The Purpose of Our Work

Alright, so why are we doing a sermon series talking about our jobs? Topical series like this aren’t something we’ve done much as a church. For the last 24 weeks we’ve been in the Gospel of John, and we’ve made it halfway through chapter 6.

Our natural diet of preaching is walking verse-by-verse through entire books or sections of books of the Bible in order to understand its meaning within the original context, to understand how that meaning finds it’s fulfillment in the good news of Jesus, and then looking to apply that meaning to every aspect of our lives.

And it’s that last part that answers why we’re looking at the connection between our faith and our work over these next four weeks. We say it often in our worship services, and it’s front and center on our church’s website: “The gospel affects all of life.” And so occasionally, we want to lean in on a particular aspect of life and spend some time asking the question: “How is Jesus good news here”? “How does the person and work of Jesus change the way I think about this thing—the way I relate to this thing—the way I engage with this thing?”

If you work an average of 40 hours a week, then you are currently spending 24% of your life in your job. And, of course, many of us spend much more. Stay at home parents: you are always on the clock. Whether you work inside or outside of your home, what you do as your job organizes much of the rhythms of your life.

My wife, Macie, was homeschooled, and so that’s naturally been a topic for the two of us as we think about what we want to do for our kids’ education. I went to a private, Christian school, but that comes with a lot of expense. Public schools come with their host of challenges as well.

But parents will spend a long time deeply thinking through the best way to approach schooling for their children—not just because of the quality of the education but because they’re thinking about their kids’ formation—How will they grow up? Where are they going to spend their time.

8am-3pm, or whatever the hours at the school might be, is a long time for our kids to be taken care of and taught by someone else other than their parents 5 days a week for 12-13 years. We recognize the amount of time our kids spend in the classroom makes the way we approach it all the more important, so why wouldn’t we think of our jobs the same way?

If you’re a Christian and you’re working inside or outside of your home, then you are spending 24% (or more) of your Christianity in your workplace. Understanding the gospel at work isn’t just something that will make you think  better of your job—it’s essential to being a faithful, growing follower of Jesus.

But how do we do that? Integrating our faith and our work has historically taken two different approaches within the church, and both are helpful, but they’re both also incomplete on their own. For many believers, being a “Christian worker” is synonomous with being an “ethical worker”—a “moral worker”. It means we’re fair, we don’t lie, we’re considerate of others.

Again, those are great characteristics to bring into your job. But that’s not the gospel.  When we look at what Jesus taught during his earthly ministry, his primary focus was not trying to get people to just lead a moral life. In Matthew 23, he spoke out against the Pharisees and religious leaders who he said would “clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Clearly, being a gospel-centered Christian in the workplace is about more than what you do on the outside.

But it’s also about more than just what you say. Another common assumption about integrating our faith and our work is that it’s all about telling people about Jesus—that being a Christian in your workplace means you’re evangelistic. Again, sharing good news with someone is never a bad thing, especially telling others about life in Christ.

But, it’s also exactly that: a life in Christ. Not simply how we act or what we talk about, but the way we are. Integrating our faith and work is not merely about our activity; it’s first about our identity. So, this morning as we think about the purpose of our work, I want us to go all the way back to the way God made us—because what we do flows out of who we are.

When we look at the story of creation at the beginning of the book of Genesis, we find that our purpose for work begins in God’s work. He’s the original worker, and you could break down the narrative of how God created the world in two parts: forming and then filling. On the first three days, he formed the substance of creation: day 1 was light, ay 2 was the sky and seas; he created dry land and vegetation on day 3.

And then, after forming the world, he filled it. On Day 4 he provided givers of light—the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night. On day 5, he created birds and fish to populate the skies and the sea. And then, on day 6, he finally created animals to roam the land, including human beings.

Forming, and then filling. And this is the same process he took when he created mankind as well. In Genesis 1:26 we see God speak to the form of our life—how he would make us. He says,

Genesis 1:26 ESV

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

That’s one of four times in the Old Testament when God is referred to in the plural. Given the authority of the group mentioned in the verse and the similarity that existed in them for man to be created in their (singular) likeness—it’s not talking about angels here. Instead, it’s what we call a “plural of fullness”.

