact that the owner pays a higher hourly wage to some than others? Isn’t that unfair? Isn’t that inequitable?

What do you say to those who claim that God is unfair or that He doesn’t treat people equitably?

How do you personally reconcile the idea that some come to Christ and serve Him early in life while others may respond to His invitation late in life and yet the outcome is the same? How does this contradict or confirm your own understanding of fairness with God?

What practical ideas do you have for cultivating a deeper, more biblical understanding of God’s graciousness and fairness?

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