THIS IS PART 1 IN the SELAH sermon series “MONDAY MATTERS”, an exploration of work, value and living out God's call. Over the course of three essays, we look at how God loves the idea of work, how our motives can take us away from God, and how the Gospel can shape our work and our lives.
Oftentimes, we tend to weigh our Mondays less than we do our Sundays. But Mondays matter, as do the rest of the days of the work week, since we are serving God on all those days as well. What’s the theology that backs this idea, though? Can we gain perspectives from scripture that allow us to grow in the Lord even through the week? Welcome to Monday Matters, our three part series on work, value and living out God's call. This series is based on the book “Every Good Endeavour” by Tim Keller.
What is our motivation to work?
Why do we work? As human beings, why do we have this desire to work? Is it for money, is it for survival? Is it instead for legacy? Do we work for prestige, for recognition? Or do we work for access to places or people that we may not have otherwise? What is it that pushes us to work? The problem with these motivations is that none of these ever seem to be enough; the true satisfaction we seek is forever elusive. Money is never enough, legacy is always out there somewhere in the future, prestige always has another rung to leap for, recognition is never absolute, and access is always relative.
The biblical worldview of work is distinct: it says that our work is an implication of being built in the image of God. In the scriptures, we will see that God himself worked. By contrast, if you look at Greek and Mesopotamian mythology, you see a very different worldview of work: work is cast as the enemy there. Regular work is shown to be below philosophical and knowledge work, regular work is seen to be beneath the Gods. In all of these histories, the people who put their muscle to work were seen as the lowest in that society. Look at the men who built the ziggurats, those towering monuments to their Gods: these men weren’t the greatest of their worlds, they were the least.
But when we look at the biblical worldview, we see that God himself works. In the book of Genesis, we see God as a gardener, and in the New Testament, we see Jesus as a carpenter. Think then, of how we view the hierarchy of jobs as we see it in the modern world: even if we’re gifted in the more manual jobs, we will aspire to “greater things”. I don’t think it’s chance that the Bible speaks of the trades this way: I think it’s deliberately placed there to give us pause. Work by itself in the Bible is of high value. And as God’s image bearers, we are actually called to work.
Order from chaos, and what it means to be made in God’s image
““God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”””
“Fill the world and subdue it”. If we look at the original writing, we see that the word “subdue” comes from a root word that also gives us the words “cultivate” and “culture”. So this is what God tells them: go and cultivate, go and build culture. Why does God give them this mission? It’s because we are his image bearers. When you think about it, when God created the world, he brought order to chaos. He brought in a system that allows life to flourish in. And he gives us that exact same mission: bring order from chaos, and allow life to flourish here.
Consider artists in our midst. A singer or a musician takes all of the discordant notes that exist out there in the universe, and brings them into order. From the chaos and cacophony of notes in disarray comes the beautiful order that is music and harmony. Consider the work of a designer: she takes all of the visual noise — that riot of colours, that confusion of shapes — and bends them into the order that is a well crafted piece of design, or a logo that speaks to your heart. What of lawyers? Lawyers take all of the loose ends of arguments and bring them into an order that’s easy to follow. Entrepreneurs take the chaos of messy, incomplete ideas and bring them to functioning order. Can’t you see that these gifts come from God? Each one a reminder that we are made to be image bearers of God in everything we do. This is a profoundly important point that is so easily overlooked, particularly in the church.
Every job is holy in His eyes
At church, we look at the pastor and tell ourselves that that is the holiest job there. It is true that the pastor in a community is called to lead, but how is that any holier than any of other jobs out there? How can that be? We are all equally the image bearers of God, whether we are plumbers or masons, artists or designers, lawyers or entrepreneurs, even gardeners or carpenters. In fact, if you look at Genesis again and go by the order of the Bible, you’ll see that the first thing God gave to Adam was a job. It’s important to understand this so we better appreciate our position in the world. Our work is no less important than any other, even in the church.
““The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.””
The first job in the Bible is this: God puts Adam to work in the garden of Eden as his image bearer. That garden needed to flourish, that garden needed cultivation, that garden needed to thrive. And God gave this responsibility to Adam and to Eve. This responsibility, this job, is given to all of us.
An uncommon truth about Common Grace
The implication is this: God provides (Jehovah Jireh) for us, but God provides to the world through you and I in the work that we do. This truth is rooted in the doctrine of common grace: for all of humanity around the world, there is a provision of God’s grace for people, whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ. This goes back to how love gives without expecting anything in return. Grace that is given freely, in love. What we must see is that God’s common grace is provided to the world through our work. As believers, we have to understand that part of our redemption comes from being in the world and serving the world through the work we do. We have to administer Common Grace, to all people. Including people who may never know Jesus Christ. That is literally our job.
Read part two here: Empires and Emperors
Read part three here: Shaped by the Gospel
How does love affect our work, and what are the deeper implications of this? The implications of love on our work go beyond ethics and morality, beyond the right and wrong of the matter.