Would you expect to think about worktime in a discipleship course? What does God have to say about it? He has a special word for each of us!
We learn more of our faith’s value as we see how many things it applies to, and so transforms. And our worktime, where we spend most of our energy – whether paid or voluntary work, looking after a family or study – obviously cannot be unimportant to our Father! This is where we’ll sometimes find it a struggle to live the Jesus way; this too is where, amid real challenges, we can learn in practice to live like his disciple…
So what does the Bible say? The first thing may surprise some of us: God WORKS! God knows what it’s like – God is a worker!
Look back to Genesis – God worked, and then he rested. `God saw all that he had made, and it was very good… By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all his work.` [We need to make sure we do likewise, by the way!!)] `And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done` (Gen 1:31-2:3).
So at the Bible’s very beginning, our Father presents himself as a creative worker. And this is far from the only time. God is also presented in Scripture, as my former colleague Graeme Fairbairn points out, as a gardener, a potter, a shepherd, an active king, a homemaker, and a builder… God loves to be active in fruitful work!
And Jesus, God the Son, was likewise involved throughout the work of creation – `Without him nothing was made that has been made` (John 1:3) – and he still `sustains all things by his powerful word` (Heb 1:3). In the gospels he says, `My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working` (John 5:17). `My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work!` (John 4:34).
God the Holy Spirit likewise is described as being at work in us – teaching and reminding us so as to foster Christ’s life in us (John 14:26), encouraging us (Acts 9:31), empowering us (Acts 1:8)…. And he gets grieved by us in the process (Eph 4:30) – God the Spirit does not have an ideal working environment…
So, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit: the Bible shows us that God knows what it is to work. Work, then, isn’t just a pointless slavery!
Not surprisingly, therefore, since God is a worker who loves fruitful activity, he made us as human beings in his image to be fruitful workers too. This biblical revelation may change our lives once we see work as not just a nuisance, nor just as something we do to get money, but actually as a calling from God…
Genesis 2 gives us a fascinating description of what human beings were like as we were meant to be, before we rebelled against God and sin came into the world. Look at that chapter: we see the first truly human being as friend, adventurer, craftsman, artist, scientist, explorer, parent, worshipper, lover. And as a worker: `The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it` (v15). In this chapter we see a perfect environment, people as we were meant to be; and part of being human is that God entrusted us with work, creative and enjoyable and rewarding work, as stewards of his creation. It’s true that work became harder after our rebellion against God in the fall (3:17); the breaking of the human/God relationship has meant that work can become futility and drudgery. But Genesis shows us that work was meant to be an enjoyable gift from God; God designed us to be like him as people who work fruitfully. (And this is why widespread unemployment can be so damaging.)
(Indeed the very first time the Bible mentions the filling with God’s Spirit is in connection with giving skills and abilities to workmen who built God’s tabernacle in the desert: Exodus 35:31!)
Then in the gospels Jesus tells us about work at the other end of time (Luke 19:17). If we’re trustworthy here, he says, in heaven God will give us further worthwhile, fulfilling, joyous responsibilities. Obviously work in heaven will be a perfect, creative activity, without any of the pain we experience in this fallen world. But in heaven we won’t just sit around for millions of years in the clouds – we’ll be doing something fruitful!
In summary then: work is designed as something good from God, part of living as who God made us to be. And that actually makes it, in and of itself, a kind of worship to our Creator God; something genuinely important in his eyes!
AT LEAST THREE THINGS COME OF THIS…
1. God cares for us and guides us (Psalm 23:2-4). So if we’re a disciple who’s genuinely been living seeking to know God’s will, we can know that he’s been calling us to places of work where, ultimately, we would grow and be fruitful (which is not necessarily the same as enjoying the growth experience!); places which he’s equipped us, or is equipping us, to mature in. This is a really important confidence: My loving heavenly Father knows and cares about where I work, and my experience there.
And he also cares about how we work! In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells a story of how our loving Lord gives us talents and abilities, and how, when he returns, he will want to talk through with us how we’ve used them. (See also, eg, Rom 14:12 and 2Cor 5:10.) What do we learn from this? Our talents are gifts entrusted to us for this time by our Master, and we’re called to the joy of putting what he’s specifically entrusted us with to good use; and not (as the parable makes clear) to hide or bury them!
2 Again, quoting my ex colleague Graeme: It is God who is our real Boss! Above all what we want, in our worktime too, is his glory, and a closer relationship with him. `For me to live is Christ` (Phil 1:21)! What do you want, above all, from your worktime? Discipleship means that our self-fulfilment and career plans, important as they are, are always secondary to the glory of Christ.
Another thing the Bible spells out is in Col 3:17: `Whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus`. And then Paul adds specifically to workers, `Do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving!` (vv22-24).
