Last week we studied what Paul said to slaves and masters in the church at Ephesus (Eph. 6:5-9). Because slavery in the New Testament era wasn’t what we commonly think of as slavery, we said that it’s fair to think of his instructions to slaves and masters as instructions to employees and employers. The main point of that text was that God cares for how employees and employers treat one another. There should be mutual respect and fairness among bosses and their workers. Each should remember that God is the boss of all and that all will give an account of their work to him.
We might say that our text last week gave us an ethics of work. It told us how we should conduct ourselves at work, what we should do and not do. This week, I want us to briefly step away from Ephesians and talk about a theology of work. If last week was about how we should act at work, this week is about the nature of work. We need to know how to work and why we work.
I’m leaning heavily on Timothy Keller’s book Every Good Endeavor in the content of this message, and I strongly recommend you read it, as well as Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert’s book The Gospel at Work and Matt Perman’s What’s Best Next for further biblical teaching on this often overlooked subject.
Why This Matters
The reason I want to do this topical message this morning is simple. We will spend the vast majority of our waking hours at work, so we need to think carefully and biblically about what we’re doing with the bulk of our lives.
If you’re a college student or retired, you may be tempted to assume that none of this applies to you. But school work is still work, and you should have higher aspirations for your time in college than just getting a degree and making some friends. God has given you work to do in college, so it’s good to think about the nature of that work. If you’re retired, you probably don’t work for pay, but you still do lots of work. You manage your home, take care of family, and serve in the church and community. That’s work!
We all need to think about work from a Christian standpoint. We need to consider how we integrate our faith and our work. We often assume that work is totally unrelated to our faith, that it’s just the way we pay our bills, provide for our family, find fulfillment, or fund our retirement. We sometimes minimize our work by assuming that our workplace is merely the mission field that God has placed us in. It is that, no doubt. But is there anything more to be said about our work? Yes there is.
What Is Work?
What is work? Let’s start with a basic definition. Work is an inherently good and basic part of being human. It entails cultivating and serving. It’s a calling from God, but painful because of sin. This definition is our outline this morning. It gives us six things about work.
Work Is Good
First, work is good. Let’s begin in the second chapter of the Bible (Gen. 2:1-3). We learn here that God worked to create and order the cosmos. Work was there in the very beginning. The Bible talks about work as soon as it talks about anything. This teaches us that work is a basic part of what God is up to in the world.
In verses 2-3, the word for “work” is one of two Hebrew words for “work.” It’s not the one that means unskilled labor. It’s the one that means skilled labor, the kind of work a craftsman or artisan would do. God’s work is skilled, professional, excellent work. God’s work in making the world wasn’t like a laborer digging a ditch, but like an artisan making a masterpiece.
Here’s what this means. God worked in the beginning, so work wasn’t a necessary evil that came into existence later or only something that God’s creatures would do. God himself worked. Work is not beneath God. God worked because he wanted to, because of the sheer joy of creating and ordering things to display his glory. Work could not have a more exalted place in God’s universe.
If work was not below God, then it shouldn’t be below any of his creatures who’re able to work. This is why the Bible has strong things to say about laziness and idleness. Proverbs 18:9, “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”
Genesis 2:1-3 teaches us that God was working from the very beginning, giving work inherent dignity and honor. In Genesis 2:15, we learn that work was part of God’s good plan for mankind. The Lord made man in his image, placed him in the Garden of Eden, and them put him to work. He later made woman so that she could help the man in his work (v. 18). This means that work was part of God’s original and good design for us.
Earlier in Genesis 1:26-27, we see a connection between being made in God’s image and being made to work. Being made in God’s image means having dominion over what he’s made. He made us to reflect his authority to the world. One of the ways we do this is through work. This gives work inherent dignity. Work is not evil. Work reveals that we bear the image of the God who made all things through work.
Keep in mind that all of this happened before sin comes into the world in Genesis 3. Work was part of life in the paradise of God. We often think of paradise as unending leisure, but that wasn’t the case. Living in paradise meant work, because work is good. We need to remember this because we often think of work as a necessary evil or even as punishment. Work is part of the blessedness of life in the garden of God, not part of the brokenness of life in a fallen world.
