Calling: The Old and the New

A clear understanding of your calling is critical to meaning in your life and work. There are many biblical principles outlining the nature of calling. One issue that occasionally crops up, and obfuscates these clear principles, is references to Old Testament figures and their unique experiences which seem to challenge a New Testament view of calling. How should we reconcile the Old and New Testaments?

 Let’s start with some basics. How is the Bible to be interpreted as a complete entity and how do the Old and New Testaments interact? Various evangelical denomination differ in their emphases, with some regularly integrating the Old Testament, whereas other hardly refer to it. The basic approach to a balanced understanding of calling, however, is that while the entire Bible is divinely inspired, the New Testament is a fulfilment of the Old. Further, the New Testament deals with the “called people” rather than the “chosen people” and outlines the principles to be followed by this new community.

 Jesus talks about coming to fulfil the law and not abolish it. Jesus explains that “you have heard it said” and then goes on to explain “I say to you.” Jesus often quotes from Old Testament passages about “the Law” and then clarifies how that law is applied in the context of the people of God. The Apostle Paul and other New Testament writers interweave references to “the law” and then building on those principles.

 As I have spoken about calling in various venues around the world, I have often encountered some pushback on what I believe is a biblical concept of calling, most commonly with references to the Old Testament. For example, an individual will cite the story of Moses in Exodus 4:10: “Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." In response, “The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (v 11).

 The story of the interaction of God and Moses cannot be reduced to cherry picking a single verse. This is a unique story of God empowering Moses and continually inspiring him to lead the People of Israel. This example is more of a point about Moses’ confidence in his ability to lead the People of Israel. The message for us is not, as some suggest, that God can empower us beyond our actual abilities demonstrated to date. Otherwise the conclusion is that I don’t need to develop my skills—God will make up the difference. God will empower me—so I don’t need to work so hard at it. I can be passive, since God will be proactive. All the implications of the above-stated approach are dangerous—and go against New Testament teaching.

 In the Old Testament God communicated with His Chosen People. This happened through specifically-chosen individuals such as prophets who the communicated the message of God to the people. In the Old Testament, God calls prophets and rulers to do his will in the context of working with the People of Israel. In the New Testament the use of calling relates to a call to a life of faith.

 So how do we understand the above passage? This gets back to how we understand the Old Testament. We need to distinguish between a contextually-bound situation and timeless principles. In the above case there is the lesson that God was with the people of Israel, led them, and cared for them. The passage does not provide a timeless principle to today’s believers with respect to their calling.

 The bottom line is that the New Testament is determinative with respect to the perspective on calling. Paul’s writings are rife with description of calling. The Old Testaments provides examples of God’s work in the lives of prophets, leaders and many others. There are many eternal truths to be gleaned, but they must be understood in reference to the New Testament.