Pastor Lyle Mook believes that discipleship needs to include a workplace focus. He was moved to find his opinion reflected in the TOW Bible Commentary on Luke 3, as he describes in this video.

Transcript:

As a pastor, we have a mission priority around making disciples. We call it: being and making disciples that glorify God in every area of life. You can’t do that without talking about work life.

I’ve found that the Theology of Work Project has been really helpful, especially their commentary as it relates to teaching and preaching scripture.

For example, we were in the gospel of Luke for much of the year. When we came to Luke 3, every gospel talks about John the Baptist, but Luke is different. As I’m reading Luke 3 - John calls people to repentance - it gives three different examples.

I decided to go to the Theology of Work commentary. It was really helpful.

Three different categories of people come back and say “What should we do?” John says:

1. “If you have two cloaks, give one away to somebody who doesn’t have it.” The same with food. Well that’s talking about what you do with your stuff and your priorities.
2. Then it says: “Tax collectors, collect only what you should.” Well that’s workplace ethics. That’s again how you treat people.
3. And then the third one was the soldiers. “Don’t abuse people.” These are probably Herod’s soldiers. “Don’t abuse people and be content with your wages.”

It was fascinating how none of those things sound deeply spiritual. He didn’t say go back to the temple or pray more. It had to do with everyday life. And that’s what it means to be a disciple. It’s every day.