Why Your Work Matters

Matt Troupe

We have started a monthly men’s BBQ to encourage one another. Last time we discussed the importance of work. Here is the gist of what we learned.

Why our work matters

Why does my work matter? Why do the tasks that make up my everyday routine have any significance beyond themselves? And why does my work matter no matter how insignificant it seems to the world?  I have found that worldly attempts  to answer these questions fall short. They often center around various understandings of self, or fail to show any transcendence beyond our own lives.  The question of meaning is THE nagging question for our generation. We have jettisoned most ideas from history, including faith in God as an acceptable answer to the question of ultimate significance.

I would like to offer 4 substantial reasons why our work matters as believers.

Our work matters to God.

This is the ultimate source of meaning and everything else I have to say flows from this. We ultimately inhabit God's story. He created all things and upholds them by the word of his power.  He designed us with work as a central purpose. Practically, our work matters because we are seeking to please our father.

But our work also has divine significance in reflecting his glory to others. Our work, done in excellence, faith, sacrifice, and perseverance is a witness with a language of its own.

Further, he made the world as a kind of "job site" for our lives.  The cosmos was made as the raw material for the work we would do. The first garden that God made is something of a prototype for the way we are commanded to subdue the whole earth.

He also commands us to work. So for the Christian, Christ is our ultimate boss and master. We look beyond our supervisors and managers, our customers and end users, to Jesus Christ. Our goal is to please him with our work. This is the main application. We must believe that our work is valuable to God and has eternal significance in his plan.

Our work matters for our own fulfillment.

In our vocations we find that we have an opportunity to fulfill our created purpose. We were made to work.  We were designed to create things, care for things, manage them, maintain them.  He made mankind with an itch to create. We have an incurable disposition to take what he has made and create new things.  We have a compulsion to learn and create, and to enjoy the creations of others. This is one of the things that distinguishes us from the animals. 

So when a Christian works to the glory of God, there is a completion of God's intended design.  And this yields all kinds of joy and satisfaction. This comes as we learn how to do the work, in the process of the labor itself, and in the results.  Yet, because of sin, our work is under the curse of thorns and sweat and death. So things don't always work out as we intend. But there is still a place for knowing a job well done.

We see this in the wisdom literature. For instance, "The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails..." (Ecclesiastes 12:11 NASB) There is something satisfying when wise men speak wise words. They are pleasant and useful.  And the scripture compares this to the work of a carpenter. We share a degree of wonder when a skilled hand trained through years of experience places a nail in the right place.  Every calling has its own version of a "well driven nail." And when you get to participate in a job well done, there is satisfaction and a measure of wholeness. And this is part of God's gracious design.

We see this satisfaction in the praise of the virtuous wife in Proverbs 31, "Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." (v. 31).  Good work is not only satisfying to us, but to others.  We see this in Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90:17 "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!"  Work that is "established" is considered the blessing of God.

Our work matters for the flourishing of our community.

This is one of the key measures of honest work. Does it promote human flourishing? Does it help others in practical ways to have a good life? Especially as God defines "good."

This is an application of the great commandment and golden rule. We are to love God first, and our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:34-40). All our work in this sense should be a labor of love. We should do unto others as we would have them do to us (Matt 7:12). We should do the kind of work that we would want others to do for us if our roles were reversed. Paul expands on this by saying that "love does no harm to a neighbor." (Romans 13:10)

The work we do should be a blessing others and should not bring them harm. Because of this, scripture forbids some kinds of practices outright. Consider Usury or the charging of high interest), or withholding wages, or dishonest business dealings. We must not live by the blind hand of the market, willing to do anything for the right price. We should aim to do work that is good, true, and beautiful. The goal is what the apostle Paul called "honest work" (Eph. 4:29)

Our work matters for our provision.

God has arranged that, broadly speaking, we are to provide for ourselves and others by our work.  We see this in how God speaks the curse to Adam in Genesis 3:17-19 "..cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life...thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” He had previously given them every tree and green plant for food (1:29-30). The obviously implication is that they had to go and gather the food for themselves. This task would now be much more difficult. But the relationship between our labor and our provision endures.

Proverbs 12:14 points to this, "From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him."  This is why Paul went to such pains in Thessalonica. He wanted to make sure that the church understood this connection, "For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." (2 Thess 3:7-10)

This does not mean that only "waging earning" counts as work. That is one of the central mistakes of many strands of feminism. There is a lot of important work that does not earn a paycheck.  The work of children (in doing chores), homemakers, parents,  grandparents, and volunteers are all very important. But the larger principal still applies. God made the world so there is a relationship between the work we do and the way we live.  Paul makes this connection in Ephesians 4:28 "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need."  The thief TAKES. The man doing honest work MAKES. The thief takes FROM others, the honest man makes enough to provide FOR himself and others. 

And this connection between our work and the fruit of our work is deeply related to our sense of purpose and meaning in the world. Through our efforts we come to have a sense of what makes something valuable. We come to understand the meaning of sacrifice and generosity. It is one of the ways that we are "needed" by our community and this has transcendent significance. In addressing the Ephesian Elders in Acts 20 Paul explains "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:34-35