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Muddled Christian Views on Work

Muddled Christian Views on Work

How do you view work? As an inconvenient separation of your weekends? A means to earn money to enjoy life? A result of the curse on Adam that has left us with this hardship to endure? A means God has given us to change the world? A staging point in life to earn income before going to Bible College and full-time pastoral ministry?

These leading questions are an attempt to make a simple point. That is, we often view work in relationship to other things that we believe matter more. Many see work as part of life, but not part of our ministry, as if our day-to-day labours were somehow excluded from the service we offer to God as followers of Christ. This is muddled and unhelpful thinking. Justin Taylor labels this type of thinking as “sub-biblical”. He writes…

We need to recover the reformational understanding of vocation: all of life—in every sphere and in every calling—should be lived to the glory of God and in obedience to his Word. Abraham Kuyper wrote, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!” If that’s true (and it is!), isn’t it worth our time and effort to think through how to glorify God in the area of work to which he has called you?”[1]

Sourcing Our Muddled Views

Sourcing Our Muddled Views

Misreading Scripture

Misreading Scripture

From where do such muddled views of work come? In part, they come from our misreading of Scripture and what it has to say about work, ministry and life. It is true that Scripture speaks of a particular work (described by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:58; 16:10 as “the work of the Lord”) that participates directly in the extension of the gospel and the building up of the church,[3]but it never suggests that those who earn their living by doing that work are somehow more important than those who earn their living in other ways, or that the only portions of our weekly labours that matter to God are the bits that contribute immediately and obviously to that work.

Narrow Definitions

Narrow Definitions

Our muddled views are also influenced by the narrow ways in which we sometimes define what counts as “work”, and the pagan thinking that teaches us to attribute special value to particular kinds and classes of work. Thus (whether we consciously admit to it or not) we frequently attribute greater value to high-paid, professional jobs than to low-paid menial labours, and unpaid voluntary labour or care of others in the home or community is sometimes not even counted as “work” at all.

I can recall one young man with whom I prayed, was always unhappy that his vocation didn’t have the meaning and significance that he thought was the key to satisfaction with work. He would constantly lament, “it’s all right for you Trevor, you have a job where you are in charge of people and things. I sit at a computer all day entering data.” For him, significance was being judged in terms of what his role was and where he worked. In his eyes, it wasn’t as good or as significant and rewarding as my job. It was as if, when he was at work, what he did had little relationship to the rest of his life and his relationship to God. Work wasn’t a place to develop relationships with people who needed God. Nor was it a place where he saw honouring God as his chief priority. He never asked for prayer about anything other than how he could endure the seeming insignificance of the tasks of his working days.

Wisdom to Live By

Wisdom to Live By

A Passion to Glorify God

A Passion to Glorify God

John Piper wisely reminds us that God created us to live a single unified, coherent, consistent and authentic Christian life. He writes, “God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all spheres of life.”[3]

Piper’s thesis is straight forward, work was given to us by God as part of life. All of life is to be lived in such a way that God is given glory by what we do. As such it matters less where we work and the type of work that we do, than how and why we do it.

When I became a Christian at the age of 31 after seeing myself as an atheist, I was deeply challenged about the role of work in my life. My initial thought was that work to that point in life had been about self-focussed goals, pride, status and a desire to claw my way up the professional ladder. I asked myself serious questions about my work and whether I needed to change employment and perhaps even head down a path to full-time Christian ministry. However, as I read Scripture I was given guidance in numerous places that helped me to begin to reassess the role that work had in my life. Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 was initially very helpful. God had called me while an academic, so perhaps there was no immediate reason to change the type of work I did, but I did need to reassess its place in my life.

Changing Direction in Vocation

Changing Direction in Vocation

John Piper again offers wisdom for those agonising about a possible change direction in relation to their vocation. While at times God would have us change direction and embark on new paths in work and life in general, whatever he has given us to do as a vocation, whether paid or unpaid, we are to do it in such a way that we honour him and bear fruit (Genesis 1:27–28). Just as Paul commended bondservants to be submissive to their masters, likewise we too are meant through our work “…to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything [we] may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour” (Titus 2.9b–10).

Opportunity for Fellowship With God

Opportunity for Fellowship With God

Moreover, no matter how boring or menial it might be, our work offers opportunity for fellowship with our God in the midst of trials or even boredom. Our God is always with us. As he told Israel through the prophet, ‘ “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’ (Isaiah 41.9b–10). Fellowship with God is possible in any of the circumstances of life, including work.

Other Benefits of the Workplace

Other Benefits of the Workplace

The workplace is also a place to form friendships and build strong relationships that permit us to share our faith as we share our lives with co-workers. Finally, paid work enables us not to be a burden to others (2 Thessalonians 3:8) and to act generously towards others (2 Corinthians 9:1–11). Armed with a more biblical perspective on work we should reassess how we honestly answer my initial questions in this post. What might be a right view of work? How should I shift my focus from what I do to why I do it? How can I glorify God through my work as part of the life I sacrifice to Him?

1. Justin Taylor, Thank God it’s Monday! Justin Taylor on a Theology of Work, cited 7 January 2015. Online: http://www.trenthunter.net/?p=469.

2. Cf. Peter Orr, “The Work of the Lord”, cited 14 January 2015. Online: http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2014/09/the-work-of-the-lord/#fn-26259-6.

3. John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton Ill: Crossway Books, 2003), 31.

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