This is part 3 of a 3-part series. View the entire series here.
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. – Colossians 3:23-24 NLT
There’s a passage in Ecclesiastes that you might find surprising. It comes out of chapter 5, verses 18 and 19. King Solomon, the richest man who ever lived, writes this: “Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God” (NLT, emphasis added).
Isn’t that amazing? The Bible says we’re supposed to enjoy our work and enjoy the tangible, earthly pleasures that it provides.
Do you think of work as something to enjoy? Maybe that idea seems like a pipe dream. Maybe you’re thinking, you don’t know how toxic my workplace is, or my job barely pays me enough money to put food on the table for my family. Maybe you think your work is so mundane and meaningless that it couldn’t possibly be serving a greater purpose—in your life or anyone else’s.
This is where we have to flip our understanding of work and career on its head.
From the very first chapters of Genesis, we see that God created us to work, to tend to His creation: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15 ESV, emphasis added). Before the fall, it was pure joy to work the land. It produced good fruit that provided sustenance and satisfaction. But once Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that changed. A curse was placed on the land, and work became a struggle. It brought pain, weariness, and frustration (Genesis 3:17-19).
But despite the fall, God’s design for us and His calling on our lives hasn’t changed; we’re still meant to work and tend to His creation. And every job—so long as it doesn’t go against God’s Word—plays a part in that creation-tending, even if in an indirect or roundabout way.
In all of our work, we must remember who and what we’re working for: “...the Lord rather than people” to receive “an inheritance as a reward.” What’s the inheritance? Eternal life with God in His Kingdom. And where is God’s Kingdom going to be? Right here on earth—but an earth redeemed and restored back to its original design. So your work isn’t just paying your bills or putting food on your table (of course, all of that is important, and your job is certainly a means for God to provide for all your financial and physical needs [Matthew 6:31-32]). In his book Surprised by Hope, author and theologian N.T. Wright says, “God’s recreation of his wonderful world, which began with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.”
Your work isn’t for nothing; it’s building God’s Kingdom. What we do in our time on earth has an eternal impact. Knowledge of this truth is what enables us to find joy in our work, to find fulfillment in what we do and pleasure in the gifts it provides. So whether you spend your time teaching children or building computer software or cooking food or cleaning hotel rooms or pastoring a church or writing books or repairing roofs, remember that you’re working for the Lord. Your diligent, faithful work will be rewarded in His Kingdom.
