Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work

by Timothy J. Keller

“act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

God’s loving care comes to us largely through the labor of others. Work is a major instrument of God’s providence; it is how he sustains the human world.

This aspect of work-as-provision is the reason that much work that Christians do is not done, at least not in its visible form, any differently from the way non-Christians do it.

all are given their talents and skills for work in the world by God (1 Corinthians 7:17), we should not be surprised that many people without belief in Jesus can do great work—even better work—than Christians.

So this biblical conception of work—as a vehicle for God’s loving provision for the world—is essential. It counteracts the elitism and sectarianism that can creep into our approach to work when we grasp the distinctiveness of the Christian worldview.

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,”

Psalm 19 differentiates between a kind of “wordless speech,” which tells all people something about God’s presence and glory, and the revelation that comes to believers through the Bible and the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1 and 2 confirm that all of us share a primordial knowledge of God: In Romans 2, verses 14–15, Paul says that God’s law is written on the heart of every human being.

Consider Isaiah 28, verses 24–29: “When a farmer plows for planting . . . when he has leveled the surface . . . does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. . . . Grain must be ground to make bread . . . all this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.” This is remarkable. Isaiah tells us that anyone who becomes a skillful farmer, or who brings advancements in agriculture, is being taught by God.

So every advancement in learning, every work of art, every innovation in health care or technology or management or governance, is simply God “opening his book of creation and revealing his truth”

This is what theologians call “general revelation,” an aspect of common grace in which God reveals himself to all people.

In Exodus 31, verses 1–4, we read how Bezalel was “filled . . . with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs.” Here we see artistic skill coming from God. Salieri was right—Mozart’s music was the voice of God, regardless of the moral and spiritual condition of Mozart’s heart.

However, there are limitations to common grace, which require us to respond to these blessings with balance.

Let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole fountain of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it where it shall appear

the doctrine of common grace means that despite all false worldviews, everyone grasps and to some degree acknowledges aspects of the biblical worldview: truths about God, creation, human nature, and our need for rescue. Deep in our hearts’ operating systems, God has imprinted his story.

This universal knowledge of God and of good—this aspect of natural revelation—has been called “first-order beliefs.” All people hold these beliefs at some level, even if their conscious, intellectual, culturally conditioned “second-order beliefs” deny them utterly.

This odd tension means that the best of what non-Christians say and do will be based on truths that they “know” at one level and yet do not know at another.

God gives out gifts of wisdom, talent, beauty, and skill according to his grace—that is, in a completely unmerited way. He casts them across the human race like seed, in order to enrich, brighten, and preserve the world.

So Christians are free to study the world of human culture in order to know more of God; for as creatures made in His image we can appreciate truth and wisdom wherever we find it.

For in the Christian story, the antagonist is not non-Christians but the reality of sin, which (as the gospel tells us) lies within us as well as within them.

Christians’ work with others should be marked by both humble cooperation and respectful provocation.

The withdrawal has taken different forms. One form is complete renunciation. Another form is the creation of an alternate Christian subculture littered with sanitized, overtly evangelistic forms of music, movies, TV shows, literature, vacation destinations, and so on. A third form of disengagement is uncritical consumption of popular culture without worldview discernment.177 Why this disengagement with our culture?

too much emphasis on wholesale withdrawal from culture increases the likelihood of slipping into other more “respectable” idolatries.

That is, the reality of God’s nature and our obligations to him are continuously presented to us. These realities are not static, propositional information, but rather a continually fresh, insistent pressure on the consciousness of every individual. If this is true, then every artifact of human culture is a positive response to God’s general revelation and simultaneously a rebellious assertion against his sovereign rule over us (Romans 1:21).

So we can see all cultural production (and remember, everything we do at work is some form of cultural production) as a dialogue between our innate, affirming response to God’s common grace and the idolatrous, rebellious nature of our hearts.

“Loss of faith in a given religion does not by any means imply the eradication of the religious instinct. It merely means that the instinct, temporarily repressed, will seek an object elsewhere.”179

Dualism leads some to think that if their work is to please Christ, it must be done overtly in his name.

People with this view cannot see that work done by non-Christians always contains some degree of God’s common grace as well as the distortions of sin. And they cannot see that work done by Christians, even if it overtly names the name of Jesus, is also significantly distorted by sin.

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.

Our thick view of common grace will remind us that even explicitly non-Christian work and culture will always have some witness to God’s truth in it.

most people argue—or at the very least, live out—ethics on the basis of cost-benefit analysis. Integrity is profitable; dishonesty isn’t. And most of the time, at least in the long run, this is true.

Batchelor points out that corruption does not mark only the business world. He lists revelations of corruption, outright bribery, and gross self-interest by elected and government officials. This leads to increasing cynicism on the part of the citizenry, and less participation in the political process, which then enables corruption to thrive all the more.

But indeed, as Bible scholar Bruce Waltke points out, the Bible says that the very definition of righteous people is that they disadvantage themselves to advantage others, while “the wicked . . . are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.”

Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Christian theologian of the medieval era, looked at the four cardinal virtues of Plato—justice, courage, temperance, and prudence—and agreed that these were also taught in the Christian Scriptures.191 Then Aquinas added three theological virtues—faith, hope, and love—to the four cardinal virtues, because these are specifically and uniquely born out of the Christian revelation about the character of God and his grace.

Think of the cliché that nobody ever gets to the end of their life and wishes they had spent more time at the office. It makes good sense, of course, up to a point. But here’s a more interesting perspective: At the end of your life, will you wish that you had plunged more of your time, passion, and skills into work environments and work products that helped people to give and receive more love?

John Calvin, one of the Protestant Reformers, wrote: The great part of [men] are most unworthy if they be judged by their own merit. But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which we owe all honor and love. . . . You will say, “He has deserved something far different of me.” Yet what has the Lord deserved? . . . Remember not to consider men’s evil intention but . . . look upon the image of God in them, which . . . with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.197

If not for the Christian view of the individual, for example, the philosophy of human rights to which we subscribe today would never have emerged.

The pressures and practices of the marketplace increasingly cause us to rationalize every aspect of life by analyzing efficiencies. People become contacts who can help you; customers are eyeballs and wallets; employees are resources to execute a task.

The Bible teaches that wisdom accumulates from several sources. First, we must not merely believe in God, but know him personally.

Second, we must know ourselves.

Third, we learn wisdom through experience. The foolish heart—blinded from reality because of its idols—does not learn from experience.

The Spirit does not make us wise in some magical kind of way, giving us little nudges and insider tips to help us always choose the best stock to invest in. Rather, he makes Jesus Christ a living, bright reality, transforming our character, giving us new inner poise, clarity, humility, boldness, contentment, and courage. All of this leads to increasing wisdom as the years go by, and to better and better professional and personal decisions.

He says all work should be done “as if you were serving the Lord”:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him (Ephesians 6:5–9).

Christians are to be fully engaged at work as whole persons, giving their minds, hearts, and bodies fully to doing the best job possible on the task at hand.

Christians should be known to not be ruthless. They should have a reputation for being fair, caring, and committed to others. They should be marked by sympathy and by an unusual willingness to forgive and reconcile. There should be a lack of vengefulness, sanctimony, and spite.

In addition, Christians should be known to be generous, and in the workplace this expresses itself in many ways. As business managers, they can be generous with their time and investment in their employees and customers. As small business owners, they can take less personal profit in order to give customers better value and employees better pay.

Christians should be also known to be calm and poised in the face of difficulty or failure.

Finally, Christians should not be seen as sectarian. Many Christians fail to identify themselves as Christians to their colleagues. They simply blend in. Others let their faith be known but speak and act in a way that makes nonbelievers feel subtly (or overtly) marginalized or disdained.

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.

there is the trend of what sociologists call “commodification,” which is defined as ascribing monetary value and applying cost-benefit analysis to such things as relationships, family, and civic engagement.