Wise Solomon understood the principle of opportunity cost. He realised that, to gain something, you also need to be willing to lose something. He recorded this lesson in Proverbs 14:4: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” That is, if you want a productive farm, it will come at the cost of a dirty barn.
In Solomon’s day, oxen were necessary for the ploughing of fields, making way for the planting of seeds. And after months of growth, the farmer returned with his oxen to that field to gather the harvest, loading it onto the wagon. By the strength of the oxen, the farmer could sow, and later reap the harvest, bringing in the sheaves. But, of course, the cost of having these helpful oxen was a messy manger, which meant the hard work of cleaning it up. Cleaning up the mess was the cost of the blessing of harvest. And it was worth it.
My wife, Jill, has always appreciated the opportunity cost associated with raising children, and she often found solace in this proverb. Things can become quite hectic in any family, including a family of seven. When I would become frustrated with broken appliances, lack of hot water (five teenaged daughters!), lights left on in every room, growing grocery bills, hair all over the show (five daughters!), a driveway that looked like a car lot, orthodontists, university payments, etc., Jill would quote these words: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” She was reminding me that the opportunity cost was worth having a family. And she was right. As I get older, I find myself sometimesmissing a messy manger. Cleaning up was a small price to pay for being surrounded by a happy family. But the same can also be said of the local church. There are opportunity costs associated with a biblically faithful local church.
A fruitful church will rarely be a neat and tidy church. Like a productive household, there will be messes to clean up, but the cost of spiritual maturity is worth it. When we are called upon to sweep the manger clean of our sinful folly, when we fulfil our responsibility to shovel out the residue of unrepentant behaviour, when we are faced with the task of rebuilding the walls after malicious attacks, when we labour to keep Christians within the membership and non-Christians outside of church membership, we might experience physical fatigue, emotional fragility, and spiritual weariness. Yet the harvest of holiness and the fruit of God’s favour is worth it all.
Of course such unpleasantness, hardship, and heartache can also be avoided. As long as, of course, we are content to live without a spiritual harvest. If we are satisfied with “us four and no more,” if we are okay with not growing in Christ, if we are okay with not making progress in the hallowing of God’s name or in the extension of his kingdom or in obedience to God’s revealed will, then, yes, the “manger” of our local church will be squeaky clean, nice, and tidy. And useless, I must add. In fact, I think Solomon would have taken issue with Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Rather, in the context of Proverbs 14:4, Solomon might have said, “Cleanliness is next to uselessness.”
One wiser than Solomon spoke of spiritual opportunity cost in this way, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:24–26). So says Jesus to all who desire to experience the harvest of God’s gracious forgiveness and favour. In other words, believing and therefore obeying the Lord Jesus will be costly, yet worth more than all the world.
Brothers and sisters, let this brief article serve as a reminder that progress as Christians, both individually and corporately, requires labour—lots of it. But the harvest of Christlikeness, the produce of advancement of the kingdom, is worth putting up with the occasional messiness of our lives together as members of Brackenhurst Baptist Church. Our manger may not always be as clean as we would wish, yet let’s be grateful that neither is our manger empty.
Grateful for a church full of oxen,
Doug