Work Is a Basic Part of Being Human
Second, work is a basic part of being human. Work is so basic to our existence that it’s one of the few things we can take in heavy doses without harming ourselves. The Bible says we should work six days and rest one, like God (Gen. 2:3), not rest six and work one. Rest and leisure are very important and shouldn’t be neglected. But we can only take so much of them. Have you ever taken a vacation and been stir crazy toward the end of it? This is because, though rest is good, God made us to work more than rest. This is why I think that laziness or sleeping too much or being unwilling to work can often lead to depression. God made us to work.
Work is a basic human need, just like food, rest, friendship, and sexuality. Tim Keller summarizes this well, “Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.”
This is why many retired folks find little jobs to do during their retirement. This is why you’ll often meet the sweetest elderly folks serving as greeters at Wal-Mart. It’s not for the money! This is why my Papa Sypert volunteered at his local hospital when he could no longer work. Even after we’re done working for money, we still have a desire to work because God created us to work.
We’ve all seen in our own families the emotional and physical toll not being able to work can take. When parents or grandparents get to where they can’t work anymore, can’t do the things they’ve always done, there’s a deep sadness and despair that happens. As much as we tend to complain about work, you’d think there’d be great rejoicing when this happens. So why is there usually sadness when we can’t work anymore? Because God made us to work. Work is a basic part of being human. We feel a sense of loss when we can’t work anymore because God made us to work.
This should lead us to thank God for allowing us to work as long as he has. Our ability to go to work, no matter what we do, is a good gift from God that we don’t deserve because of our sin. Our ability to work is yet another evidence of God’s grace toward us, so we should thank him for it. We should also encourage and pray for those not able to work anymore. We should help them find ways to contribute to the church or their family or the community. We should remind them that their identity is in Jesus, not the work that they can’t do anymore.
Work Is Cultivation
Work is good and work is a basic part of being human. What is work itself though? Third, work is cultivation. In Genesis 1-2, we learn that God gave us work in order to cultivate his creation. God created us to “subdue and have dominion” over his creation (1:28). He put Adam in the Garden to “work it and keep it” (2:15). He told Adam to name all the animals (2:18-20). All of these instructions can be summarized with the word “cultivate.” God made us to cultivate, nurture, develop, manage, and enrich his creation.
We were made to “subdue” the world, not as evil overlords, but as humble stewards who understand that God owns the world and that he created us to take care of it. “Subdue” means that there is work that needs to be done to God’s work. God created us to order and fill the world, just as he did during the first six days of creation.
We don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore, but we can still “work and keep” the fallen world that we live in. There’s undeveloped potential even in this fallen world that God wants us to cultivate. We’re to be like gardeners who rearrange the raw material of the garden in order to make it as fruitful and productive as possible. Our work is our way of rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in ways that help God’s world to flourish and thrive.
This happens through farming, making music, designing clothes, cleaning a room, developing technology, teaching children, counseling people in their relational disputes, making art, writing books or sermons or research papers, investing money, starting businesses, or designing and building houses and buildings. Anytime you give shape and form to something, you’re doing what God made you to do. When we bring order out of chaos, we’re cultivating the raw material of God’s world. This is what we call “work.”
Work Is Service
Fourth, work is service. All our cultivating work should be done in order to serve others. Have you ever thought of your work as a way of serving others? I don’t just mean the people you work with or your boss. That’s very important, but I’m talking about serving the world at large. Have you ever thought about your job as a way of serving people you don’t work with?
God has ordered the world in such a way that food doesn’t just magically appear in our refrigerators. Our clothes don’t grow on trees and our houses and apartments don’t build themselves. Our water, electricity, and gas don’t miraculously show up. Our trash doesn’t just disappear. Our society doesn’t naturally remain ordered. Our children don’t raise themselves. Our grass doesn’t cut itself. Our investments don’t manage themselves. All of this happens through processes called “work.” Anytime we help make any of these things happen, we’re loving and serving other people.
God provides for our needs through the work of others. Our work is for the good of our society, and even the entire world. God blesses and provides for his creation through our work. This means that we probably have a lower view of our job than we should. Many of us struggle with our work. We may hate our jobs, see it as a necessary evil needed to pay the bills, or pursue it for self-fulfillment, only interested in what we get out of it. We might find more fulfillment and less disappointment in our work if we saw it as a way of serving others.
Work Is Calling
Work as service naturally ties into number five, work is a calling. In 1 Corinthians 7:17 Paul says, “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing is your calling from God.
