For many people getting up and going to work is not a pleasant experience. Having to deal with the people we work with and the tasks that are assigned can be draining and can leave us feeling unfulfilled. I have always believed that being able to honor God in challenging situations creates the biggest strides toward creating a lifestyle of putting God first in all areas of one’s life.
Work was established by God. When the Lord created Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden, he gave him work to do (Gen 1:28, 2:15). Adam was given the task of caring for the garden and its creatures. This means that God established work before sin entered the world, therefore, work must be good. So how do we apply God honoring principals to our 9 to 5’s? In two ways, through how we treat the people we work with and for; and the way in which we approach our work.
We all have or have had a difficult co-worker or boss. At times these relationships can become outright toxic and make even the thought of coming to work unbearable. This is unfortunate, and unacceptable when we consider that many of us spend more time with the people we work with than we do with the people we live with. As Christians, we cannot always blame the other person, and as we mature, we are invited to take ownership of the health of our relationships. We are also encouraged to conduct our relationships from the perspective that there is no hierarchy of importance when it comes to God. 1 Corinthians 12:21-25 reads:
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other (NIV).
While this passage of scripture is speaking to the church, we can apply it to the way we approach work and other structured organizations as well. Everyone you work with is a part of the organization that you work for and is important to your success and the success of the organization. Whether they fall above or below you in the corporate “pecking order,” viewing their job as important can help shift perspective and approach. It can sometimes be easy to overlook the importance of someone’s role or even to refuse to accommodate requests on the basis of their title or lack thereof. The perspective that this scripture provides can help us change our attitudes toward those people, weather it is a co-worker or a boss.
When we humble ourselves and approach our jobs from a position of service, we will have an easier time interacting with people who at one time or another have rubbed us the wrong way.
Another way that we can honor God at work is with our attitude towards our tasks. I know it can be difficult to feel excited about what you my view as menial task. I believe that changing our perspective, and putting our whole heart into our jobs, makes the job that we are doing easier and more enjoyable. While it is true that some tasks can be very tiring or boring or deeply unfilling, these are the tasks that we have been given to steward in this season. Plus, part of honoring God means honoring the leadership under which we have been submitted. Consider the Apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:5-8:
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Our bosses may feel like slave drivers, but truthfully they are not. And though our jobs may feel like slave labor, we are willfully employed. What this scripture offers us today is a profound example of authority and submission. We are to approach our assignments with the awareness that we are serving the Lord in all things that we do. That means doing your job without the grumbling, without back talking, and without discussing our coworkers behind their backs. It means putting your whole heart into completing the task at hand, and striving for excellence for the sole purpose of bringing God glory.
Does following this advice mean that you will fall in love with your job? No, you will have to continue to seek God’s wisdom about your career path. If you are in a job you hate however, remembering these two principles will help you to invite God into your current work life and to keep it all in its proper perspective. If you are already in your dream job, remembering these principles will help you to dig deeper in bringing the best of yourself to the office every single day. Whatever your current work situation, remember that work is good, and the best thing that we can do is enjoy it (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
Joshua dos Santos is a service minded millennial and Christ Church member. He serves in many different capacities including ushering, facilitating Bible studies, and being a Pastoral Assistant. Joshua has a passion for seeing people come to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and helping Christians live God honoring lives.
