What Are You Worth?

By Rev. Tim Pauls

For this article, you can thank the Ustabe Lutherans.

This is a large—completely unorganized— demographic.They’re everywhere, materializing just for me.The conversation usually begins something like:

THEM: “What do you do for a living?”

ME: “I’m a Lutheran pastor.”

THEM: “Really? I usta be Lutheran, but I’m not anymore.”

At this point, misinterpreting my grunt of dread for an invitation, they will freely share why they’re no longer Lutheran, often citing a long list of misunderstandings and gripes for which I’m apparently responsible. Once they’re done telling me how happy they are now, I give them a wink and say, “Don’t worry. There’s still time to come back.”

This is not always appreciated. But I digress.

I’ve found two top reasons why Ustabe Lutherans used to be Lutheran. The first one is, “I usta be Lutheran, but then I found Jesus,” which is ironic enough to make me laugh and cry. The second goes like this: “I just hated saying I was a poor, miserable sinner all the time. I hated feeling so worthless.”

Sigh. Would that they had listened to the absolution after the confession.

Thus my question to you: what are you worth?

You’ve got to be worth something. You just might not always feel like it. I can think of a few situations in my life that I’d rather not relive. One of them would be eighth grade—not so much any particular day, just the whole year in general. For whatever reasons, I just didn’t feel worth much. Teenage years have a way of doing that to a lot of people.

For the record, we do not teach that you are worthless. We do teach that your worth doesn’t come from you.This is a good thing.

Consider a stack of wood; it’s worth a little. It’s worth a whole lot more if a skilled craftsman builds it into a fine cabinet. It’s worth a whole lot less if rot corrupts and makes the wood unusable.

God created you. By doing so, He gave you great worth. Sin corrupted you; and by your sin, the corruption continues. It robs you of your value all the way to the grave; the wages of sin is death, and one who is dead has no value left. However, God redeemed you from sin by the death of His own Son, and He continues to preserve you in the faith.

That’s where your worth comes from: God declares that you’re worth the blood of His only-begotten Son. That’s a high value. To Him, you’re worth a lot. He even uses you as His instrument to get things done.

Folks will say your worth comes from who you are and what you do. We’ve just established that “who you are” is “one for whom Christ died,” and “what you do” is “His will.” At least, it’s supposed to be. Let’s take a few of the Ten Commandments and see how this plays out in the school hallway, the cafeteria, the dance, and other places you might find yourself these days.

The Fourth Commandment is about authority: “Honor your father and your mother” and other authorities like teachers and bosses. As you grow more independent, it’s a big temptation to say to your parents, “You can’t tell me what to do!” and “I’ll do what I want!” and other such phrases that may have already come out of your mouth. That says, “I get my worth by defying authority.” That’s a far cry from God, who says, “I prize you so highly that I’ve entrusted authorities with your care.” This, by the way, is what makes the snobby in-crowds so sad at school. They’re a fake authority that says, “We decide who’s cool. We get our worth by making other people feel unworthy, by keeping them out.” Sad. The Lord has far better news: as the ultimate Authority, He laid down His life to bring you in—into the kingdom of heaven.

That takes us to the Fifth Commandment, preserving life and health. Hopefully, your school’s not a violent place, but consider a bully. He says, “I’m worth something because I can keep others from walking down this hallway. I’m worth something because others are weaker than me.” Cyber-bullies do the same thing, breaking the Eighth Commandment; the cyber-bully can spread rumors and destroy your reputation with e-mails, texts, and social network pages. One day, everything’s fine; the next, nobody will talk to you. Bullying is cowardly; cyberbullying even more so. It says,“I can only feel good about myself if I destroy other people.” One must have a low sense of worth if all he can think to do is try to make others feel even lower. It’s the far opposite from the Lord who wills to use His almighty power to serve, not destroy, to raise from sin and death to life and faith.

The Sixth Commandment is about a chaste and decent life, which our culture is definitely not into. According to the world, the so-called popular girl is the one who’s willing to sleep around, and the guy who is a virgin is to be ridiculed. But promiscuity doesn’t increase worth; it cheapens. Consider the Lord’s plan: He values you so much that, before anyone can be that close to you, he or she has to put a ring on your finger and promise to serve you exclusively for the rest of your life. That’s worth.

Your foes are the devil, the world, and your own flesh. They want to rob you of your worth by making sin look like it’s worth doing; and while rebellion, meanness, and promiscuity leave you worse off, impenitence leaves you miserably poor with a poverty of righteousness. Unforgiven, you remain corrupted by sin; there’s no worth there. But for the sake of Jesus, God says of you,“I value you so much that I’ve shed My Son’s blood to purchase you.”That’s the worth you have in God’s eyes; and no matter what anyone else says, that will never go away.

Rev. Tim Pauls is the associate pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and editor of Higher Things. He can be reached at pauls@higherthings.org.