Policemen, Paramedics, and Painters: How Working for the King Matters
We spend the better portion of our days and even our lives working. Jesus appealed to work in His parables (e.g., sowing, reaping, buying, selling, fishing, shepherding). Paul told his readers to be hard workers (Col. 3:23), and he was a tentmaker himself. But on some days we wonder if our work actually makes any difference.
Due to sin, everything takes on a new dimension in our world, being wounded towards disorder and confusion.[1] This not only includes our work, but the entire creation itself (Rom. 8:22-23). This leads us to ask the question, “How should we approach work?” One thing is clear from Scripture: God made us to work and labor.
In this essay, we’ll see that the reformers saw their work as a distinct vocation or calling in life from God. We’ll then focus on some of our common misconceptions concerning work and move towards a proper view of it. We’ll see that there is value intrinsic to work itself. God worked from the very beginning and found delight in His work (Gen. 1:31). And so should man, as he is made in God’s image.
History
The Reformation church emphasized that the Gospel should have a holistic application in our lives, including our work. The Protestant reformers saw slothfulness and laziness in a negative light. Tom Nelson writes, “Consistently they made the connection that those who spend their time in idleness and ease should righty doubt the sincerity of their Christian commitment.”[2] Rather than seeing work as an evil to be avoided, they saw it as a calling built into the fabric of Creation.
The reformers’ view of work as being a calling under God is thoroughly biblical. For example, Gene Veith explains how they tied it to their teaching on the priesthood of all believers: “The priesthood of all believers did not make everyone into church workers; rather, it turned every kind of work into a sacred calling.”[3] Their focus was not to belittle the offices of pastors or church leaders, but rather to reveal that everyone has a calling to which they are appointed to glorify God. This trajectory led the reformers to see the connection between faith and work.
Much like the reformers, other evangelicals along the way have tried to help those within the church see this connection between faith and work. For example, Carl F.H. Henry comments on this connection:
We often forget that the Protestant Reformation saw, as the most natural bridge between theology and social ethics, the doctrine of vocation. They saw that the Christian believer moves each day from the family of faith out into the larger family of mankind, into the world of work, and does so, if he is a Christian, by employing his talents to the glory of God in Christ’s service and for the good of humanity.[4]
Naturally, a Christian is involved through his or her work on a daily basis. This bridge allows for those in the church to integrate faith and work. This biblical view of work being viewed as a special vocation from God, held by the reformers and articulated by evangelicals such as Henry, shows the opportunity for those working to offer service to God and their neighbors.
Misconceptions
Although we sometimes feel that work is a result of sin, Genesis shows us that work existed as a pre-Fall institution (Gen. 2:15). However, with the advent of sin, work now feels toilsome and difficult. Work can involve ethical tensions, such as exploitation of employees, defrauding of customers, and stealing from employers. We can see this distortion of work in three common misconceptions.
Misconception #1 – Work as a Concession to Sin: Often we see work as just a daily grind. Work may appear to be a means to an end. The saying “We work to live and live to work” sums up this perspective. Perhaps we feel a lack of purpose, unsure about our careers, and insecure in our employment. The toilsome nature of work is something that humans were not designed to bear. Rather than being masters of our work, we become its slaves. Rather than ruling over our work, our work rules over us. Yet since man is made in God’s image, engaging in work is ultimately fulfilling and is part of our sanctification.
Misconception #2 – Work-Faith Dualism: We also have a tendency of separating what we learn on Sunday morning from how we work on Monday morning. This mistake results from seeing Christianity as essentially an eternal life insurance policy with no impact upon us throughout the workweek. However, you are one person. Who you are should be reflected in all areas of life. In order to make this connection between faith and work, like the reformers, we must think out and apply the implications the Gospel has for our entire life and work.
Misconception #3 – Work as Means of Justification: Steve Jobs once said, “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?”[5] While working hard can be a good motivation, trouble begins when our work becomes the source for satisfaction. When our end is on making a dent in the universe, it is possible that pursuing first the Kingdom of God is left out of the picture. Emptiness is found at the road’s end when our work becomes the primary consumer of our time, devotion, and means of happiness in life. Thankfully, we are not justified by our work or success, but by the atoning work of Jesus Christ alone. This means that our jobs can never give the satisfaction that we truly desire. Only Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross can do that.
The Gospel frees us from the effects of sin so that our work does not have to stay trapped in these common misconceptions.
