“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1–2
As the holidays come to a close and Christians return to the normal rhythms of labor, many of us struggle to find meaning in our work. We are tempted to settle for seeing their lives as marked by sacred times of church, family, and prayer, surrounded by secular times of work and rest that are devoid of any sacred purpose.
But God does not intend for our lives to be lived in pockets of sacred time and secular time (Col. 3:17). Instead, our lives are intended to be a living sacrifice in constant worship, continuously depending on and glorifying God. For the Christian, your place of work is holy ground, as is every other footstep we take as Christians indwelt by the Spirit of God. Every email you send and receive, every meeting you attend, the turn of every piece of machinery are all a part in the grand opus conducted by our Creator to be used toward an end that often only he can see.
God has many purposes for your work intended to bring glory to him, strengthen his saints, and propel the gospel of his Son forward in a fallen world being reconciled to him.
1. God intends your work to bring glory to him
We give glory to God by imaging him well, stewarding the talents and gifts entrusted to us, and making it known that he is more valuable to us than anything this world has to offer. When a mother is loving and patient with a precocious toddler in the middle of the day, she is imaging the patience and kindness God has shown toward us. When we choose not to participate in the infighting, gossip, and destructive corporate politics rampant in our workplaces and instead love and pray for the co-workers who oppose us we image the love Christ has shown to us. We have been entrusted with gifts and talents we should develop and use to the glory of God giving thanks for those gifts and the opportunities he has provided to be used by him for his purposes.
2. Your work is part of God work in your sanctification
Our labor is thick with thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:18) intended by the enemy to distract you from your purpose of bringing glory to God and intended by God to discipline his beloved children in holiness. Our struggles are not pointless when we commit them to the Lord for our growth in holiness. God does work through the hardest sufferings we experience to discipline those he loves, but the smaller moments can be instruments of his grace as well (Heb. 12:17).
We have so thoroughly created a false wall of separation between secular and sacred that we often do not call sin in the workplace what it really is: sin. We do not call it pride; we call it self-confidence. We do not call it deceitfulness; we call it politics. We do not call it idol worship; we call it managing up. The problem with re-labeling sin is that, until we acknowledge it for what it really is, we cannot truly repent. And until we repent, we cannot truly be free of the sin.
Those little moments when our patience is tried, when our pride is pricked, when we are tempted to compromise our Christian convictions for professional gain are divine opportunities to reject sin and show we love Christ more. God uses even those small moments to strengthen us. For most Christians our labor, whether in the home or in an office, is where we spend the majority of our waking hours. Use every second of that labor to grow in holiness as an act of worship towards our Lord.
3. You are a minister of the gospel
As many Christians see their work as separated from their spiritual lives, they imagine the only reason God sends Christians into the workplace is to evangelize. While God intends much more than that for our work, certainly there is no higher purpose. There is nothing more loving to our co-workers, nothing that glorifies our God more than to share the gospel with lost and broken people in need of the Savior. There is no joy greater than to pray with a non-Christian at work and watch God open blind eyes.
The work of changing hearts and minds is that of the Holy Spirit—our job is to be faithful to share the good news. There is no pressure to get the words just right when you believe it is not you who does the convincing. Make sure your co-workers know you are a Christian and love them so well that when they have questions about faith, you are the first person they think of to go to with questions. Especially if you are a leader in your church, see yourself as an on-site chaplain, a minister of the gospel for believers and non-believers in a dark and broken place. Strengthen the saints, pray for the lost and fight against the work of the enemy—right there in your office, an outpost in the battlefield for Christ.
Your work matters to God
Scripture is filled with descriptions of the occupations of the saints and exhortations to work “as for the Lord and not for men.” While the hardships of our labor are part of the curse resulting from the Fall, God does use our work to do glorious things, just as he does childbirth, which is also part of the same curse. Since your work makes up the majority of your waking hours, choose to see it as if God placed you in that time and place with a purpose—because, of course, he has.
To learn more about how to live out your faith at work, join us for a special Gospel at Work event Tuesday, January 15, hosted at our Downtown Bellevue church. Pastor Dave Bruskas will teach on “The High Impact of a Lower Profile” and how we can use our lives to reflect God’s character to those who work with us. Event details available here.
For more on worshiping God in all our work, check out Pastor Mark’s sermon from the Nehemiah series “Work and Worship” from September 2007.
Matt Rogers is a pastor at the Downtown Bellevue church.
