Skills or gifts?

I write this as the day of our annual Craft Show approaches. Sadly our chapel will host no more such shows after this year, certainly under current management, as it is due to close its doors for the last time at the end of July. With all the preparations for this big change, though, we are still looking forward to welcoming craft enthusiasts with amazing skills in a variety of areas – pottery, card making, woodworking, painting to name just a few.

A Christian who is good at crafts will not claim the credit for what they can do that others can’t. Even if it is a “natural” aptitude in one direction or another, it is given by God who created us all to be just as we are.

So is there any dividing line at all between being naturally skilled and having a God-given gift? I find myself thinking of a character who crops up in the story of the building of the Tabernacle, the portable temple which God ordered His people to build while they were on their long journey between Egypt and Israel.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you ...’” (Exodus 31:1-6 ESV)

Someone with a purely worldly outlook would say that Bezalel was artistic and nothing more. Maybe his parents were skilled at crafts, they would speculate. Maybe they were keen to pass on their techniques to the young Bezalel, and he was keen to learn. Or maybe it was somewhere in the genes. They would expect to find that a certain part of Bezalel’s brain was highly developed and gave him a predisposition to be good at handiwork. The Bible, however, is up front in crediting the Holy Spirit with the gifts that Bezalel enjoys.

“Wherever a willing heart commits itself to hear the call of God and to do the will of God, the filling of the Spirit of God may reverently be assumed. Helping and administration are as much his concern as healing and speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28),” comments Alec Motyer.

And Bezalel with his special skills is simply one of a massive bunch of labourers who will be working on the Tabernacle. His gifts do not make him one of a race apart. Immediately after Bezalel’s commissioning, as Motyer wisely points out, God re-emphasises the Sabbath laws. The uniqueness and holiness of the workers’ task do not allow them to sit loose to the law of God.

In the same way, Christians’ unique standing as people for whom Christ died does not allow us to play fast and loose with God’s will either.

The Pompous Self

This year I have been working through one of the earliest attempts to put the Bible into up to date English after centuries of dominance by the hallowed King James Version. It is by Dr R F Weymouth and is known as the Weymouth New Testament. It was published in various editions starting in 1903. 

Few people have heard of it today. They are more likely to have come across one of the more recent flood of new Bibles. It seems very self-indulgent that we have a huge variety of English translations to suit all tastes when there is no Bible at all in many languages!

In many ways Weymouth is unremarkable as a translation. It is in the English of Weymouth’s day. It is dignified and mostly reads well but is sometimes stilted. I imagine it was a useful springboard for later scholars to put pen to paper and make their attempts.

Sometimes it is the notes which catch my eye and get me thinking. One case in point was about Jesus’ teaching on self-denial. Here is the Bible passage in Weymouth’s words:

And He said to all,

“If anyone is desirous of following me, let him ignore self and take up his cross day by day, and so be my follower. For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake shall save it. Why, what benefit is it to a man to have gained the whole world, but to have lost or forfeited his own self? For whoever shall have been ashamed of me and my teachings, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own and the Father’s glory and in that of the holy angels.”

(Luke 8:23-26)

So Weymouth chooses to render the usual “Let him deny himself” by “let him ignore self”. Then he adds this footnote: 

“Let him disown the usurped authority of his own lower nature, and say ‘no!’ to its dictates.”

This immediately reminded me of a book written by American Quaker Richard J Foster and surely a classic of its day. It was entitled “Money, Sex and Power”. Sadly, I have given my copy away, but from memory Foster gives this advice about money – I’ve never forgotten the wisdom of it: “Challenge all the deadly seriousness it exudes. Stamp on it. Yell at it. Burst the bubble of its pomposity.” That’s it – desecrate the idol! It’s in your own interest!

Foster is right. Weymouth is right too. Our lower nature, our self-indulging nature, usurps the authority of another. That other is God Himself. The devil tries to persuade everyone to doubt God’s authority and kid themselves that they have more right to power than God does. They end up doing his job for him!

But in reality his promptings are dictators. We think we can listen to them selectively – enjoy what they have to offer at one moment, wave them away at another moment. But our fancied choices only serve to fuel our pride and put us on a pedestal above God. For Jesus, there is only one way to go – say “no” to their pompous demands. Say “yes” to Christ, because He is a different character altogether:

“Come to me, all you toiling and burdened ones, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For it is good to bear my yoke, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, again from Weymouth).