Tag: biblical theology of work

concise biblical theology of work

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Happy, Monday! Welcome back to work! With the long work week ahead, I felt it necessary to encourage all your labors. God loves work. Did you know God has set in His Word a theology for work?

  1. Working is a good and basic part of being human in God’s world. Ever since the Garden of Eden, mankind has worked [Genesis 1:28-31].
  2. Since, Genesis 3, work is cursed and frustrating, but it still is good, worthwhile and necessary.
  3. Followers of Christ have a strong motivation to work, not only because of the place of work in creation, but also because work [like any field of life] is a theatre for our service of Christ [Colossians 3:17].
  4. At a deep level, when we work at any job, we work for Christ [Colossians 3:23-24].
  5. As Christians, we do not work in order to gain self-fulfillment or fame or personal kudos. We work not for ourselves but for others, to serve them, not to be a burden to them, and to have something to share [Ephesians 4:28; 1 Timothy 5:8].
  6. Secular work is thus very valuable, worthwhile and important. But like any good thing, it can become an idol. We can start to look at our work for significance and value.
  7. We must remember that only Christ’s work redeems humanity. As useful and helpful as secular work is in our world, it will not save us or build Christ’s kingdom. That only happens through Spirit-backed gospel-centered proclamation.
  8. All work, inside or outside the church is sacred. There are not two classes of Christian workers—those who are really working for God and the rest who minister when they can off their 8-5 job.

Expect for point 8, all other points are adapted from The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. Matthias Media, Kingsford, Australia. 2009.137-138.

For more study on redeeming your work check out: