Going fishing?  Read this first. (This correspondence has been adapted from a no-longer-published online guest book.)

Saturday, 9/4/04, 11:24 AM Thomas Dexter, I have a question for you.  The bible says to be fishers of men, and I want to go fishing, but my wife says I have to cut the lawn and wash the car.  Where in the bible does it say to stay home, and do house work.  I think I need to be on the lake fishing, so I can feed the 5,000.  What do you think???? S.

Monday, 9/6/04, 5:59 PM An interesting question, S.  More than a sermon could be preached in answer to it, but I shall be pithy. The Bible says:

(Matthew 4.-19) "Come after Me [Jesus], and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1.-17) "Come after Me [Jesus], and I will make you to become fishers of men."

Two prerequisites to theological fishing:--- 1.  Follow Jesus. 2.  Be made a fisher of men by Jesus. That we must be told to follow Jesus shows no one is Christian by nature.  That we must be made fishers of men by Jesus shows no one is evangelistic by nature.  Natural desire to follow and fish is foreign to all.

(Psalm 14.2-3) Jehovah looked down from Heaven on the sons of mankind, to see if there was one considering and seeking God: all have turned aside; together they are corrupt; not one is doing good, not even one!

Hence the necessity of the supernatural rebirth (John 1.13, 1Peter 1.23).  Only by this rebirth can one follow Jesus, and only by following Jesus can that one be made a fisher of men by Jesus.  If one has genuinely been reborn, born again, born anew, the evidence will be manifest in his obedience to the Word of God.

(1John 2.3-6,29) And by this we know that we have known Him [God], if we keep His commands.  The one saying, "I have known Him," and not keeping His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in this one.  But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected.  By this we know that we are in Him.  The one saying to abide in Him ought so to walk himself even as that One [Jesus] walked. . . .  If you know that He [Jesus] is righteous, know that every one doing righteousness has been generated from Him [God].

If one claims to be Christian yet does not as a habit of life strive to obey his present God-given revelation of and enlightenment to the will of God in the Word of God (Ephesians 1.15-19, Colossians 1.3-11) his faith is suspect if not altogether illusory.

(Matthew 7.21) Not everyone who says to Me [Jesus], 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven. (Luke 6.-46-49) [W]hy do you call Me [Jesus] Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?  Everyone coming to Me and hearing My words, and doing them, I will show you to whom he is like:  He is like a man building a house, who dug and deepened, and laid a foundation on the rock.  And a flood occurring, the river burst against that house and had not strength to shake it, for it had been founded on the rock.  But he who hears and did not perform, he is like a man having built his house on the earth without a foundation, on which the river burst, and it immediately fell; and the ruin of that house was great."

Until and unless we be reborn, until and unless we follow Jesus and He make us fishers of men, our expeditions will be entirely fruitless.

(John 15.-5) [W]ithout Me [Jesus] you are not able to produce, not one thing.

The two prerequisites to recreational fishing from your wife are not unreasonable.  Consider:

(Proverbs 24.30-34) I passed over the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man lacking heart, and, behold, all of it was going up with thistles; nettles had covered its surface, and its stone wall was broken down.  And I beheld; I set my heart on it; I looked; I received instruction.  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down, and your poverty comes walking about, and your lack like a man with a shield.

Further, no less than seven times in the Old Testament do we find the principle "Work Precedes Rest."

(Exodus 20.8-11) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days you shall labor and do all your work; and the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work, you, and your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates.  For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all which is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; on account of this Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it. (Exodus 23.10-12) And you shall sow your land six years, and you shall gather its produce.  And the seventh year you shall let it rest and let it alone, and the needy one of your people shall eat.  And what they leave, the animals of the field shall eat.  So you shall do to your vineyard, to your oliveyard.  You shall do your work six days, and on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of your slave-girl and your sojourner may be refreshed. (Exodus 31.12-17) And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, "And you speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Keeping you shall keep My sabbaths; for it is a sign between Me and you for your generation; to know that I am Jehovah your sanctifier.  And you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you; the profaners of it dying shall die; for everyone doing work in it, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of his people.  Work may be done six days, and on the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, holy to Jehovah; everyone doing work on the Sabbath day dying shall die.  And the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to do the Sabbath for their generations; it is a never-ending covenant.  It is a sign forever between Me and the sons of Israel; for in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. (Exodus 34.21) You may work six days, and on the seventh day you shall rest.  In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. (Exodus 35.1-3) And Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel and said to them, "These are the words which Jehovah has commanded, to do them:  Work may be done six days and on the seventh day it shall be holy to you, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah; everyone doing work in it dying shall die.  You shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the day of the Sabbath." (Leviticus 23.3) Work is to be done six days, and in the seventh day shall be a sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to Jehovah in all your dwellings. (Deuteronomy 5.12-15) Keep the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Jehovah your God has commanded you.  Six days you shall labor, and shall do all your work, and the seventh day shall be a sabbath to Jehovah your God.  You shall not do any work, you and not your son, and not your daughter, and not your male slave, and not your female slave, and not your ox, and not your ass, and not any of your livestock, and not your stranger that is within your gates; so that your male slave and your female slave may rest like yourself.  And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm.  On account of this Jehovah your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

But there is a far more prominent reason to heed and fulfill the wishes of your wife.  I draw it out in some detail in an older effort entitled "So Let the Wives Be Subject to Their Own Husbands in Every Thing". S., I understand your question was likely in jest.  I could have casually answered, "Are there not enough hours in the day to cut the lawn, wash the car, and catch a mere two fish?" (Matthew 14.17, Mark 6.38, Luke 9.13, John 6.9)  But I answered as I did in light of underlying motives one might perceive in your query and for the sake of even one soul that may benefit from our correspondence. Your servant, Thomas John Dexter

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The author implores checking his commentary against Scripture using the tools of biblical interpretation.  Please be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker having no cause or need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Copyright © 2004-06 by Thomas John Dexter.  All rights reserved.  The matter of this work may be reproduced for distribution, but it is not to be sold.  The author's commentary is subject to change as he grows in knowledge and wisdom concerning the Word of God. Scripture taken from the KJ3—Literal Translation Bible - 2005 Edition.  Copyright © 2005.  By Jay P. Green, Sr.  All rights reserved.