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Topic: Truth in Culture Weekly Commentaries
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Work: A Fundamental Purpose and Partnership with God
March 15, 2010
S. Michael Craven
 
To understand the role of business in advancing the kingdom, we need to think about the biblical definition and purpose of work. Some may see work in only negative terms—as part of the curse, with no redeeming value. This is completely unbiblical. Many Christians, however, view work as only an instrumental good. Practically, this means that work—while not necessarily being bad—is seen as serving as an instrument or means to other goods, such as providing for your family, contributing to missions and the church, or charities, and so on. As an instrumental good, the work itself is viewed as merely a means to an end and not an end in and of itself.
However, the Bible teaches that work is a fundamental good—a part of our fundamental purpose on earth. Work is a part of God’s original design. God himself worked in creation and continues to work, both sustaining and redeeming his creation. Prior to the Fall—in paradise—man worked in partnership with God. This last point may be surprising to many, but consider what we are told in Scripture. First, what did God do in the beginning? He “created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This was work. The Genesis narrative provides the order of God’s creative work, culminating in the creation of man—the only beings in all of creation made in his image. Thus the first point is that if God works, then we—being made in his image—are also to work. In fact, the creation of man (male and female) in Genesis 1:27 is immediately followed by God’s blessing and the assignment of responsibilities or work (see Genesis 1:28).
Second, in contrast to the idea that God created and then walked away (leaving creation in the hands of man) is the fact that Adam worked in partnership with God. At a philosophical level we are told God “planted a garden in Eden” (Genesis 2:8) and put Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). God created and sustains (see Colossians 1:17) and mankind stewards or gives care to God’s creation. However, God also continued to partner with Adam at a practical level. In Genesis 2:19 we are told, “God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them” (emphasis mine). Adam walked and worked with God.
Of course, we know man severed this partnership through his disobedience and sin. Man’s relationship to God and work would change as a result. Man would find himself alienated from God and work would become burdensome. Nonetheless, God did not abandon man nor did man’s initial responsibilities change. Immediately following God’s description of what life would now be like for Adam and Eve in their fallen state, God alluded to an added work, the work of redemption, in which he would make all things new (see Genesis 3:15).
God, in his mercy, has chosen to maintain his partnership with man. However this partnership—with those whom he has chosen—also includes the work of redemption, which is not exclusive to just a personal spiritual work. God’s ongoing work in history (sustaining and redeeming) is all-encompassing, involving both the material and spiritual dimensions of his whole creation.
The Old Testament is filled with stories that testify to this fact beginning with the construction of a big boat by a real man named Noah. God didn’t drop an ark from the sky; he chose Noah, gave him the specifications, and told him to build it, saving (physically and spiritually) a remnant of man and every type of animal. When Israel was in Egypt, God didn’t deliver food from the heavens when famine came upon the land, he had chosen a man (Joseph), years earlier, to plan, prepare and store up food for the salvation of Israel and “all the earth” (see Genesis 41:57). In both instances, God partnered with men he chose (working as a shipbuilder and administrator, respectively), using material means, to accomplish his redemptive purpose in history.
In the Old Testament these redemptive purposes were oriented toward the preservation of a particular or “chosen” people through whom the Messiah, the promised King, would come. In the New Testament, the King finally comes, initiating his rule or kingdom—albeit in an unexpected way—and this kingdom begins the restoration of all things, including making alive those who were once dead. It is we, who have been made alive in Christ (the church), that God calls to partner with him in this ongoing work of redemption.
This work—the life and purpose of the church—bears witness to God’s “kingdom come” into the world, which glorifies God (hallowed be Thy name) and serves as a foretaste of that which is to come when all that has been broken by sin is restored. Where there is injustice (including economic injustice), the church works to enact justice; where there is unrighteousness, the church works to establish righteousness; where there is conflict, the church works for peace. And all of this work, carried on through countless everyday initiatives, is done in love—love from God, for God, and for others.
Do these adverse conditions, resulting from sin, exist in the marketplace? Of course they do, they exist throughout the world! By directing our vocational activities away from profit-making as the principal purpose (or merely a means to an end) and toward the redemption of man and creation, we serve the kingdom purpose of making the in-breaking reign of God visible. This sets right what sin has set wrong and proclaims Christ as both the reason for our life and actions and the only means by which one may enter the kingdom and be saved. This is the broader gospel mission that gives authority to our message; it is in our everyday actions—including the work we do and how we do it—that the world will know who we follow and glorify the name of God (see John 13:35, 1 Peter 2:12).
