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 a raft of skills in specific tasks according to determined timetables and schedules for the sake of producing goods or services useful to others. This might seem to be a blessing of the getting-and-spending economy, and in some ways, it is. But jobs only function for human fulfillment and benefit because of the pervasive presence of the common grace of God. Common grace is not the currency of the market economy, like the redeeming and transforming grace which God grants to His saints; rather, it a work of God’s love for His world that undergirds and sustains it, even though unacknowledged.
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 work as seriously as those of 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 to live, but if, as participants in the Kingdom economy, 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, and for contributing to the wellbeing of society, but they serve as an arena within which the workings of the Kingdom economy can operate.
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 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 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 jobs where we spend so much of our working lives.
Participants in the getting-and-spending economy do 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 work for the glory of God and the furthering of His Kingdom economy (Col. 3.23, 24; 1 Cor. 10.31). Granted, we do this as strangers and aliens in this world (1 Pet. 2.11, 12), struggling to embody a Kingdom not of this world amid an economy of getting-and-spending. And we do not expect to succeed entirely 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, unpleasant, or unfulfilling, 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 God-given. 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 we need to work are from Him. All the resources and time we require 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. Thus, echoes and fresh winds of the Kingdom economy waft through and work to sustain even the activities of other economies.
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 type of work—with the highest degree of goodness, excellence, respect, friendliness, and satisfaction. Seeing work as a gift from God, and doing our work as unto the Lord, makes us care about those with whom we work as well as those who will profit from our work, and fills us with a sense of gratitude and fulfillment for 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. This Kingdom secret, working effectively throughout all the jobs in our secular economy, can oil the gears, reduce the friction, and promote more productivity and purpose for all workers. But it must begin with us, who know this secret of the Kingdom, that work is a gift from God and a means to His glory.
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? If you did, how would you show that?
2. What benefits does your job bring to others? How can you see in your job a means for expressing and 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? Seek the Lord’s counsel—in His Word and prayer—for how you might bring more of the Kingdom economy into your work.
T. M. Moore
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
It’s in all the small stuff we do each day that the Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Our book, Small Stuff, can help you in your daily work of seeking the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Order your copy in book form by clicking here or as a free PDF by clicking here.
Other columns of interest this week: This week in our Read Moore we continue gleaning insights from our book, Understanding the Times. This book will be a valuable companion to our study of “The Kingdom Economy.” In our Crosfigell column we’re following Brendan, a 6th century Irish saint, as he pursues the Kingdom economy in his extraordinary adventures. Our daily Scriptorium column is in the home stretch with this week’s study of the general epistles in our series, “Jesus throughout the Scriptures.”
Thank you.
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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.
