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A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself.
our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests.
If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever. That is what the Christian faith promises.
In the beginning, then, God worked. Work was not a necessary evil that came into the picture later, or something human beings were created to do but that was beneath the great God himself. No, God worked for the sheer joy of it. Work could not have a more exalted inauguration.
The book of Genesis leaves us with a striking truth—work was part of paradise.
Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Work is so foundational to our makeup, in fact, that it is one of the few things we can take in significant doses without harm.
The loss of work is deeply disturbing because we were designed for it.
According to the Bible, we don’t merely need the money from work to survive; we need the work itself to survive and live fully human lives.
Work is not all there is to life. You will not have a meaningful life without work, but you cannot say that your work is the meaning of your life. If you make any work the purpose of your life—even if that work is church ministry—you create an idol that rivals God.
What has come down to us is a set of pervasive ideas. One is that work is a necessary evil. The only good work, in this view, is work that helps make us money so that we can support our families and pay others to do menial work. Second, we believe that lower-status or lower-paying work is an assault on our dignity.
The biblical view of these matters is utterly different. Work of all kinds, whether with the hands or the mind, evidences our dignity as human beings—because it reflects the image of God the Creator in us.
Work has dignity because it is something that God does and because we do it in God’s place, as his representatives . We learn not only that work has dignity in itself, but also that all kinds of work have dignity.
No task is too small a vessel to hold the immense dignity of work given by God.
Simple physical labor is God’s work no less than the formulation of theological truth.
We were built for work and the dignity it gives us as human beings, regardless of its status or pay.
Work is our design and our dignity; it is also a way to serve God through creativity, particularly in the creation of culture.
If we are to be God’s image-bearers with regard to creation, then we will carry on his pattern of work.
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.
A biblical understanding of work energizes our desire to create value from the resources available to us.
Through our work we bring order out of chaos, create new entities, exploit the patterns of creation, and interweave the human community.
Our daily work can be a calling only if it is reconceived as God’s assignment to serve others.
We are to see work as a way of service to God and our neighbor, and so we should both choose and conduct our work in accordance with that purpose.
the gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves and secure our identity through work, for we are already proven and secure. It also frees us from a condescending attitude toward less sophisticated labor and from envy over more exalted work.
There may be no better way to love your neighbor, whether you are writing parking tickets, software, or books, than to simply do your work.
all jobs—not merely so-called helping professions—are fundamentally ways of loving your neighbor.
Your daily work is ultimately an act of worship to the God who called and equipped you to do it—no matter what kind of work it is.
Work is not itself a curse, but it now lies with all other aspects of human life under the curse of sin.
You should expect to be regularly frustrated in your work even though you may be in exactly the right vocation.
God can—and often does—change what he calls us to do.
There will be work in the paradise of the future just like there was in the paradise of the past, because God himself takes joy in his work.
We have to ask whether our work or organization or industry makes people better or appeals to the worst aspects of their characters.
One of the reasons work is both fruitless and pointless is the powerful inclination of the human heart to make work, and its attendant benefits, the main basis of one’s meaning and identity.
We either get our name—our defining essence, security, worth, and uniqueness—from what God has done for us and in us (Revelation 2:17), or we make a name through what we can do for ourselves.
The Christian gospel decidedly furnishes us with the resources for more inspired, realistic, satisfying, and faithful work today. How? First, the gospel provides an alternate story line for our work; this is vital because all work is propelled by a worldview or a narrative account of what human life is all about and what will help us thrive. Second, the Christian faith gives us a new and rich conception of work as partnering with God in his love and care for the world. This biblical conception helps us appreciate all work, from the most simple to the most complex, by both believers and
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the Christian faith gives us a new and rich conception of work as partnering with God in his love and care for the world. This biblical conception helps us appreciate all work, from the most simple to the most complex, by both believers and nonbelievers.
One of the main places that we personally live out the drama of our personal and social narratives is in our daily work.
We have said that any worldview consists of posing and answering three questions: 1. How are things supposed to be? 2. What is the main problem with things as they are? 3. What is the solution and how can it be realized?
The gospel worldview will have all kinds of influence—profound and mundane, strategic and tactical—on how you actually do your work.
To be a Christian in business, then, means much more than just being honest or not sleeping with your coworkers. It even means more than personal evangelism or holding a Bible study at the office. Rather, it means thinking out the implications of the gospel worldview and God’s purposes for your whole work life—and for the whole of the organization under your influence.
Of all the ways that the Christian faith affects work, the realm of worldview is the most searching and yet also the hardest to put into practice.
Work is a major instrument of God’s providence; it is how he sustains the human world.
Christians should place a high value on all human work (especially excellent work), done by all people, as a channel of God’s love for his world.
When we learn to value all people’s work and all kinds of work, we are moving into a realm of Christian theology called “common grace,”
Dualism leads some to think that if their work is to please Christ, it must be done overtly in his name.
The integration of faith and work is the opposite of dualism. We should be willing to be very engaged with the cultural and vocational worlds of non-Christians.
a grasp of the gospel and of biblical teaching on cultural engagement should lead Christians to be the most appreciative of the hands of God behind the work of our colleagues and neighbors.
Christians must remain absolutely committed to an understanding of human rights based on the image of God.
Christians look to an Audience of One, our loving heavenly Father, and that gives us both accountability and joy in our work.
Christians must always be exploring—in communities of faith and practice—how it would be possible for their field of work to be more just and beneficial to more people.
