Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: March 2, 2025
Speaker: Philip Kulishov
Are we responsible for the result, or are we responsible merely for the effort?
This is a sensitive question, and one that I’m aware needs to be answered carefully. The answer demands wisdom. But it’s also a serious question, and one that needs to be answered clearly. The answer demands integrity.
We must answer this question with careful clarity because eternity reverberates with our answer. Whether or not we think we’re responsible for the results of our work affects the level of blessing we receive here, and in the Resurrection.
My previous talk in the Build and Battle series was about business ownership - the End of Enterprise. I said that business owners are to care about excelling in their service to their customers. Business ownership does make it helpfully more clear when you’re not doing a good job. You’re unignorably confronted with the lack of results.
In other contexts, it’s easier to ignore poor results, or maybe it takes longer to be affected by them. Business owners do have the advantage of being ambushed frequently by their own poor performance. But not everybody has that luxury. A lot of our work doesn’t show its fruit until its much more difficult to do something about it. Unlike business, a lot of other fields don’t have such instant feedback loops. They’re not as kind to us.
So, let me step outside of just a business context, and enter into the context of all work. We’re talking about building and battling across all fields. Whether we’re building or battling, we are working. So, as we pursue this project, how are we to consider the results? Are we responsible for the results of our work?
The answer is yes. We are responsible for more than our effort. We are responsible for the results of our work.
Faithfulness is a topic we talk a lot about. What is faithfulness? In order to be considered faithful, we must go beyond 3 things.
In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. (Proverbs 14:23)
It’s good to have big ideas and aspirations. It’s also not that hard. Faithfulness and ambition is not judged by our words and desires.
And the king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off.’” (1 Kings 20:11)
Our faithfulness must go beyond our desires.
Faithfulness, they say, is putting in the effort and showing up. But does it really?
Faithfulness must go beyond simply showing up and putting in the effort.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:3-4)
The author of Hebrews gives us a standard for our faithfulness that goes beyond mere effort.
"As long as you do your best.” But what does that even mean?
Is it enough for a husband to “do his best” in resisting adultery? Is it enough for a wife to “do her best” in resisting rebellion? Is it enough for a dad to “do his best” to not drive his kids away from the Lord? Is it enough for an employee to do his best to come to work on time?
No. There’s an actual standard. If our best doesn’t meet the standard, we don’t get to wash our hands of the responsibility. We must get better than our best.
Before I read C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra for the first time 8 years ago, this was somewhat of my definition of faithfulness. Faithfulness means doing my best. The results are up to God.
This was also what Ransom believed when he was confronting the Un-man - the demon-possessed Weston. In the book, Ransom is summoned to go to the planet Venus, in order to keep the planet from falling into sin. A big portion of the book is Ransom going back and forth with the Un-man, presenting reason and argument, trying to keep the Lady from believing the Un-man’s lies.
After going at this for days on end, Ransom realized that it can’t keep going like this. If Ransom was Maleldil’s representative why then was he not successful? Ransom thinks:
Very well then. He had been brought here miraculously. He was in God’s hands. As long as he did his best - and he had done his best - God would see to the final issue. He had not succeeded. But he had done his best. no one could do more. “‘Tis not in mortals to command success.” He must not be worried about the final result. Maleldil would see to that.
On my first reading, I underlined this section because I agreed with it. I underlined too soon.
…It was in God’s hands. One must be content to leave it there. One must have Faith. …
It snapped like a violin string. Not one rag of all this evasion was left. …this picture of the situation was utterly false. His journey to Perelandra was not a moral exercise, not a sham fight. If the issue lay in Maleldil’s hands, Ransom and the Lady were those hands. The fate of a world really depended on how they behaved in the next few hours.
Ransom also, was unsure. He continues to argue with himself, trying to convince himself that he only needs to worry about effort, not results. But his mind ultimately couldn’t deny the truth.
Thus, and not otherwise, the world was made. Either something or nothing must depend on individual choices. And if something, who could set bounds to it? A stone may determine the course of a river. He was that stone at this horrible moment which had become the centre of the whole universe. The eldila of all worlds…were silent in Deep Heaven to see what Elwin Ransom of Cambridge would do.
Lewis, through the voice of Ransom, is saying that what we choose to do makes a difference in the course of history.
”And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Mordecai told Esther.
Faithfulness must go beyond doing our best.
As good Calvinists, this sounds absurd. We believe in God’s sovereignty over the outcome.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7)
If the results are up to God, doesn’t that mean that our faithfulness is limited to our effort?
Calvinism is not Fatalism. Fatalism tries to keep the characters out of the story, putting them on the same plane as the playwright. Fatalism limits the playwright’s omnipotence to the outcomes and not the means. As if the characters are part of the audience watching the story unfold on them, instead of being written into the story. But the author doesn’t just determine what happens, he decide how it happens. And a good author keeps it interesting.
A certain kind of pietism hides behind God’s sovereignty, and refuses to work.
God’s sovereignty does not negate man’s responsibility in any area. God is always sovereign. Man is always responsible. God created us with agency.
Faithfulness brings results.
In order to be deemed faithful, we must go beyond desire, effort, and “our best.” This “going beyond” is what work is. A worker is faithful when he does more than desire, try, or max out his capability. He’s faithful when he gets the job done. Faithfulness is evaluated by the result.
