The Bible commends work (Eccl 2:24-25, 2 Thess 3:7, 12) and condemns laziness (Prov 6:6-8), recognising no distinction between blue-collar work and white-collar work. In the Bible, we find accounts of of farmers, shepherds, architects, tax collectors, fishermen, carpenters, housewives, politicians, bakers, food tasters, civil servants, judges, seamstresses, blacksmiths, butchers, doorkeepers, sailors, innkeepers, horsemen, servants, midwives, poets, priests, prophets, artists, stonemasons, tentmakers and writers, to name just a few of the jobs! Jesus Himself worked as a carpenter for many years; His followers were ordinary people doing ordinary jobs: fishermen, a tax collector, a doctor, a tentmaker. There was no sense of a sacred/ secular divide such as grew up in the church over years; clearly, the range of jobs which can be embraced by people is wide, vast and varied, and no job is intrinsically ‘better’ than other.
The difference Christians can make in their workplace is not so much a difference necessarily in the actual work itself, but in the attitude they bring to that work and the way that they carry out that work. Rosemaria Escriva says: ‘Add a supernatural motive to your ordinary work and you will have sanctified it.’
The hymnwriter says:
‘Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see,
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee.
All may of thee partake;
nothing can be so mean,
which with this tincture, “for thy sake,”
will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
makes drudgery divine:
who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
makes that and the action fine.’
Eph 6:5-6 and Col 3:22-24 point out the attitude of whole-hearted service which distinguishes the Christian’s work from any other. The key motivation for us as Christians in our attitude to work should be to seek God’s glory. This is manifested in the ‘way’ we work: with honesty (Titus 2:10), with consideration for others (Matt 7:12), striving for excellence in all we do, valuing consistency and persistence even in the ‘daily grind’ (Gal 6:9) and working joyfully, prayerfully and thankfully. (1 Thess 5:16-18) These attitudes are so different to the world’s way of working that we will soon have opportunities to explain to colleagues, employers and customers the reason why we have hope.
Work without God seems futile and pointless (see Ps 127:1). The antidote to such feelings and the path to a right view of everyday work lie in understanding that God is in control and cares about our everyday physical needs as well as our spiritual growth. (Matt 6:31-32) When God is at the centre of our everyday lives, then everyday work is simply another vehicle by which God can be glorified and we live with the perspective in which ‘our effort is at the periphery and God’s work is at the centre.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’, P 97)