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By Walter H. Norvell|Published Date: February 15, 2010
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17
We have a love-hate relationship with work
Conduct an internet search on job satisfaction and observe the extreme attitudes about work. Some studies claim American workers are greatly dissatisfied with their work and jobs. Some claim that such dissatisfaction is increasing. Other studies reveal that Americans are amazingly satisfied with their jobs and their work, with little change in these attitudes over recent years. Some studies claim Americans would chunk their current jobs in a New York minute. Others reveal that most Americans would choose the same job again if they had a do-over.
What can one conclude? First, the topic must be far more complicated than most studies can address. Second, Americans seem to have a love-hate relationship with work and jobs. Apparently attitudes toward work can be quite volatile. In today’s economy, many are without work and many others are thankful to have jobs at all. Beyond the ebb and flow of the stock exchange, what shapes our attitudes toward work?
Created to work by a working God
The concept of work is embedded in the Creation. First, we see throughout Genesis 1:1- 2:3. God is a working God. He creates and establishes all things. His work is good and He declares it so (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). The products of His work perfectly combine functional craftsmanship with artistic beauty (Hebrews 1:10). His artistry and craftsmanship inspire wonder and appreciation (Psalm 92:4). While some interpret work to be part of the curse of the fall, God demonstrates that work is not a curse by His own labor.
Genesis 1:27-28 notes that humans are created in the image of God. God’s image is complex and so are human beings. In the complexity of our creation God designed humans for work, just as He works. Being made in the image of God reveals our design and desire for fruitful effort. Involved in the creation of humans is their purpose, insight into which is communicated in verse 28. Humans were made to subdue and rule over the earth and all its resources. This is not a license for waste and exploitation of the planet, but a charge to properly use, maintain, and perpetuate the natural resources God made in creation.
Work is a God-inspired element of what it means to be a human being. This was not laborious toil but real, productive and worthwhile engagement toward chosen ends. As God has created humans with the capacity to work, and since God has purposed that humans work in God’s creation, then work is first and foremost a blessing from God.
In many ancient cultures, we can see how their worldview reflected the concept of work. Most ancient cultures viewed all work as menial and toilsome. Therefore, many ancient cultures were based on a slave economy so that the ruling classes did not have to work. Most notable are the Greek and Roman worldviews. In the first century AD, there were likely more slaves in the known world than freemen. Further, slave economies seemed to discourage the development of labor-saving technologies. There simply was no need to innovate to ease the toil of labor if all one had to do was to give the irksome task to a slave.
Compare those worldviews of work to the Jewish worldview. Springing from the Biblical revelation, Jewish culture had an entirely different view of work. The Talmud contains several teachings on work that confirm the radically different Jewish perspective. One Talmud teaching states that “He who does not teach his son a craft is, at it were, brining him up to robbery.” Another teaching advances this concept even further, demonstrating the close relationship between work and the worker: “Labor is greatly to be prized, for it elevates the laborer, and maintains him.”
This statement praises work for the dignity and value it contributes to the worker. Such work is refreshing and invigorating. It provides fulfillment and purpose. It encourages the setting and achievement of goals. It implies the value of work in the worker, the community, and the environment. When we work in such a way, we reflect the image of God in our humanity. Work in the perfect world of God’s original creation is one thing. But, is that work today? What has changed?
When work changed
While work was built into God’s created order in a perfect world, sin entered the world. Work acquired new elements that we see in the nature of work today. Adam and Eve chose rebellion against God by breaking His command to them (Genesis 2:16-17). When that act introduced sin into the world, sin contaminated every aspect of human life and the created order. Sin’s basic result is a shattering of all things (Genesis 3:7-24). The fractures caused by sin broke apart the unity and peace God had woven into His world. Human relationships were broken. The relationship between humans and God was broken. The relationship of personhood (body, spirit, and soul) was torn asunder. Even the created order was damaged so that the environment was altered.
