BP 202
I’m sure there are some people out there who believe work must have been created after the Fall in the Garden of Eden. But the truth is that the rebellion of Adam and Eve occurs in chapter 3 of Genesis while the call to subdue the earth, have dominion over it, to work it and keep it appears several times in chapters 1 and 2. So, even though many of us may have a love/hate relationship with work, it is not (like mosquitos) a product of sin but a divine mandate. Work was assigned to us by the greatest Worker of all before the Fall.
David Mathis of Desiring God ministry gives us a definition of work based on the book of Genesis: “Work . . . is the exertion of energy, investment of time and attention, and application of skill toward the ends of God’s calling to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, as well as subdue it and have holy dominion. Such work is a central aspect of what it means to be human.”
So, to work is to be human. It is to be made in the image of God who through His work created the universe. Just as God exerted Himself and then rested, so we are also to exert ourselves in work that is followed by rest.
In today’s post, we will briefly look at various motivations for work. Why do we work? What are healthy reasons to work and what are unhealthy reasons?
Below are a few healthy reasons we work followed by some unhealthy motivations.
+ Make money. Why? “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” ~ 1 Timothy 5:8.
+ God loves others through your work. Work is a way to make your time and efforts count for the benefit of others whether you build houses or give massages or heal bodies or help people with their finances or clean houses or sell houses. Not all of us naturally see our work from this perspective, so do your best to view your work as a means to help others.
+ Work provides an avenue to be financially generous to others. Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Working and earning money is a way for you to bless others who are less financially secure and sets you up for random acts of kindness to your church, missionaries, a struggling college student, even your grandkids one day! Think ahead.
+ Work provides an avenue to emulate the amazing servant nature of Jesus. You can serve many different people in your job—customers, employers, fellow workers, and direct bosses.
+ As a believer, you do all your work for the Lord Jesus, to serve and glorify Him—Colossians 3:17, 22-24
+ Your place of work is an arena where you can love others with the love of Jesus and possibly plant seeds for their future rebirth. “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” ~ 1 Peter 3:15. Remember the old adage, “You may be the only Bible some people will every read.” So, be a Bible to the people at work.
+ As you are faithful in little things in your job, Jesus will prepare you to be faithful in greater things. Remember Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon. God is using your work today to ready you for greater things.
+ Work is a place to learn leadership skills.
+ At your job, you have the opportunity to learn gratitude even (especially) on difficult days. Keep on becoming a follower of Jesus who radiates a joy that is not dependent on outside circumstances.
+ More generally speaking, work is a place for God to grow your character as you interact with people in many different roles. God may very well desire you to learn patience, selflessness, humility, and maybe even a loving awareness of others instead of self-consciousness. He might also ask you to love enemies at work and to practice forgiveness.
Now let’s move on to some unhealthy motivations to pursue work.
+ Building your own kingdom. Some people approach work as a place where they can advance themselves in more of a narcissistic fashion. They are not motivated so much by serving God and other people but see work as a stage on which to promote their own personal brand, fame, and success. They aspire to be the leading protagonist in the play, so to speak, and make sure others know that they are the supporting cast.
+ Work can be a place to avoid emotional/relational growth and instead invest yourself in the arena that comes most naturally to you. People who struggle with moving toward others or who have a lower emotional IQ find that work can be a safe place to hide–especially remote work. Even if you do work in an office, you can limit communication to small talk or shop conversations and never let anyone really know you. Be aware of using work as a shield to protect you against vulnerability.
+ Accumulating wealth for yourself. Why? Greed? Ease of life? To finally make people respect you? To make money your security? Yes, some people use the comfort of money to create a false sense of safety. How tragic to look to wealth and material things for shallow and fleeting comfort instead of cultivating the most important riches in the world, namely, loving relationships with God and other people that you will enjoy forever.
+ As already alluded to, work can be a place of escapism. Not infrequently, people run to work to escape their marriage. The expectations at work are clear, measurable, and if met, can be rewarded with raises, bonuses, and glowing evaluations from your boss and peers. The hoops are usually well defined, and you only need to depend on yourself to jump through them. At home, the expectations are less clear and the human you are living with might ask you for more than you can give. They might not do his or her part. They might be unfair to you or not value you as much as you think you deserve. Yes, you can run into the same issues at work, but usually you have a bit more control to determine outcomes in the workplace.
+ Work might be a place for you to apply a harsh competitive spirit. Why? To prove yourself to your father or mother? To compensate for deep feelings of inferiority that have dogged you all your life? Some of you might even be living out the old nerd saying, “You might tease me and abuse me in middle school and high school, but one day I will be your boss.”
+ Work can become workaholism—an addiction; something that gives you a high; a place to get some kind of counterfeit fix to briefly take the edge off the deepest hunger of your heart, namely, love, presence, ‘withness’, relationships. It can feel very good to have people in the work world respect you, even idealize you, listen to your every word, do what you tell them to do.
+ Work can be a place where you develop a justification for your existence in this world. Some people feel so unworthy of breathing the oxygen on this planet and so they might use frenetic, anxious performance at work to earn their right to exist.
Concerning this need to prove our worth through work achievement, David Mathis writes, “But Christians should be the freest people on the planet to work hard. Because we know we do not have to earn the favor of God Almighty with our works — but that it has been secured for us by Jesus — we have been liberated to pour our energy and time and skill and creativity into blessing others.”
+ Work might be a place to live out an unhealthy passive aggressiveness against authority, against parental figures.
+ Somewhat redundant, work can be a place to pursue idols such as money, success, pride, even affairs.
+ Some workplaces are a natural environment for hierarchies, for the expression of unhealthy power, for treating people as objects, to get their money, to use them for our purposes whether employees or customers, to control them even sadistically in extreme cases.
In the above points, we have considered some healthy and unhealthy motivations for our work.
On what note do we end this brief foray into the world of work?
I would like to end with the question, “How do Christians approach work as compared to someone who doesn’t follow Jesus?”
Think about that for a moment. As a believer who works, what distinctives might be true of you?
There are many possible distinctives, but the one I want to leave you with today is love. The work world is an environment where you can focus on yourself—your advancement, your fair compensation, your praise from others, your money; or work can be a domain where you lovingly focus on others.
I have seen my job as a clinical psychologist as an arena where I can love others as Jesus loves me. Are not the two “great commandments” all about loving God and loving others as we love ourselves? Isn’t work an amazing place to practice loving others with God’s love?
So, wherever God has planted you to grow in the world of work, do your job not to earn God’s love but to demonstrate your love for Him and others in response to His amazing love for you. Also, every day at work, make it your heart’s desire to love everyone you see or talk to during the day. I’m not telling you to be nice and people pleasing, but to genuinely practice loving others with patience, kindness, a servant heart, humility, prayer for them, and an awareness of their needs and heart’s condition. See them. Hear them—I mean really listen. Make eye contact.
Do not view work as an end in itself. Remember to practice all the healthy motivations mentioned above. Most of all, practice love. Your job will end, but love abides.
Love endures forever.
So, don’t go to work, first of all, to make money, to be esteemed, to advance. Go to work to love.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ~ John 13:34,35.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” ~ Matthew 11:28-30.
Below are some additional passages to read concerning God’s insights into work:
1 Corinthians 15:10; 4:12
Philippians 2:12, 13
1 Timothy 1:12
1 Corinthians 15:10
Ephesians 2:10
1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:15; 2:9; 4:11,12
2 Thessalonians 3:6, 7, 11
Acts 20:35