As followers of Jesus, we need to thoughtfully reflect God’s mission and character in our everyday work.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I’ve come to believe that acting “in the name of Jesus” is fundamentally about acting in congruence with Jesus’s character and mission. What mattered to me as a business owner was that my employees understood what we wanted to do as a company (our mission) and who we intended to be as a company (our character). So, as followers of Jesus, we need to thoughtfully reflect God’s mission and character in our everyday work.
It's always personal, I’ve found this helpful, as I’ve thought about what it means to do everything “in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
For one thing, it means that God’s reputation is at stake in our everyday work.
Max De Pree wisely said about leadership more generally, we “abandon ourselves to the gifts of others.”
As a result, I’ve come to believe that acting “in the name of Jesus” is fundamentally about acting in congruence with Jesus’s character and mission.
What mattered to me as followers of Jesus, we need to thoughtfully reflect God’s mission and character in our everyday work.
“Everything, in word and deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
As Christians, that’s why our spiritual disciplines of prayer, studying the Scriptures, engaging in common worship with the Body of Christ, etc., are so important.
These disciplines are intended to help us get to know the person “behind the name” that we have taken for ourselves.
They are to direct our work toward his mission and to give fidelity to the character of our work.
The patriarch Jacob, we are called to wrestle with God and with the circumstances that are before us.
No doubt, God could intervene more directly, but our ability to internalize his mission and character is often shaped in the crucible of our wrestling.
And, like Jacob, our identity (and name!) is positively reshaped as a result, even though we leave the experience limping.
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