It’s telling us that all of God engaged in the design of man and woman in his image. Later in history, we’d describe this in the theological language of God as Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit—but we see the markings of it right here at the start of everything.

As we continue reading, the first two lines of the poem in verse 27 create what’s known as a chiasm, which was a list of statements that surrounding the most important emphasis in the middle rather that highlighting it up front. And right in the middle—the most important part of how we were made—The image of God. The imago dei.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

This is how Scripture says we were formed. And immediately after, God provides the filling—literally the way our lives find fulfillment. We were created, not just to bear God’s image, but to bear it to God’s creation. After creating man and woman, look what God does in verse 28. It says,

Genesis 1:28 ESV

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God’s vision for humanity is what led to our commission into work. Again, what we do flows out of who we are. And in case you’re feeling like this might be a little thin to connect the Genesis narrative to your 9-5, look ahead just a few more verses to Genesis 2:15. In the first part of chapter 2, we’re given the same creation account of man and woman but from a different angle. And then, after creating humanity, the very next thing we see God do is found in verse 15:

Genesis 2:15 ESV

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

So, God creates man and woman in his image. Then, based on that image, he blesses them with the mandate to fill the earth and subdue it. And how does God expect people to do that? Verse 15 says he places them in the garden, and he puts them to work.

Your job, no matter how prestigious it is, no matter how important it seems, no matter how much you love it—your job is one of the main ways God has blessed you with the opportunity to visualize his image as you properly steward and sustain his creation.

Whether you’re a doctor or a garbage man, a teacher or a waiter—whether you like your job right now or you don’t or you’re currently trying to find one—your work matters, and there is a distinctly Christian way to think about it and to engage with it. And it doesn’t start with what you do; it starts with who you are in Christ.

We’ve got more to talk about, but that might be the most practical and freeing thing I say the entire sermon. When your hope to be justified before God is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on your behalf, then your work gets to be the expression of your identity and not the source of it. That’s why the gospel is good news.

In the rest of our time here this morning, I want to look at how God’s vision for us as his image bearers flows into our commission as his workers in the world, so we can understand that purpose in light of the work each of us does. And again, when I say work, I’m not just talking about a vocational career.

You might be a stay-at-home parent, you might be a student, you might be retired or currently unemployed. But as long as we have breath in our lungs we we will be working in our days, and God’s mandate in Genesis 1:26-28 is something we can apply as a foundational purpose across what we do with our lives.

So, let’s do a quick survey of what God calls us to do based on creating us in his image in these verses. In verse 26, God makes man “after our likeness”. If we back up to verse 24, God creates other land animals by saying, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.

But that’s not the case with humans. We were created in God’s likeness. So, right out the gate we learn that we are spiritual beings. What we see in the world around us, what we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror—that’s not all there is to who we are.

Being created in the image of God is like if your favorite movie was transcribed into a statue. The substance might be different, but if you’re familiar with the film, you’ll see how the statue comes from it.

But more than just being spiritual beings in God’s likeness, we’re also complementary beings. We weren’t all made the same. Verse 27 says we were created in the image of God (singular), but we were created as male and female (plural). We were created complementary to one another—distinct from one another but also meant to fit together.

And that’s not the only relationship we see here in the text. After creating man and woman in his image, God does something we don’t see him do after anything else he creates. He talks to his creation. Verse 28 assumes a relationship where God blesses and instructs his people.

And in that instruction, both in verse 26 and in verse 28, we find several particular phrases: to “have dominion”, to “be fruitful and multiply”, to “fill the earth and subdue it.” Inherit throughout these verses is God’s call for us to create and steward what he’s given us.

That’s why this passage has been known historically as the “cultural mandate.” It’s God’s charge to humanity to take what God has formed and fill the earth with his glory as we rule over it. From farming the land to writing a sonnet; all that we create and cultivate fits into God’s original blessing for his people.

So, when we put all these things together, we see that we are spiritual beings who were made for communion with God and others as we serve on his behalf to rule, create, and cultivate over his creation. I’m going to say that again because I know that’s a packed definition: As God’s imager bearers, we are spiritual beings who were made for communion with God and others as we serve on his behalf to rule, create, and cultivate over his creation.