So contrary to twentieth-century economist Milton Friedman, who said the purpose of business is to “maximize financial profits for shareholders,” the Christian business should work in partnership with God to sustain creation, promote the kingdom and its virtues, and repair what sin has broken. Business is one of those loving structures provided by God in which we can join together, working with God, to accomplish these ends.
If you are a business owner or executive and would like to learn more about how you can more fully order your business in support of the kingdom, then I encourage you to apply for the Kingdom Project.
© 2010 by S. Michael Craven
All scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.
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Responses
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Response from : John |
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March 15, 2010 10:02 AM
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Good article, subtle in its importance. Keep up the good work. I have a friends Grad school paper on the notion of Labor in Proverbs that is really well written and quite insightful if you'd like. But if your reading list is already too long I understand. God bless!
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Response from : Marica Maas |
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March 15, 2010 6:21 PM
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This valued article made me think again of Elaine Stedman's encouraging "A Woman's Worth" -- available online -- focussing on wholeness of both male and female man. The tension which she highlighted between the value of work, and seeking value through work, especially came to mind.
In Chapter 2, "Whose Image?" she for example mentioned,"Our identity is not determined by our function. The consummate privilege of our humanity is our fellowship with God himself." Further on she continues,"Works are a result of faith. Works are the mode by which faith is exposed. The validity of faith is tested by works."
Then in Chapter 3, "What is Human" the "legalistic system of demand and performance from which we as Christ's redeemed ones have been liberated..." is mentioned... "We can hardly avoid the conclusion that our enemy has developed an effective strategy for disqualifying the very ones called to be the salt and light in our decadent and darkened society, by keeping us continually distracted with issues of our identity or intrinsic value. Such distraction will persist so long as we continue to see ourselves through the goal of earned value."
Again in Chapter 11, "God's Survival Plan" it is mentioned "True, we do not establish our identity through performance, but in the same way that "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:19)so we evidence who we are by the diligent, orderly, creative function of our God-given abilities."
Then the problem of idolatry had also been mentioned several times, which is described as a means to draw us away from bearing God's image -- away from freedom, and our true worth -- into bondage. Relating directly to work, it is then mentioned how men and women can be slaving away; not to be meeting needs, but idolatrous wants or then that 'always escaping fictuous higher living standard'; something which is very much evident in our society; with children virtually orphaned, and in fact very much deprived, because of having no relationship with their constantly-working parents.
One of our home's rules is though, "Learn to Work"... Working can indeed be utilised as a tool to shape character, but while keeping in mind that the intrincsic value of a person is not determined by it, and that our relationships with God and one another are always to be supreme to our works? Maybe the key is then to be doing all to God's glory, and towards the extension of His kingdom, as you mentioned?
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Response from : Harold Klassen |
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March 19, 2010 4:27 AM
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This is an important and often neglected topic. However, there are some great resources available in the blog of Christian Overman (www.biblicalworldviewmatters.blogspot.com) and at the site of the London Insitute of Contemporary Christianity (www.licc.org.uk).
http://www.transformingteachers.org
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Response from : Nelson |
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March 22, 2010 10:33 AM
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Good article and topic, which needs more attention. Too many times, vocational ministers down-play other people's work in order to bolster volunteers or elevate their role above others. I've been guilty of that. Theologically I know better and shouldn't encourage anyone to forsake work for the sake of another ministry. I do desire our church members to jump on board with what we are doing and offering. Often some encouragement to labor outside their job is warranted since their job doesn't genuinely allow them to exercise their spiritual gifts, nor does it tap into their God-given passions.
Another thought, which deserves great attention, which is often left out of discussions on this topic is the command to work. In the command to observe the sabbath from Exodus 20, we read: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
There is a command to work. It's God's will for us to work. Much could be said about those who have the "luxury" to not labor and can play in their leisure. I've stepped on some toes with this observation. Speaking of work, I've got some to attend to. Thanks for your labor in the Lord!
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