This is not written only for teachers or nurses or mothers or missionaries or pastors. It’s no less God’s calling for us if we’re an engineer, a cleaner, a supermarket staff or a businesswoman. Each of these is equally important in God’s eyes, and a job somehow designed for us by him. Every disciple is full-time in Christian service, 24/7, with God as our boss. Why then do we work hard, with thoroughness and diligence, why should we be careful to be honest? Why do we seek a mutually respectful partnership with our employer, and work prayerfully for their blessing? (Why too should we not overwork, in a way that prevents us fulfilling our other callings from God, in family, church, etc?) Answer to all of these: because actually we know the person we’re really working for is God. We may have a human boss, but above all it is God we work for in whatever work we do. And in the end our fulfilment will not come from worldly success, it comes from knowing God’s pleasure, and investing the abilities God has given us into creating treasure in heaven. Discipleship, working for the Lord, includes obeying him by doing good, honest, thorough work. How would I work differently if I thought Jesus was watching? Let’s be assured he is, and he’s looking forward to talking it through lovingly with us!
We must pray too for the Spirit’s help in living out Christian character in our work. That can mean that, in this broken world, we may sometimes be distinctive; and there may even sometimes be a cost; eg delayed promotion if we don’t play office politics because we’re living like Jesus. But we can be little outposts of light as we do our work as to the Lord. And we also bring in God’s grace and goodness, in genuine reality, as we –
pray for our colleagues, our customers, our suppliers, our superior, the health of our business;
bring in God’s grace and goodness, truthfulness and fairness by what we do;
also by how we ourselves use power, and how we encourage and invest in people;
by being sensitive to the needs of others;
by hospitality;
by our refusal to gossip (or by determination only to gossip about good!)
And maybe, sooner or later, we can `make disciples` to Jesus, as God brings us into friendships where eventually we can share our faith.
3 It is God who is always the Lord! We need to grasp in our deepest being that whatever happens in our work-lives, God is in charge, God who loves us enormously and who is `in everything working for good with those who love him` (Rom 8:28).
This will matter when a difficult boss shouts at us; it can empower us nonetheless to work for them as for the Lord, because they’re not the `real` boss, our Lord is the one we’re truly working for and the one who is truly in control.
It can matter when we’re genuinely discriminated against or undermined by a colleague; it can empower us to relate to them in the way Christ taught us to treat our enemies – to pray for them, and bless them – because we know God is in charge.
It can matter when we’re trying to work committedly as servants of Christ in the ways we’ve just said, and other people see it as just another way of doing workplace politics. God is in charge, what matters is how it looks to him, and he will see to the consequences!
It matters also when we’re asked to do something we feel is wrong (eg with tax or expenses) and we fear our job is on the line. Again, God is in control and he will look after the consequences. (In the extreme case he may use this situation to move us on to somewhere where we may flourish better!) Faith means trusting that God is here and at work; and this faith may fuel our confidence, not just to refuse to do what we’ve been asked, but also to try to work hopefully with people involved to find another way that doesn’t compromise our integrity.
It matters that God is the one in control during times of temporary success in our work, but also in those times of temporary failure or rejection that can be so hard to cope with. God is in control in the times when we’re successful, and in the times when we’re criticized; the times when we get promotion, but also in the times when we’re overlooked or made redundant. (Note down somewhere accessible that Psalm 73:1-17 is a helpful passage to feed on at such times… ) We need to hold on to the eternal point of view; to grasp in our guts that God is the Lord, and he has promised to work with us in everything for our good if we love and trust him (Rom 8:28, 37). And our workplace can be a prime place where we grow mature in faith, grow as disciple of Jesus.
Has God maybe given us in these biblical truths a special word that can transform how we feel about work lives – this time tomorrow? God has created the work experience as something he has called us to, somewhere he will ultimately make fruitful for us; a key context in which, in the end, even if it doesn’t feel like it, his Spirit will help us grow; something we don’t do just for money or for promotion, but for his glory and pleasure; because like Paul says, `For me to live is Christ!`
ABSORB TIME: First, let’s worship God – because, as we’ve seen, he – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is a worker; and your own work is a gift from this God, a context where he aims to help you grow (and witness too). Worship him because he is your real boss, and he is the one ultimately in control. Bring to him also whatever you find problematic in this! Then pray too for his blessing on each person you’re involved with in your work (that’s being Christlike, and it works!); and for his action in their lives, and in your relationship with them…
IMPORTANT NOTE: Again, for a lot of this post’s approach, and for numerous thoughts within it, I’m heavily indebted to my former colleague at Wycliffe Church in Reading UK, Graeme Fairbairn.