Let’s break each of those down and see how God’s cultural mandate in our creation applies to the purpose we can find now in our careers. First, we are spiritual beings. Verse 26 doesn’t tell us much about what it means to be created in the image of God, but it does give us one clarification: we are created “after [God’s] likeness. And like we just studied a couple months ago during our John series in John 4:24, “God is spirit.”

We, likewise, are also spiritual beings. Why do you think we care about things like art or a sunset? These don’t immediately help us preserve our species. But they have more than a material value. When someone sees an amazing sunset, their first thought isn’t to determine how the percentage of the gradient and the contrast of the colors provide an appealing visual to our eyes. No, our first thought is simply that it’s beautiful. We just want to take it in.

If you try to tell me that Christmas music isn’t good quality music, I might not like you—not because you’re objectively wrong in what makes music technically brilliant, but because Christmas music moves me in a way that’s deeper than simply the technical way it’s put together.

When someone attends an incredible concert, they might even call it a “spiritual experience.” We are more than just our atoms, and that’s by the design of our Creator. So, if so much of what we experience is more than just it’s material meaning, then why wouldn’t our jobs be any different?

Your work—and I mean all the work you do—is not an end in itself, and the completion of your work is not its ultimate goal. Yes, our work makes a physical difference that truly matters in our physical world, but it’s importance goes beyond the bottom line of your business.

All work is a means to an end. And, honestly, we already know that. You might be a chef that spends time cutting vegetables and grilling meat and arranging plates. But that isn’t the end of your work—once you’re done, the food you’ve prepared is taken to a person who gets to enjoy it and be nourished by it while they enjoy a conversation with family or friends and are able to continue with energy for whatever they do the rest of their day.

Maybe you’re a garbageman or a mailman—you know that running your route isn’t the culmination of your work. When you pick up someone’s garbage, that family’s home stay sanitary, which helps them avoid disease as they continue their own work and enjoyment of life. When you drop off that mail, you might be delivering a check for someone that had been waiting on financial assistance, you might be delivering a decision letter sharing whether or not a young person has gotten into a particular college.

You might not always know what the end result of your work is, but you know that it doesn’t just end with you. The biblical vision for work is simply saying that that person experiencing the meal you cooked or the yard you cleaned or even the life you medically saved—those are also still a means to an end.

If people are spiritual beings, then there will inevitably be a spiritual component to what we do. That’s why Paul tells the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 9:25 to run their race for an imperishable wreath rather than a perishable one. And then, in the very next chapter, he summarizes the section saying, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

How would you cook differently or pick up trash differently or teach in the classroom differently or develop software differently or parent differently or even serve in the ER differently if you saw your vocation as the unique context in which you were able to glorify God? Not just your attitude in your job, but the way you viewed the opportunity of your job?

That might feel easier for some than others to understand how your particular vocation fits into God’s design to glorify himself through our stewardship over his creation, but it is worth considering. It’s worth sitting down with other believers and asking questions and seeking council. Because it is a freeing thing when we start viewing this job that takes up 24% or more of our lives, not just as a burden, but as our God-given means to fulfill our most joyful calling—glorifying God with all that we are.

And this isn’t a task he’s called us to alone. The work we’ve been given—whatever that looks like for you—wasn’t meant to be accomplished alone. First, God has called us to communion with him. It is God in the Genesis story who gives us the mandate to exercise dominion over his creation and then places Adam and Eve in the garden to work it. He is the source of both the purpose of our work and the context for our work.

So, any job you take, any career you consider, should be viewed as both a blessing (like verse 28 says) and a calling that’s given to you by God. Whatever job you have right now, even if you don’t enjoy it—the Lord isn’t surprised by it. And for however long you remain doing it, he wants to use you in it.

Because God chose to commune with us in giving us a purpose for our work, we should consistently approach God about the kind of work he’s calling us to and the way he wants us to do the work we’re currently in. Both the form, and the filling. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 90:17,

Psalm 90:17 ESV

¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;

yes, establish the work of our hands!