The Master in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 says to his servant who doubled his talents, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.” He makes this assessment because the servant had something to show for his work. He did not come empty handed.
So, how can we to work in a way that brings results? What does faithful work look like?
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29)
Results demand our competence. A complacent attitude is a faithless attitude. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth getting good at.
In order to be competent, we must care about what we’re doing.
A phrase like “the devil’s in the details” is supposed to scare us. If we miss the details, there’s danger looming. This is true. To be effective, we must care for the details.
But more than the devil, God is in the details. It’s not simply a matter of effectiveness. It’s a matter of image-bearing.
God cares about details. God crafted the moon and stars with his fingers, Psalm 8 says. He cares about the intricacy of his work. We see this not only in his creation, but also in his Sovereign decree in history. God never rushes to the conclusion. He builds the plot, develops the characters, has a multitude of side-narratives all leading towards the resolution. Details in Creation. Details in History. God cares about details.
Which means if we don’t, then we’re wrong. Poor is the image-bearer who doesn’t have the patience for details. For in those details, he finds the One whose image he’s bearing. If only he were to take the time to look.
We’re not used to caring like that. But we can learn. We learn to care by doing the thing we would do if we were to care. Care is demonstrated in action, and can be learned through action.
I ought not to sit around waiting to care before doing. I ought to start doing and keep doing, in anticipation that care will follow. Care and actions are a flywheel, one escalating the next. Sometimes care requires a jumpstart.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. (Luke 16:8)
Result-oriented work is almost never a straight-shot. Strategic thinking and shrewd timing is required.
In poker, you don’t just play the hand you’re dealt. You play the hand from the position you are around the table. You’ll play the same hand differently depending on where you’re sitting.
So, it is in our work. What are our opportunities, resources, abilities?
Yes, risk is real. We’re not God. We don’t know if we’re making the right decision.
Some of us would keep collecting data, and asking questions, and not acting because we’re not sure. But if we’re after results, at some point, we’re going to have to make decisions and commit resources, without being fully sure if we’re right.
Yes, there is a sort of foolish wanderlust, a naive ambition. We must be reasoned. But risk is inescapable if we are to produce results.
This was the fear of the unfaithful servant who buried his talent.
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. (Proverbs 21:5)
Yes, we can miss the forest for the trees. But we can also miss the trees for the forest.
We don’t get the results we want when we rush through our work haphazardly. The Bible tells us to be “patient in well doing.” Patience and diligence is required in order for our work to bring results.
I say Draining Diligence to emphasis that results typically come after it seems like we’ve squeezed out the entire rag and there’s no more water there. We get stronger when we fail our lift. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel, we wrestle with the problem until it gives us the answer. We strain to find the right words for our essay. We keep our butt in the seat and drain our effort until we get it figured out.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; (2 Corinthians 9:7-9)
Work is supposed to exhaust our effort.
But how do we sustain this sort of exhausting effort? We do it all by faith.
It’s by faith and through faith that we work to win.
We believe God, and then get to work. We believe God for 3 things:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
God is the one who tells us to work. This is God’s purpose for our lives. We were created to work. We were saved to work. And we will be glorified to work. If nothing else, we know that it is God’s will for us to work.
Align your faith with his purpose.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work…He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. (2 Corinthians 9:8, 10)
God not only purposes for us to work, but he provides all that we need in order for us to work. He’s the one who enables our work. He is able to make his grace abound to us, so that we can abound in every good work.
We believe God for his purpose. And we believe God for his promise.
God tells us what the outcome of our faithful work will be.
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Corinthians 9:6)
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)
In Luke 19, Jesus tells the parable of the 10 minas. A nobleman gives 10 servants each one 1 mina, and tells them to engage in business. When it was time to give account for the business, the servants came to present their gains. The first servant made a 10X return on his mina.
And he said to him, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. (Luke 19:17)
Consider the worth of a mina. 1 mina was about 3 months wage for a laborer. Let’s say about $15,000. This servant was entrusted with $15,000 and he brought back $150,000. That’s pretty good.
But in terms of investments, $150,000 doesn’t get you that far. Does $150,000 really qualify him to rule over 10 cities? I wouldn’t think so.
But Jesus does.
God wants to reward his people. God loves being abundantly generous with his people. His grace abounds now, and his reward will abound in the future for those who, by faith, work towards it.
God tells us to work, so believe him for his purpose. God enables us to work, so believe him for his provision. And God reward us for our work, so believe him for his promise.
And then, get to work.
A lot of productivity gurus will tell you to plan your life from your funeral. “Write your obituary,” they say, “and then live up to it.” What do you want to be remembered by? What do you want your legacy to be?
But we do not live and work for the day of our death. We live for eternity. We live for that first day of our life everlasting. We work to hear our Maker say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; (Romans 2:6-7)
We work to win those 10 cities.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Don’t work for your legacy. Work for your glory.
When God hands me those crowns, I will lay them down at His feet. I will give him all my trophies, because it was his purpose working in me, his provision enabling me, and his promise sustaining me.
In order for us to lay our crowns and trophies down at Jesus feet, we must first win them. We must first work for that result. And we do so only and always by faith.
It’s this faith that fuels our building and battling work. Because, faith works.