Before the fall, work was effort but very fruitful effort. The environment yielded easily to and even seemed to cooperate with the labor of the first humans. They tended the garden in Eden, studied the animals, and developed categories for their naming (Genesis 2:19-20). This was fruitful, meaningful, and purposeful work. But, as a result of the fall, the environment changed. Now the environment became resistant to human manipulation. Now humans would toil in their laborious efforts to eke out life-sustaining resources from the planet. The environment was no longer cooperative. Such toilsome work constantly reminded those first humans of sin’s awful effects, and human beings were diminished in their responsibilities for successful stewardship of the world and its resources as charged in creation. The weary drudgery of tiresome endeavors only reminded them and us that sin has broken our world and caused us to long for some deliverance from this condition. Cain experienced the full brunt of this result (Genesis 4:12). In only a few generations after Adam, Lamech voiced the urgent need for deliverance from the curse by naming his son Noah, meaning “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands (Genesis 5:29).” Noah’s name, sounding like the Hebrew word for “comfort” or “rest,” bears the cry for redemption from the curse.
Seeing work as kingdom ministry
God began unfolding his redemptive plan even in those first few moments after the fall. God set about a sacrificial system to remedy the curse of sin. Human beings have also responded in a limited way to the curse by relying on traits involved in being made in the image of God. Our creativity, inventiveness, reason, problem-solving skills, and reflection have produced technology that addresses, though in a limited way, our resistant environment. Labor-saving devices have been developed that allow humans to overcome many problems (Genesis 4:22).
At the advent of our Lord, Jesus robed Himself in flesh and lived a perfectly authentic human life. That life included work and labor. Jesus was by trade a carpenter. Apparently Jesus was known for his superb craftsmanship with wood since Justin Martyr reported that plows and yokes made by Jesus were still in use in the Galilee region about 120 AD.[1] Jesus’ participation in human work deems human work good, and Jesus identifies with us in our work. Paul also encouraged work (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and noted that he sometimes worked for his own personal support on his missionary journeys (2 Corinthians 11:7-8). James encouraged believers to plan their work according to God’s will (James 4:13-17).
How do we further respond to the blessing of work and the curse of drudgery? As we seek to let a Christian worldview fill up every area of our lives, we can see work from God’s perspective. We can determine to respond to God in our work as we accept work as a blessing and opportunity. We can develop a kingdom focus in our work regardless of our work positions. We can use our work, not only as a means to a livelihood or a capitalistic venture for economic gain, but also for a platform for ministry and service.
One group seeking to do just that is the C12 Group. The C12 Group (www.c12group.com) is an association that helps entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners think through their business efforts in light of a kingdom perspective. Their mission is “to change the world by bringing forth the Kingdom of God in the marketplace through the companies and lives of those He calls to run businesses for Him.” Through mentoring, networking, coaching, peer relationships, accountability, devotion, and training, these Christian business leaders are seeking to transform their companies for the benefit of the kingdom of God, their employees, their investors, and their customers. In tracking their members, learning to apply kingdom principles to their work has added impact and value to their businesses. As stated in their website information, “we hope to be used by the Lord to change the world one local marketplace at a time, turning others toward Christ and seeing the marketplace become a source of revival!”
Making it personal
Reflect on your work, whatever it may be and at whatever level of authority you have.
- What are your attitudes, beliefs, and values about work?
- What purpose do you find in your work?
- What changes do you need to make to adapt your work to a Christian worldview?
- What opportunities does your work provide to serve others in Christ’s name?
- How is your business creating new opportunities for employment, service, and benefit to customers?
- How will you use your work this week as a platform for kingdom advancement?
What can you begin to different, starting this week, to bring more of a Kingdom focus and character to your work?
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Psalm 90:17
For more information on this topic, read the article, “Work, Beauty, and Meaning: A Biblical Perspective on the Daily Grind,” by T. M. Moore.
[1] http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/5384-the-god-of-wooden-plows
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