What the Bible Says About Work
Reality Church London exists to be a community that follows Jesus, makes him known, and seeks the renewal of London. One way we seek the renewal of London is by being a church that creates space for people to wrestle with how faith intersects and integrates with their work.
Most people spend most of their waking hours working. You might earn a pay-check for your work, or you might not (e.g., caring for a child or family member). Sometimes work is a joy, while other times it’s a grind. Some people are deeply satisfied in and with their work, whilst for others work (or the lack of work) is disappointing and frustrating.
Work is a central part of our lives. But what, if anything, does the Bible say about work? Quite a lot, actually. The Bible doesn’t just describe what kind of person you should be as you do your work (honest, reliable, ethical, etc.), but it also provides a much more holistic framework by which you can approach your work. The Bible addresses questions like: why is work sometimes so hard? What is your work ultimately for? And will anything that you do at work today matter in the future?
An Overview of What the Bible Says about Work
When it comes to developing a theology of work, it’s helpful to locate any individual teaching about work within the larger arc of Scripture’s narrative. The whole story of the Bible tells us that work matters.
Here’s the big picture summary: the doctrine of creation means that God created work; therefore, there’s an inherent goodness in work, and work is a core part of our humanity. The doctrine of sin means that work, though originally good, is now hard and often disappointing. The doctrine of redemption means that though work is often hard, work can also be a way to worship God, serve others, and create flourishing in the city. And the doctrine of new creation means that the work you do today can matter forever, as it is carried into eternity.
The Goodness of Work — God placed humankind in the Garden of Eden to ‘work it and take care of it’ (Genesis 2:15). Interestingly, the verbs ‘work’ and ‘care’ are most often used in the Bible to describe a priest’s service to God in tabernacle worship (e.g., Exodus 3:12; Numbers 3:7–10). In Eden the work of tending the Garden was itself an act of worship and service to God. At this point we see that there is an inherent goodness in work. For humankind, engaging in work happens prior to and apart from sin. All work — whether explicitly spiritual or not — matters to God. In work people reflect God as his image bearers, creatively stewarding and multiplying resources for the flourishing and advancement of the human community.
The Fall of Work: Frustration and Futility — The entrance of sin into the world changed the way people related to their work. While doing work is still necessary, enjoying the work and seeing the positive results of one’s work is much more difficult. What was once a joy now often feels like ‘painful toil’ (Genesis 3:17). In the influential book Every Good Endeavour, Tim Keller observes, ‘In all our work we will be able to envision far more than we can accomplish, both because of a lack of ability and because of resistance in the environment around us. The experience of work will include pain, conflict, envy, and fatigue, and not all our goals will be met’.*
The Fall of Work: Identity and Idolatry — Genesis 11 tells us about people who came together at Babel to use their creative energies and resources to build something so that they could make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). One of the impacts of sin upon on our work is that rather than working joyfully to reflect God and serve others, work now becomes a way of trying to achieve an identity apart from God. Work has become an idol through which we attach a sense of our own significance. Furthermore, when work becomes a person’s god, it can only ultimately lead to pride or despondency. If we are successful in our work we become prideful (looking down on others) and if we are unsuccessful we become despondent (looking down on ourselves).
The Challenge of Work — The doctrine of creation tells us that there is an inherent goodness in work and the doctrine of sin tells us that work is now often frustrating and used for selfish gain. The, question, then, is how do Christians inhabit their work amidst both the goodness and fall of work? The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 shows us that living out one’s faith within one’s work is challenging. August Konkel summarises, ‘The question is not whether believers should be faithful, but how they most effectively give testimony to their faith… Naaman knows the realities of life when he returns [to his workplace]. His newfound faith will bring conflict in his life. He does not justify what he must do but recognises the contradictions that he cannot avoid and asks for forgiveness’.** Simplistic conclusions about the nature of faith and work won’t stand up in the real world. Navigating the challenges of how to apply faith to work requires careful reflection in Scripture, prayer, and processing the realities of work inside a community with honest and open dialogue.
