You Are God's Co-Worker

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2, NIV

One day at work in the psychiatric emergency department, we were performing a restraint on a psychotic young lady for her safety and the rest of the unit. She fought back and tried to spit in our faces. It was a traumatic experience for all involved.  

In the midst of the medical restraint, I began to wonder if I needed to be more concerned about the mental state of one of my co-workers than I was about the patient we were trying to sedate! The stress of the situation sent his emotions sky high, and his words and actions followed suit. 

In contrast to this, my wife and I tackled a home project together. Not only was it a very different work environment, but we had great teamwork. We purchased wide-plank hardwood floors for our home, but to make it affordable, we finished and installed the flooring ourselves. There were 94 boards on three drying racks in our garage, and we would work 2 or 3 hours together after we had put the kids to bed. It took us 5 months to complete. 

It was a bit rocky in the beginning while we learned how best to work together. But we communicated, learned each other’s strengths, and our work eventually became like a choreographed dance. Basically, we developed very good synergy. Our combined effort was so much better than working alone. 

When you hear that you are God’s co-worker, what image comes to your mind? Is He a good co-worker? Or is He someone you need to watch out for and be careful around so that His emotions don’t get the better of Him… to your detriment?  

Essentially, what is your synergy in working together with God?  

I ask because that is the word Paul uses in this verse.  

Synergy basically means combined action. When we hear someone say, ‘I have good synergy with this person’, we know that they mean they work well with them. We often use it when talking about how our combined efforts produce more than when we work alone—more excitement, more cooperation, and a better product.  

So, we come back to the question: How do you view God as a co-worker?

The context of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 describes how, out of love for us, Christ died for us, so that God could exchange our sin for Christ’s righteousness.  

Then, in chapter 6, Paul tells us that this is a gift from God’s grace—His unearned favor toward us. We don’t deserve this gift of forgiveness and restoration to life, yet through Jesus’ sacrificial death, these things are freely given to us. Not only that, but we are brought into a relationship with our loving and holy God. Because of this, Paul encourages and challenges us to work on improving our relationship with our Heavenly Father now. Today is the best day to do this. Why wait any longer? 

I don’t know about you, but I love working with co-workers who watch out for one another’s best interests. They care about one another and truly love one another. They extend grace and forgiveness when wrong is done and mistakes are made. And they communicate and learn how to work better together. I can work with someone like that any day!  

Yet, God is better than anyone else in each of these areas. He is the best co-worker. 

Do you know what was the best part of my wife and I working on the floor project together? It wasn’t the beautiful floor that resulted. It was the improvement in our relationship, and the bond these memories created in the process. Our love and respect for one another grew as we learned to work well together.  

In the Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrased Paul’s words this way: “Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly…” (2 Corinthians 6:2b-4a)

Dear Saints, today is a good day to work with the best co-worker you will ever have, your Heavenly Father. How is your synergy with our loving Father God? Are you giving Him your best?