Last week we discussed the intrinsic value of work in that it gives us, as his image-bearers, the opportunity to reflect God’s creative nature in tangible and productive ways. This week in Part II, we explore how our work is directly connected to God’s primary call and purpose for our lives.
God Provides Work’s Primary Purpose
Consider what the following passages teach us about the purpose of work.
Col. 3:23-24
[23] Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
And I Cor. 10:31
[31] So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
We must focus on God and his glory first in our work before all else. Jesus had the same focus. Think about when Jesus gave us the commandment to “love God” with all of ourselves. What did he call it? The first and greatest commandment. Why? It stands by itself as unique and preeminent among all God’s commands.
The second command to love our neighbors is “like” it but is not identical to the first. God is telling us that the first command to love God is about all of our lives, and the second gives expression to that love in the narrower context of our neighbors. In other words, there are areas of our life’s activities like those in our daily work that often involves loving or glorifying God in ways that are much more direct and immediate than finding a “neighbor” nearby to love.
“...there are areas of our life’s activities like those in our daily work that often involves loving or glorifying God in ways that are much more direct and immediate than finding a “neighbor” nearby to love.”
We can love God specifically by loving our neighbors, but we cannot love God completely by loving our neighbors. We have a tendency to reduce concepts like doing “good Christian work” to personally caring for the needs of people around us and as a result we end up leaving out much of the stuff that actually makes up our daily lives and work.
Doing “good Christian work” should mean we do the work that glorifies God the best in any given moment. When we are given the freedom to explore which type of work we should be doing, we should spend some time reflecting on how God has uniquely made us (think: your passions, interests, excitement level, skills etc); work that fits who we are as engaged human beings is the work that glorifies God best. The early church father Irenaeus expressed something of this sentiment well.
The glory of God is man fully alive.
But when we don’t have a choice in what work we do and we find ourselves doing the more mundane or assigned tasks of the day, we need to glorify God the best we can in whatever work we actually do. In these times it’s all the more important to focus on the God we serve as we work. Brother Lawrence was famous for considering dishwashing as a primary act of worship to God. I like John Calvin’s thinking on this:
No task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God’s sight.
“Doing “good Christian work” should mean we do the work that glorifies God the best in any given moment. ”
Translated: Changing dirty diapers or diligently completing a work project someone else just wrongly took credit for both qualify as precious work in God’s sight if we do it fulfilling God’s purpose for us in that moment. Faithfulness in living out God’s call on our lives always includes dealing with life’s daily messes that need our attention.
We also must be wary not to limit the purpose of our work to making money, providing for future needs, providing financially for families, or giving tithes for the work of the church, all of which are good and necessary. Without the more immediate goodness and meaning in our work, we risk displacing the moment-by-moment call of our daily work to serve and glorify God directly.
Dorothy Sayers once eloquently said:
The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of the work done... We should ask of an enterprise, not “will it pay?” but “is it good?”; of a man, not “what does he make?” but “what is his work worth?”; of goods, not “Can we induce people to buy them?” but “are they useful things well made?”; of employment, not “how much a week?” but “will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?”
... And if so, this may give a very precise and practical meaning to the words: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
As we recognize value and purpose in the work we do with God’s purposes for our work in mind, we will find that God in turn provides us with resources to meet our daily needs.
So, remember that being created in God’s image means we seek to find and create value and purpose in our work for his glory similar to what God himself was doing back during the days of creation as he planned, produced, added order, and structure, beautified, and stewarded the good of each day’s labor. This is much of what it means to be god-ly or imitators of God in the doing of our work.
Steve is the Executive Director here at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles and leads the vision and overall ministry. Prior to this position, Steve was as an aerospace executive at The Boeing Company after 36 years of service.