The Sacredness of Work — In 1 Peter 2, Peter describes the entire church — not just clergy — as ‘priests’. This is just one of many places in the Bible pointing to the doctrine of the ‘priesthood of all believers’. In all of our work we are called to worship God and serve others. Martin Luther put it this way: ‘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’.*** If work can be worship that means the old divide between ‘secular’ and ‘spiritual’ vocations must come down.
The Future of Work — When the kingdom of God arrives in all its fullness, work will not disappear; work will be renewed. Work, as the doctrine of creation teaches, is inherently good. Once the curse of sin is removed, work will be a means of both honouring God and serving others, but without the toil, frustration, and idolatry that is now so often attached to our work. Texts like Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21–22 declare that there is a future for our work: things we’ve done on earth will be redeemed and taken up into the kingdom. And all the things we’ve wanted to do but have been unable to are given new expression: ‘If we think of the future life in terms of inhabiting a Heavenly City, we have grounds for some patterns of continuity between our present lives as people immersed in cultural contexts and the life to come… If, in a fundamental and profound sense, God has not given up on human culture, then neither must we’.****
Why What the Bible Says About Work Matters
There are at least two reasons why what the Bible says about work matters.
First: growing as Jesus’ disciples. As already mentioned, most people spend most of their time working. How can we hope to see people wholeheartedly following Jesus if they are not spending time applying the teaching of Scripture to their work, the thing they do the most? Discipleship means following Jesus in every part of life, and work is a big part of life. That’s why Dorothy Sayers, in her brilliant essay ‘Why Work?’, observed that part of Christian discipleship requires integrating faith with work.
What I urged is a thoroughgoing revolution in our whole attitude to work. I ask that it should be looked upon, not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfil itself to the glory of God. That it should, in fact, be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that people, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.
Since we want to see people follow Jesus in every area of their life, our church must be a place where we bring faith into conversation with our work.
And second: making Jesus known. We want to see people throughout London, and our world, know and follow Jesus. If we are not showing people the relevance of the Christian message to their working lives, we are missing a very important way to proclaim the good news of the gospel, as well as a practical way to love our neighbours. Pastors are not the only people who should be doing ministry in their cities! As a pastor, my calling is to equip every member of our congregation to engage in the ministry they’ve been called to in every sphere of their life (cf. Ephesians 4:12). This means that the places for ministry are not just inside the walls of church gatherings. The places of ministry are our places of work — whether physical or virtual — throughout this city. Leslie Newbigin, a twentieth century missionary and theologian, hoped very much that people in modern Western culture would be able to encounter the power and beauty of the Christian gospel. He believed, though, that if such an encounter were to take place, it would be because churches took seriously the call to equip their members to apply their faith to and in their work:
It will be a major part of the work of such congregations to train and enable members to act as agents of the Kingdom in the various sectors of public life where they work. And this, of course, will be the place where the counter questions arise. The Christian will be asked, ‘Why do you do this? Why do you behave like this?’ Here is where the true evangelistic dialogue begins. At present it is very rare to find this kind of situation because the churches have so largely accepted relegation to the private sector, leaving the public sector to be controlled by another story… Only thus shall we begin to bring together what our culture has divided — the private and the public. Only thus will the church fulfil its proper missionary role.
More and more I hope the story of work and vocation in a city like London is shaped by the story of God’s healing, renewing work in the world. That won’t happen unless Christians and churches create space to wrestle with the implications of our faith for our work.
Resources for further reading: with summer holiday fast approaching, here are a few books which can be helpful for anyone interested in digging deeper into the theology of work, as well as for those seeking to practically apply their faith to their work. Much of what’s in the following recommendations has shaped how I think about the relationship of faith to work, and I hope they are helpful to you.
Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavour: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work.
Andy Crouch, Culture-Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.
NT Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.
Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.
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*Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour (New York: Dutton, 2012), 90.
**August Konkel, 1 & 2 Kings, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 441.
***Martin Luther, Works, vol. 14 (St Louis: Concordia: 1958), 96.
****Richard Mouw, When the Kings Come Marching In (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 19, 42.
