Most Christians are saints living in municipal wells; they are neither clergies nor ministers, but live with the identity as Christians. In recent years, the Chinese churches have raised the awareness of this reality and are focusing more on ministering to believers in the professional fields.
How can believers stop being “Sunday Christians” but live out the callings of a Christian in their daily lives and show their faith in the career places?
Patrick Yuen, director of Hong Kong Professional & Educational Services Ltd (HKPES), shared four four virtues from the Bible that he believes that Christians in the professional fields must uphold.
In a research conducted by Reader’s Digest last year, among the 40 occupations ranked from highest to lowest esteems, fireman, paramedics, and doctors are ranked in the top three, while stock brokers, insurance agents, and realtors are ranked at the very bottom.
Yuen said that the trust level really depends upon the public image of those in those particular careers. He then continued to share the ways on how believers should look at the problems in their own professions.
Some people do not care about how others view their professions, but values only the money making aspect, said Yuen. Some believes that as long as you are right with your conscience, then it is not necessary to care about other's perspectives. However, he believes that Christians must reveal the "goodness" more in their profession.
Yuen refers to Micah 6:8 - He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God - which efined "goodness" to include faithfulness, righteousness, mercy, and humility.
These are the four virtues that Yuen believes Christians must uphold in their professions, becoming the bright lampstand for others to see.
For the first virtue of "loyalty", he attributed it to the Parable of Talents taken from Matthew 25. Besides closing walking together with God, obeying commandments, and carrying out the responsibilities, what's more important is to bring the relationship of faithfulness and loyalty with God into the work places, he said.
As for "righteousness", it is not referring to the justice of this world, but that of the Bible defined as having an upright heart and acting justly. Yuen said that acting justly is to not do evil, to avoid wickedness, or to attack wickedness after it has been committed.
The society today is like that of mercenaries, which money rules over human relationships, said Yuen. “Benevolence” is to maintain a heart of goodness. But those who admit to having a benevolent heart are often times tricked or laughed at, so it is important to act with wisdom and be careful not to do bad things with good intensions.
Lastly, Yuen spoke of the last virtue of humility. For most people, it seems that humility has no market value, but true humility is referring to not thinking oneself as something when he is not, and to treat superiors and subordinates with humility, having a sober judgment of oneself, which would be enormously helpful to one’s interpersonal relationships. Moreover, this personal trait is actually very important in the work places, but are often times neglected.
Yuen believes that if believers today can uphold these four virtues in the professional fields, then they can definitely be the salt and the light for the Lord, and be a bright lamp post in their professional fields.
[Editor's note: reporter Luke Leung translated the article.]