But second, God’s also called us to communion with others. We’ve already mentioned the complementarity in how God made us man and woman in verse 27. But then, in verse 28, he gives both the man and the woman the same blessing and mandate to fill the earth and subdue it.

We cannot succeed in God’s purpose for our work on our own. I know, especially since COVID, a lot of us might have more experience working remotely. But working apart from others is not the same as working apart from relationships with others. So, no matter what your profession is, including being that parent that has volunteered to stay home with the kids and can struggle going without an adult conversation for hours at a time throughout the day—we need other people.

And if communion with God provides both the form and filling of our work as he invests in us and uses our jobs as one of the main ways to sanctify and change us more into the image of Christ as we trust and follow him, then we should seek out and invest in the people we labor alongside as we look to serve them in our work.

Our communion with our coworkers is fueled and framed by the way we have communion with God. When you’re not seeking the Lord personally, then you will be the only thing you have available to give to the people you work with.

When you’re not resting in Christ’s finished work for you in his life, death, and resurrection, then you might find yourself defaulting to seeing your work relationships through the context of your performance or their performance instead. As we receive grace from God, we are then blessed with the opportunity to bend it out in our workplace.

And that fundamentally changes how we view our jobs. Not just when we realize that we are bending out the grace we receive from God but that we have the privilege of entering into our work on God’s behalf. Think back to the language of verse 26 and 28. God tells these two people who just became alive a verse ago to “have dominion” over everything else he’s created. That couldn’t be because mankind had earned it; it was because mankind was built for it.

If you’ve been coming to our church for a while, then you probably know that I have a second, full time job with a marketing agency. My boss will periodically ask me to go visit a client’s office and see if there’s a check for our monthly retainer with them, so I can deposit it.

Now, when I pick up that check, is it mine? I mean, I went there and got it. In a lot of cases, I’m even the one that did the bulk of the work that that check is paying for. But when I drive to the bank, it’s not my name I put on the deposit; it’s the company. Because I did the work for them.

God gave man and woman dominion to steward over creation. But what gave God the authority to do that? Well, it’s because it’s his creation. Any authority that he’s given us falls under his ultimate authority. He didn’t just create us and set us off on our way. Instead, he set us under his way. That means the skills you’ve been given, the opportunities you have, the job you’ve been blessed with and any influence that might come with it—these are things that don’t originate with us.

They are given to us by our sovereign, loving boss, and the greatest purpose for our work is found when we remember that we still work for him. More than working for acclaim, provision, pride, or fortune, the primary drive in our work should be pleasing, honoring, and obeying the God who has blessed us with the calling in front of us.

As we close this morning, you might be wondering how you can really know what that calling is for your life. We can talk about the purpose of our work all day, but how are we supposed to figure out what kind of work we should be doing in the first place? If that’s you this morning, I want to encourage you to find comfort in the broad, far reaching nature of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Here, we don’t see a mention of a marketer or a teacher or a missionary or an electrician. We see God tell man and woman to fill and subdue the earth. All of it. And where is it that they start getting to work? Remember, Genesis 2:15 tells us that right after this God put them in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Their calling started exactly where they found themselves—exactly where God placed them.

When we talk about calling, it’s important for us to distinguish what we mean. Our first and primary calling in life is our calling to Christ—to repent of our sin against God, of trying to rule our own lives apart from him, and instead submitting and trusting in the loving rule of Jesus and the work he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection for you to be made right with God.

Some of you might be experiencing the start of that calling in your life right now. You’ve been studying about Jesus and seeking him, but as he’s been drawing you to himself, now he’s calling you to submit to him. To trust him. To give him your life. If that’s you, you don’t have to wait till my sermon’s over. You can pray that to God right now and trust in him.

And it’s that primary calling to Christ that gives context and shape to any other secondary calling we have in our lives and our work. It’s like putting on a pair of glasses that help you finally see the world and the opportunities God has given you. The lens of our pursuit of him gives clarity to everything else we pursue in the world.

And as that happens, and as you continue to follow Jesus, you can get busy with whatever is in front of you as you join his purpose to rule, create, and cultivate over creation for the glory of God and the good of others.

Let’s pray.