The Latin word vocare means “to call” and is where our word “vocation” comes from. We usually use the word “vocation” to just mean our job, but that was not the original meaning. One’s vocation was their calling. People used to view their work as their mission from God, their way of serving something bigger than themselves.
Martin Luther and “Calling”
During the Reformation, Martin Luther had much to say about the view of work as calling. In his day, the Roman Catholic Church had created a division between the priests and the laity, between those who served in the Church and those who did not. They taught that some were specifically called to serve in the Church and that everyone else was called to support the Church.
There is much truth in this. God does set apart certain men to shepherd his people by teaching and preaching his Word. And God does expect all Christians to support the work of the church in every way they can. Luther, however, said that it was wrong to think that people who worked in the church had a calling from God, while those who worked outside the church did not.
Luther argued that, because all believers are priests before God (1 Pet. 2:9), all believers have divine callings. He said that every worthy occupation a believer takes up is a calling from God. I say “worthy” because there are obviously some occupations that are unworthy for believers to do. God doesn’t call people to be pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers. God does, however, call people to be teachers, plumbers, entrepreneurs, farmers, bankers, managers, homemakers, and a thousand other things.
Luther rooted his view that all work is a divine calling in the idea that God has called people to labor because he labors. God works at common occupations and loses none of his divinity. Therefore, all occupations should be seen as divine callings from God.
Luther provides several examples of this. He says that God is a shoemaker who provides boots that a deer will not outlive. God is a tailor who makes for the animals coats of skin that will last for hundreds of years. Even Christ was a carpenter. Jesus worked faithfully at a common occupation.
Another example are the shepherds outside of Bethlehem. After they saw baby Jesus, they didn’t stay with Mary and Joseph. They went back to their fields to work. Luther said, “Surely, that must be wrong. We should correct the passage to read, ‘They went and shaved their heads, fasted, told their rosaries, and put on cowls.’ Instead we read, ‘The shepherds returned.’ Where to? To their sheep. The sheep would have been in a sorry way if they had not.” Even those who witnessed the incarnation of Jesus worked with animals in the fields. Working at common occupations, therefore, is not a lesser calling than working in the church. There are no sacred callings. Every worthy occupation is a divine calling from God.
This means that whatever occupation you find yourself in, whether you’re a student, teacher, mechanic, designer, business person, engineer, stay at home mom, retired person, accountant, doctor, artist, or fisherman, you’ve received a divine calling from God.
This is why the apostle Paul can say, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24). In other words, no matter what your occupation is, Jesus is your boss. Jesus calls you to do your work for him. This makes your occupation a divine calling, an assignment from King Jesus. As Christians, therefore, we should have a higher view of our jobs than anyone else. Remember this when you go to work tomorrow!
What is work? Work is inherently good and a basic part of being human. It entails cultivating and serving. It is a calling from God, but painful because of sin.
Work is Painful
Fifth, work is painful. We work in a fallen world. One of the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin was that work would now be painful rather than pleasant (Gen. 3:17-19).
Sin has forever tainted the good gift of work. We become frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned, lazy, or selfish in our work because of sin. We idolize our work, finding our identity in it rather than God, because of sin. We work to serve ourselves, rather than serve others, because of sin. We work too much and neglect our families or our church or our health because of sin.
Hope at Work
Is there any hope for us in our work? Can we overcome difficulties and find satisfaction in our work? Yes, indeed we can. Hope for our work is found in the work of Another. Jesus’s work for us can restore meaning and joy to our work. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose on the third day to rescue us from the curse of sin. Everyone who trusts in him and turns from their sin will be redeemed and rescued from the hopelessness of their sin and the hopelessness of their work.
Though work is still cursed by sin in this world, we don’t have to be. We can go to work as redeemed and free and happy and purposeful and servant-hearted and excellence-pursuing workers because of the hope we have in Jesus. The gospel of Jesus provides us the resources we need to make it through the pain and toil and frustration of work.
Jesus’ love satisfies us so we don’t have to work for the approval of our boss, our friends, or our parents. Jesus’ righteousness justifies us, so we don’t have to appear better than we are. We can work with honesty and humbly admit our failings because we know we’re righteous in Christ. Jesus’ glory compels us to work for something bigger than ourselves, enabling us to truly find life and joy and satisfaction in our work.
Psalm 92:4, “For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.” God’s work for us in Christ gives us the joy and strength and patience and grace we need to do our work. May we do it well in his strength and for his glory.