Our Work, God”s Work

By Aaron Wymer

All of Scripture lifts up the value of””and God”s role in””our work.

When it”s time to work, whatever the shape and substance of your vocation, you may yearn for “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” where they “hung the jerk that invented work.” But the old song about a hobo”s paradise that doesn”t include work is an entirely different vision of paradise than we get in Scripture.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is not shy about addressing work. Some texts are exceedingly practical, such as 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15. Here the apostle Paul is fed up with lazy and idle Christians, while he himself is working tirelessly. Paul advises the Thessalonians, “Don”t feed them.”

When Paul addresses Christian thieves in the church in Ephesus, he tells them to quit stealing and to take up honest work. Then he goes a step further. He tells them to take up honest work so that they will have something to share with the needy (Ephesians 4:28).

In order to have a biblical view of work, the “so that” is important. If we fail to understand the ends and the goals (the “so that”) of work, then we risk becoming a living example of the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill every day, only to watch it roll back down again. Without a good and enduring goal, our work is little more than farce or punishment.

The Goal

What is the scriptural goal of work? Do we work in order to have enough money to live? To retire early? Because somebody has to do it? For prestige and meaning? To fight off boredom? Because idle hands are the devil”s workshop? Or just because that”s what people do? Our answers will determine our attitude toward work.

Beginnings and Gardens

Scripture opens with God working to create the universe and everything in it. God”s work precedes, originates, and orders human existence. In Genesis 1, God creates daily, declaring the results to be good. On the sixth day something special happens (Genesis 1:27-31). God creates man and woman (in the image of the working God), but doesn”t immediately declare humans to be good. First God gives them the vocation of being fruitful, creative, and multiplying, followed by the vocation of managing well the earth. Then, and only then, does God declare humans are “very good.”

Genesis has still more to say about humans and work. In another telling of how God created all things, God sees there is no one to till the ground and creates Adam (Genesis 2:5). God then places Adam in the garden paradise so that he can till the ground. Not only does this make farming the world”s oldest vocation, it means that even in a prefallen paradise, humans have work, a calling, a vocation. Scripture never imagines paradise apart from work.

One of the markers of the Garden of Eden is that God walks among these created humans in full relationship (Genesis 3:8). The garden is also a place where the work of God and the work of humans is a shared workspace.

The goal of work in the beginning, in the garden, is for humans to help shape creation as colaborers with the creator, to foster flourishing for animal and earth. Scripture envisions an unending human purpose in the garden, untouched by death and disease. There is an eternal and enduring purpose to this work.

Adam and Eve then introduce the first sin into the garden, and it”s the undoing of that original vision. The paradise of the garden and the ease with which God dwells with humans is lost. Now work will involve thorns and thistles and sweat and labor pain, and be limited by death.

Tabernacle and Temple

As the story develops, God calls Abraham and Sarah and gives them the vocation of becoming a people through whom the whole world will be blessed. God promises that their descendants will become a great nation, and tells the people of Israel to build a tabernacle; later, the tabernacle will be replaced with a temple that has the same footprint. In the creation of these two structures (one a tent, the other a building) God calls the Israelites to build something of enduring importance. Their work, once again, brings human work and the work of God into the same space as they construct a place where God will dwell with humans.

Besides being a dwelling place for God, these structures represent the coming together of a variety of vocations: kings (government), priests (the practice of faith), artisans, builders, and all whose labors support them. Read Exodus 25″“31 to find an incredible list of vocations required for this new shared workspace (woodworkers, shepherds, metalworkers, weavers, etc.), and all are empowered by God”s Spirit so that God might dwell among the people in a place that is a shadow of the garden and a foretaste of God”s ultimate goal.

The value these texts place on what we now call blue-collar workers runs counter to the view of laborers in the cultures surrounding Israel. In Scripture, the farmer comes first (and with farming, one presumes the builder and the toolmaker). Not until the fall of humanity is there a need for governmental and priestly work.

Church and Kingdom

In the New Testament, with the coming of Christ, we see a developing view of temple and of the goal of human work. The New Testament envisions the church as the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). This new temple is not created by human hands and is not built out of wood or stone, but is still to serve as a dwelling place for God and a shared workspace. We, the church, are to let ourselves be built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5).

As the new temple, the community is called together so that the kingdom of God may be on earth as it is in Heaven. This time the so that of our work is not to build a place for God”s dwelling, but to be a people in whom God dwells, a people God can use to bless the earth. Now we are called to colabor with God to shape creation as the kingdom of God, as a holy nation, and as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). This time the so that is proclaiming the salvation of God in Christ and working and serving for the flourishing of the entire earth. This calling is so beyond our capabilities we have to trust God is still at work with us and will bring the project to full completion. Through the resurrection of Christ, our work is once more unbounded by death. Our work has enduring, eternal, implications.

The New Testament view is that we work so that the kingdom of God may come fully to earth, a kingdom where all of creation thrives.

Does My Work Support the Kingdom?

All of this sounds nice in theory, but here is a common question: what do I do when I find myself stuck in a job or a career that doesn”t appear to support the flourishing of the people around me, and doesn”t lend itself to obvious eternal, enduring, implications? What do we do when we find ourselves powerless to choose a career that supports the thriving of the kingdom of God? This question afflicts everyone from plumber to preacher (yes, ministers struggle with this question too).

When we aren”t sure how helpful our work is, it is good to remember that the Holy Spirit is the driving force in our kingdom of God work. We can be assured the value of our contributions isn”t always immediately evident. We do well to contemplate how our work lends itself to the thriving of the world around us and to remember that the kingdom of God is ultimately the gift of God, not our own creation. Everything doesn”t rest on us. We are colaborers with Christ.

Also, Ephesians 6:5-8 reminds us that even Roman slaves, with no ability to quit their work (maybe even little ability to tailor their duties within that work), are able to serve God in their limited circumstances and to know that God is able to bless their best efforts.

So That We Delight in God

No commentary on a biblical view of work would be complete without a mention of the importance of Sabbath. More than a day of rest, Sabbath is a reminder that we ultimately rely on God, not our own work. Sabbath is also a reminder to stop and take delight in the life that God has given us. Sabbath practice endures throughout Scripture as a reminder that we are not defined by our work, but by our reliance on, and delight in, our creator.

Aaron Wymer serves as senior minister with Grandview Christian Church, Johnson City, Tennessee.