23th May 2006

God's view of work
What it means to be purpose driven at work
by Rick Warren

Everybody works. It doesn't matter if you are a student, you still have to work. If you're at home, you still have to work. If you're retired, you still have to work!

Since work is such a major part of our lives, it's important to know what the Bible teaches about work. Let me share four thoughts:
God intends for work to be meaningful, beneficial, and fulfilling. A lot of people think work is just a way to put food on the table - a necessary evil. Their goal in life is to eventually have enough money so they can do nothing. But the word 'retirement' is not in the Bible. Do you know so many people retire and then die six months later? It's because we were made to work. You were made for meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling work. It's part of God's plan for your life.

God designed you with talents, gifts, and interests that he wants used for his glory. You are custom made. There's nobody like you in the whole world. And the gifts you have, your abilities, talents, even your interests were encoded into you by God. You didn't have a say in what you were going to be interested in, what you are naturally good at. God custom-made you - and he wants you to express those gifts through work. The Bible says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10 NIV) The Bible says you are God's workmanship. That is a translation of a Greek word, poiema, from which we get the word 'poem.' You are God's poem. You are God's work of art - his masterpiece! He made you to express certain gifts, talents, abilities, and interests in work. That's what work is for. Work is never just a job; it's part of God's plan for your life.

To fulfill God's will for your life, you need work that expresses what God made you to be. If you are in a mismatched job - one that is not using your talents, gifts, abilities, and interests - that is a serious problem. It is a spiritual issue that is far more important than you think. One day, God is going to ask, "What did you do with them?" Do you want to have to tell him, "Well, I spent my life at a job that didn't use them"? "Each one of us should live his life with the gifts the Lord has given him." (1 Corinthians 7:17)

If you're not a Christian at work, you're not a Christian in your life. Many Christians don't make the connection between Sunday and Monday. They put their "spiritual life" - reading the Bible, praying, going to church, and doing nice things - in one compartment. Then they put their "secular life" - work, job, career, business decisions, finances, pension plan, all these things - in another compartment. But the word 'secular' isn't in the Bible. The fact is, your relationship to Christ is like marriage. Marriage is a full-time relationship, and so is your relationship with Christ. If I said to my wife, "Honey, I'm only going to act married when I'm at home," I would be in front of a congressional committee before I knew it. God is as interested in your work as he is in your prayers - maybe more interested because you spend more time working than you do praying. The fact is, all of life is important to God - and if you're not a Christian at work, you're not a Christian in your life.