Work Matters (2)

Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2.24

More important than we know
A job is a fascinating thing. A job provides a way for a person to engage particular skills in specific tasks according to determined timetables and schedules for the sake of producing goods or services useful to others.

Most people get paid for their jobs; however, many – homemakers, church workers, retired folks and others who volunteer – don’t get paid, but God takes their jobs as seriously as everyone else.

A job is a way of providing for one’s needs and contributing to the wellbeing of others. The dizzying array of jobs – paid and unpaid – that make up a sophisticated economy like that of The United States is a thing of beauty. All those people, skills, tasks, goods, and services, coordinated and collaborating in ways known and unknown, to create the highest standard of living the world has ever seen! Amazing!

These days, when many paid jobs are becoming iffy or non-existent, Americans are very sensitive to the importance of having and keeping a job, no matter what. We need a job in order to live, the increasing pace of our entitlement society notwithstanding. But if all we see in our job is a way of making a living, and perhaps finding a small measure of satisfaction, we’ve missed the main point of how our job fits into the total scheme of the work we’ve been given to do.

Jobs are important – more than we may at first recognize. Because for the Christian, jobs provide not only a means for personal fulfillment and enrichment, or for contributing to the wellbeing of society, but an arena within which the banner of the Kingdom economy can be unfurled.

It’s all from the Lord
What is the source of the skills we need to do our jobs? And the resources to apply those skills toward goods and services, and the wherewithal to pay for those skills thus applied? Where does the fluid and flow of the economy come from, but from the hand of God? And the time within which to do our appointed work? From God as well.

Every good and perfect gift comes to us from God, and nothing that we have, or nothing we are able to do, has come to us from any other Source (Jms. 1.17; 1 Cor. 4.7). God has a purpose for all the gifts He provides, even the job where we spend so much of our working lives.

The unbelieving world may not acknowledge this truth, but it must not escape the Christian’s continual attention. The work we’ve been given to do is from God, and this is the most important reason why work matters so very much. In our work, whatever our work, we must work for the glory of God and the implementation of His Kingdom economy. Granted, we do this as strangers and aliens (1 Pet. 2.11, 12), struggling to embody a Kingdom not of this world in the midst of an economy of getting-and-spending. And we do not expect completely to succeed in this large endeavor in the here-and-now; nevertheless, our eyes firmly fixed on the then-and-there, we work for the glory of God, knowing the joy of His presence and the promise of His coming.

Though the conditions in which we do our work be ever so hostile to our succeeding, we must follow the example of Jesus and do our jobs and all our work for the glory of God.

Every job is a gift of God and a means whereby, through His steadfast love and faithfulness, He oversees the meeting of human needs and the satisfying of human wants. This is not to say that every job that we might imagine should be regarded as sacred and as coming from God. God does not condone work that requires, promotes, or condones any actions or practices contrary to His holy and righteous and good Law.

But legitimate jobs – all kinds of jobs that bring good to others, provide for the needs of our neighbors, and honor the dignity and holiness of God – are given by the hand of God, even to those who have no faith in Him (Acts 14.17). All the skills to work are from Him. All the resources and time we need for working are by His provision. All legitimate work contributes to the good of society and enables others to work and provide for their needs.

All these are gifts from God; therefore, we should receive our work as such, and give thanks and praise to God as we take up our jobs each day, pursuing and fulfilling them according to His divine standards; for by doing so we carry out part of our calling in the economy of God’s Kingdom.

Caring about work
Understanding our work as a gift from God, can inspire us to do our work – no matter the kind of work – with the highest degree of goodness, excellence, and satisfaction. Seeing work as a gift from God, and doing our work as unto the Lord, makes us care about those who will profit from our work, and fills us with a sense of gratitude and fulfillment at a job well done.

Work is a gift, and when we receive it as such and work it according to the merits and intentions of the Giver, we bring glory to God in our jobs, day-in and day-out.

For reflection
1.  Do you consider your job to be a gift from God? Why or why not? How do you maintain consciousness of the fact that your job is a gift from God?

2.  What benefits does your job bring to others? How can you see in this a “groove” or “channel” for advancing the Kingdom economy?

3.  What are the greatest hindrances you experience in doing all your work as unto the Lord and for His glory? How can Christians help one another to overcome these?

Next steps – Transformation: What goals are you presently pursuing in your work? How might you re-envision those goals as part of the Kingdom economy? Talk with a Christian friend about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This week’s ReVision study is Part 3 of a 10-part series, “The Kingdom Economy.” You can download “Work Matters” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here. Start your day in the Word of God. Study with T. M. in our daily Scriptorium newsletter, as he walks us through the ongoing work of Christ in the book of Acts. You can subscribe to receive Scriptorium each day at 5:00 am Eastern, or go to the website to download each week’s study in a free PDF.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.