Are you allowed to say it?

I'm getting from you (and the teachings of Jesus) that motivations are what is important. At what point do you draw the line at "working for food"? It seems pretty hard to get away from. For example, is cooking supper "working for food"? What about shovelling food into your mouth or walking to the store?

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Yeah, motivations are paramount. It's not wrong to work, but Jesus was trying to get us away from working for any motivation other than to work for love.

I think any of those examples you listed COULD become wrong, if the motivation becomes wrong. In most cases, people work for money, so money has become the most common expression of a bad motivation, but I think that's why Jesus said "mammon", because mammon includes money and the things money can buy.

If you would only cook dinner (or grow crops or whatever) because you expected some kind of payment for it, then the motivation starts to conflict with what Jesus taught.

Money is a self regulating system that puts a value on people's time and a value on other goods and services.

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Money only has as much value as people believe it has. We could get just as much done in the world without money, if people worked for a different motivation (like helping one another).

The problem which usually comes up is, what happens when people cheat or take advantage of our willingness to work for free? What happens if we help others, but then no one helps us in our need? They become afraid of all the "what if's" and as a result they continue to be a witness to the world that forcing people to pay us for our help is the only way to survive.

It is indeed a singular individual he is speaking to and this was the verse i was referring to ...you chose to take it out of context because you do that with every post which disagrees with the book you base this teaching on .

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Michael, you really don't like evidence, do you? In my first response to the lie you posted about Jesus only teaching forsaking all to a singular individual, I posted several examples of him teaching it to other people as a general principle of the kingdom of Heaven. (see posts #53-58 for the full exchange)

You ignored the evidence then and you are ignoring it now. One of those examples even comes from the same place you are referencing.

LK 18:28 Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee.

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I considered that you just had a misunderstanding, or maybe you just didn't know about the evidence. But after all your arguing and denials, even after I posted the evidence, it's clear that there was no misunderstanding in your comments.

Please don't tell any more lies about what Jesus didn't teach.

Do what you want OP but I would be careful with overdoing evangelism on work time because your boss might feel he is paying you while you are talking instead of working (depending on your job description that is).

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Hey spiritlight. My thoughts exactly. I doubt you've read through the entire thread, but I've said much the same thing you've said here.

This has led me to the conclusion that trying to do evangelism "at work" or "on the job" at all just isn't worth it and not particularly consistent with what Jesus taught.

In other words, if we have to "be careful with overdoing evangelism" because our employer might be offended by it, then we're probably working for the wrong employer.

Jesus said much the same when he said that we cannot work for two masters without cheating on one or the other. He said that God is one master and mammon (money and the things money can buy) is the other master.

God bless you is a nice thing to say anyway.

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I agree.

There is times to talk to people and times not to.

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That's true enough.

However, I'm hoping to move on to something a bit meatier, like WHY people sometimes choose to stay quiet.

There have been several indications on this thread that people choose to stay quiet because they don't want to upset their employer. It makes sense, because if we are being paid to do a specific job, then any time we give to doing ANOTHER job will be time spent cheating on our employer.

That's why Jesus talked about two masters, referring to God as one master and mammon (money and the things money can buy) as the other master.

Even the thing about "I say God bless you and that's my witness" is a subtle form of the "stay quiet" issue, because "God bless you" is so short and generally a more tolerated expression of faith because it's so commonly used. Yeah, it's something, but it's more like the bare minimum which people apply to soothe their consciences, but it's not really consistent with the kind of witness Jesus said he wants from us as his followers in general.

What happens if we start talking about the actual teachings of Jesus? What about "go into all the world preaching the gospel" or "Don't use special titles to exalt one another", or "pray for laborers because the harvest is ready but the laborers are few"?

Again, most Christians will argue, "that's not my responsibility; God didn't call me to preach that message; we all have our own ministries; I work for money so I can pay other people to do the witnessing for me."

It really makes me wonder if that's what Jesus was talking about when he said the road is narrow, and few will find it. Or, when he asked, "will the son of man find any faith on the Earth when he returns"?