God works, and God created humanity in his image to work. And even though our world is now fallen, and work is now frustrating, work can be redeemed for our good and God’s glory. In the book Every Good Endeavor, Timothy Keller writes about God’s original design for work and its ongoing dignity. Because of sin, work can either feel like a pointless burden or it can become a selfish idol. Yet, Christ has come to redeem all things, including work, and so Keller shows us how to connect our work to God’s work.
“If we are to be God’s image-bearers with regard to creation, then we will carry on his pattern of work. His world is not hostile, so that it needs to be beaten down like an enemy. Rather, its potential is undeveloped, so it needs to be cultivated like a garden. So we are not to relate to the world as park rangers, whose job is not to change their space, but to preserve things as they are. Nor are we to ‘pave over the garden’ of the created world to make a parking lot. No, we are to be gardeners who take an active stance toward their charge. They do not leave the land as it is. They rearrange it in order to make it most fruitful, to draw the potentialities for growth and development out of the soil. They dig up the ground and rearrange it with a goal in mind: to rearrange the raw material of the garden so that it produces food, flowers, and beauty. And that is the pattern for all work. It is creative and assertive. It is rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish. – Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor
We are all called to serve as gardeners, helping God’s creation thrive and flourish. In light of this foundation – and the eight biblical truths outlined below – there is much we should understand about our calling to work.
Every good and moral occupation serves God’s Kingdom. We should not make a hard line between sacred and secular work. All work is sacred when done with the right heart, to God’s glory. All men and women are called to a vocation – whether in the home, business, education, government, or the church. Working hard, tilling the garden, building society, and serving others blesses God’s world and glorifies him.
All career paths – teachers, counselors, pastors, stay-at-home-moms, managers, business owners, government leaders, factory workers, construction superintendents, designers, mechanics – face challenges and burdens. There are always people to care for, problems to solve, budgets to maintain, positions to fill, and plans to organize. No matter your vocation, you need to invest your education, gifts, time, and energy to fulfill your responsibilities. In any field of work, you need to rely on God to bless your hard work. You need to trust God enough to work hard for six days and rest for one day.
All work should be done for God’s glory, and yet work can be exhausting and frustrating. The time and energy we invest often does not produce the fruit we hope or expect. Sometimes our jobs are done with a sense of joy and divine calling, and other times we just dutifully grind it out.
Some days your work may be life-giving, exciting, and uplifting. Other days it is monotonous and mundane, evening dull and unfulfilling. Sometimes there is a clear connection between our hard work and the results; other times we feel like we did everything right and the results are disappointing. All work, at some point, feels like vanity and chasing after the wind.
But remember your work is a reflection of God; it is a calling from God. Work is an honor and a privilege. The results of our hard work are in God’s hands. Our fulfillment can’t come from the results, but from knowing we are serving with the strength that God provides, for his glory. As you seek to work well, consider these eight biblical truths about work:
- God created man and woman in his image to fill and subdue the earth, to work and keep the garden.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” | Genesis 1:27-28
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” | Genesis 2:15
- Because of the curse, our work is filled with pain and sweat, thorns and thistles, feelings of futility and despair.
“And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” | Genesis 3:17-19
“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” (see also verses 20-23) | Ecclesiastes 2:17-20
- As a general rule, hard work leads to wealth and provision, and laziness leads to poverty and lack.
“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” | Proverbs 10:4
“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.” | Proverbs 12:11
(See also Prov. 6:6-8, 13:4, 14:23, 24:33-34)
- When we rely on the Lord for our work – instead of vain, anxious toil – we can find enjoyment, fulfillment, and rest in the Lord.
“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” | Psalm 127:1-2
“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” | Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
- Christians are called to work hard, by the grace of God – to make an honest living, as a way to provide for their own needs, not be dependent on others, share with those in need, and be a witness to outsiders.
“I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” | Acts 20:33-35
“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” | Ephesians 4:28
“But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” | 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12
“For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: 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.” | 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12
(see also 1 Cor. 15:10, Col. 4:12-13, 2 Tim. 2:3-6)
- We do not always know which of our efforts will prosper, so we must be faithful and diligent in our work, and trust God with the results.
“He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” | Ecclesiastes 11:4-6
“And he said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’” | Mark 4:26-29
- Just as farmers live off their crops, gospel workers have the right to earn a living from their work – the laborer deserves his wages.
“Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?… Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” | 1 Corinthians 9:7, 13-14
“For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.” | 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’” | 1 Timothy 5:17-18
(See also 2 Cor. 11:7-9, Phil. 4:15-18)
- No matter the type of work we are called to, we should work with a heart to serve Christ – not as people-pleasers – knowing he will reward us.
“Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 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.” | Colossians 3:22-24
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