Towards a Proper View
As God’s image-bearers, mankind is created to work. This image-bearing involves working and making, as God did, and enjoying what is made. Of all that God created, only mankind is given a job. Plants and animals are given a “let them” permission, but mankind is given a command to “be fruitful” and “have dominion” (Gen. 1:28). Exercising dominion requires ordering the natural world, building infrastructure, forming art, etc. Henry comments, “A worker by God’s creation, man sees vocation therefore as a divinely entrusted stewardship by which to demonstrate love to God and service to man.”[6] God made us in His image. He told us to act like Him. God wants us to inculcate order, develop our vocations, discern patters of creation, and foster community.
Working and bringing order to a context is to act God-like. In a way, our jobs involve the work of bringing order out of chaos. Injustice is corrected (policeman); sickness is treated (paramedic); fading homes are restored (painter). The motivation for our work is to reflect God’s own character to the world around us, and in doing so we show love for our neighbor.
It may seem strange that a Christianity, which teaches justification by grace through faith alone apart from works, would inspire a doctrine of vocation. The reality is that everyone is called to a station or office in life. One thing is clear: God does not need our good works, but our neighbors do. In his exposition of Psalm 147, Martin Luther focuses on the doctrine of vocation and how God provides for His creation through our work. Luther writes,
God could easily give you grain and fruit without your plowing and planting. But He does not want to do so…What else is all our work to God – whether in the fields, in the garden, in the city, in the house, in war, or in government – but just such a child’s performance, by which He wants to give His gifts in the fields, at home, and everywhere else? These are the masks of God, behind which He wants to remain concealed and do all things.[7]
As Luther points out, our vocations are the masks of God. God works to serve others through our work.[8]
Closing Thoughts
Our work matters to God. Jesus can sympathize with us when work is overwhelming. He knew what it meant to get up early for work. He knew how to put in a hard day’s work. He has created us to work, and in so doing He gives us the opportunity to image Him through our work. As Christians, we don’t see work as a necessary evil just to earn income. Instead, we work because we bear the image of the One who works to make all things new.
We work for someone beyond our superiors. Ultimately we work for the King. Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, our hard work, however honorable it may be, can grow empty and meaningless. As new creations in Christ, we are able to do the work we were created for. The Gospel transforms our lives and calls us to embrace the vocations we have been given by King Jesus, for His glory.
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For Further Study:
Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert, The Gospel At Work: How Working for King Jesus Gives Purpose and Meaning to our Jobs (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013).
Gene Edwards Veith, Jr., God At Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2002).
Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (New York: Penguin Group, 2012).
Tom Nelson, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011).
“Institute for Faith, Work & Economics” www.tifwe.org.
“The Gospel Coalition Channel: Faith & Work” www.gospelcoalition.org/channel/faith-and-work.
“The Gospel At Work: Helping Christians Live Extraordinary, Gospel-Centered Lives In Their Workplaces” www.gospelatwork.com.
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[1] Arminius comments on the effects of sin saying, “The free will of man towards the true good is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost” (John D. Wagner ed. Arminius Speaks: Essential Writings on Predestination, Free Will, and the Nature of God [Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011], 3). Furthermore, sin altered both the environment in which man works, and man’s desire to fulfill his material needs.
[2] Tom Nelson, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship To Monday Work (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011, 23.
[3] Gene Edwards Veith, Jr., God At Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002), 19.
[4] Carl F.H. Henry, “Evangelicals and the Social Scene: God’s Plan for Salvation and Justice,” in The Ministry of Development in Evangelical Perspective: A Symposium on the Social and Spiritual Mandate. Ed. Robert Hancock (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1979), 100.
[5]Jason Snell, “Steve Jobs: Making a dent in the universe,” Macworld, October 6, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015, http://www.macworld.com/article/1162827/steve_jobs_making_a_dent_in_the_universe.html.
[6] Carl F. H. Henry, Evangelical Responsibility in Contemporary Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), 73.
[7] Martin Luther, “Psalm 147,” in Luther’s Works. Vol. 14 eds. Jaroslav Pelikan and Daniel E. Poellot (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 113.
[8] Psalm 145:15-16; 147:13
February 24, 2015
Zach,
Thank you for posting this helpful essay. It’s very easy for us to get caught up in working and we do indeed forget Who we work for. Maybe we can take this essay seriously and be more diligent in our Kingdom service.
February 24, 2015
Thank you for reading, Dustin. It is my prayer that we all see the implications the Gospel has for our entire life and work.