Work with All Your Heart
Our work is a great means to serve, glorify, and witness to Christ.
"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24
The godly life Christ calls us to live is not always focused on outright religious matters alone. Christ makes us truly human, what Adam should have been. Thus the Lord equips us for even our so-called secular work. Our work is a great means to serve, glorify, and witness to Him.
First of all, what is work? Work is your God-given assignment for which the Lord created, called, and equipped you. All work involves some tasks, a set of skills necessary to fulfil those tasks, and a place to do those tasks. In the various seasons of our life, we might have different tasks, like being a student, an employee, a business owner, etc. Whatever our daily tasks, the call of God regarding all our work remains the same: be faithful and diligent.
We must be faithful to our work, not only because it is a means of livelihood, but also because as Paul says, it is a work we are doing unto Christ. Since we will never do anything shabby and sloppy for Christ, we should never approach our work half-heartedly.
When we look at the Biblical storyline, we can see the different aspects of our work. First of all, we find work was ordained by God at creation (Gen.2:15). Hence work is a blessing and part of the "very good" declaration of God when He looked at the paradise of Eden. In fact, God Himself is the first worker as we find Him creating all things. So we should note work is good and from God.
Secondly, we find God cursed man after the fall and part of the curse was that work would become toil (Gen.3:17-19). Hence, today we find our work is hindered greatly by our selfishness and slothfulness. Proverbs 14:23 says, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Apart from God, work becomes meaningless (Eccl. 2:4-11). So we see work is hard and works not apart from God.
Thirdly, in our redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ, all believers have become priests and thus every work we do (even what we call secular work) is now sacred to the Lord (1Cor.10:31) and through every work we can now serve God (Col.3:24). So as believers we find work is sacred and works with God.
Finally, when the Lord returns in glory, renewed creation will be filled with glorified saints who will serve the Lord faithfully without any curse curtailing their work (Rev.22:3). Thus work will become entirely worship, and for God alone.
Today, while we live as redeemed saints awaiting our full salvation, we experience work as all of these - good, hard, sacred, and worship in due measure. We need to see all these four aspects of work to properly perceive it and have a Biblical work ethic:
- Since all work is from God, we are ultimately accountable to God. Hence we must be faithful in all our work, not being people-pleasers, but pleasing the Lord (Eph. 6:5-8).
- Since all work is hard, we need to be diligent and fervent avoiding idleness and slothfulness (2 Thess. 3:6-10, Rom. 12:11). Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
- Since all work is sacred, we must work it heartily and sincerely (Col.3:23).
- Since all work is for worshipping God, we must seek our work to be marked with excellence (1 Peter 4:11).
So dear Christian, ask yourself daily:
- Do I work to please my Lord?
- Do I work diligently?
- Do I work with all my heart?
- Do I work for the glory of God?
May the Lord who called you to your work equip you with every good thing to help you work well for Him. Amen.