A little backstory

As we begin a new Bible study series at Frisco Bible Church, I am again including the background information that is most often requested. I pray this helps you get the most from the scripture.

Objective (what we hope to see God accomplish in us through the study): That we work unto the Lord.

Statements of the objective: Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. – Colossians 3:23-24 NASB

Work is an expression of obedience to God and a fulfillment of his design for mankind, to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28)…every Christian needs to look for the big picture on how his or her job works for the good of mankind. For example, truck drivers provide goods so families can eat or have products they need. Bankers help people manage their finances so they can care for their families. Christian workers have a basis for doing their jobs out of love for mankind and not just to make ends meet. – Dennis Sherman, Your Work Matters to God

Premise (why we are studying this): Women and men today are horribly conflicted about work. This is nothing new. Since leaving the Garden of Eden, humans have labored over the idea of labor. Through the ages, limited theologies have made this a particular struggle for Christians. Lately, disparate and powerful social movements have further confused any healthy understanding of work. The situation has reached such a crisis that over half of the questions I receive have to do with work. Prior to 2012 career inquiries were a distant third to family and theology, at least in my mailbox. Thus, now appears to be the time to study what God says about work.

Statements of the premise: Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.” – Luke 3:14 NASB

Most Christians who work secular jobs are torn between several different perspectives when it comes to our secular work. The first perspective about work is that spiritual things have nothing to do with work: With apologies to Kipling, “work is work, and church is church, and never the twain shall meet.” Under this model, Christians “commute” between their professional lives and their spiritual lives. The second perspective about secular work is that work may be necessary to support ourselves and our families, but it is inferior to the work of the ministry. Thus, secular work “will all burn” and it only exists to facilitate the ministry and spiritual things. As a result, work provides us money to give to the work of the church and opportunities to reach out to co-workers. In each of these cases, secular work itself is meaningless – a tether on the soul. The only work that really matters is the “ministry work.” These attitudes are often revealed when work requires someone to be less involved at church activities, or when professional accomplishments are unappreciated or dismissed as “worldly.” Such perspectives make work itself unclean, dirty, unholy, unenjoyable. If secular work doesn’t matter to God, then secular workers don’t matter to God. Such attitudes are often prevalent in unhealthy churches. Fortunately, neither of these is a Biblical perspective of work. – John Engler, “The Barnabas Ministry”

Just as Ronald Reagan told Gorbachev regarding the artificial divide between East and West Berlin, so I say to you regarding ministry and work, “Mr. Preacher-man, tear down this wall.” – Darrell Bock, private conversation

Theme of the study (what the series is about): We work because work is good and for God’s glory. Our work also blesses the world and ourselves. Of course, work is difficult this side of the garden; yet by God’s grace the Christian learns to manage work healthily even when it is problematic or painful. Particularly, we learn to develop joy and wisdom under God in personal life, family, work, church, and community.

Statements of the theme: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. – Genesis 2:15 ESV

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NASB

Christianity is not a way we do special things, it is a special way of doing everything. Our daily work matters to God and the way we do it matters to God…Goodness should not be reserved for Sunday church services, but should be lived out every minute of the work week…Our attitude should be TGIM – thank God it’s Monday. – Howard E. Butt, “The High Calling of Our Daily Work” [broadcast]

Historical background: This space is not appropriate for a thorough analysis of the different forces that weigh on the modern mind in regards to work. A brief summary of five influences will have to suffice. However short this treatment, it should be understood that each of these movements has serious traction in the human experience and in varying degrees each affects those who will participate in this study.

Primitivism – A primitive cloth is spun throughout history by various disaffected persons seeking for nobility “beyond the madding crowd.” Early Egyptian records call attention to this phenomenon. The Apostle Paul is a limited and temporary escapee to the desert for study, but the thread breaks off in his evangelical pursuit of big cities and the development of his productive business. Centuries later, sundry hermits and monks bring a more serious primitivism into Christianity. This purported solution to the problems of society reached its ultimate expression in the Noble Savage [whose greatest though not earliest expression came from Rousseau and Cooper] – supposedly living proof that the answer is to flee civilization altogether. Such primitivism deeply colors anthropological studies to this day and heavily affects the UN view of indigenous peoples, often to the inhabitants’ chagrin. Among Christians, it colors the understanding of work. In St. Francis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and groups like Anglo-Catholic Socialism, primitivist themes abound:

Soil work is the most noble.

Withdrawing from society is necessary for godliness.

Money is the root of all evil.

Churchgoers are deluded, especially if the church has more than 100 members.

The Puritan work ethic – Max Weber’s thesis continues to captivate historians/sociologists and spark debate over the idea that Protestants who are serious about the scriptures bring capital wealth and upward mobility to their communities. The concept appears to have some limited merit, but for our purposes all that matters is to note that the idea is influential. Worldwide, people assume that biblical Christianity will lead to wealth. The Puritans, so terribly miscast by later authors, certainly thought so. In particular their evangelical bent and view of work led them to trade. Their resulting ethics of self-restraint and compromise [now known as middle class morals] are certainly tied to trade – where such values bring success.

Prosperity theology – David Jeremiah captures nicely the idea bombarded into Christian heads: “You do not have to go far on television or the Internet – or perhaps in your own community – to find a Christian preacher who will tell you that Jesus wants you well and wealthy. This unorthodox version of Jesus’ gospel is referred to as “prosperity theology” or the “health and wealth” gospel. There is nothing inherently wrong with being well and wealthy. But as a basis for theology, it is far from the good news of the gospel that Jesus preached. – David Jeremiah in Christianity Today, 03/06/12

Occupy Wall Street – Hilariously and no doubt unwittingly rallying under a form of the Latin root occupatio [which meant to take possession of business; to do one’s work], these modern anarchist/socialist groups desire to take possession of what they do not earn. While their immediate influence fades rapidly, they plant some thought seeds that have much longer influence. Like the early-modern Levellers and late-modern Marxists, they build in the collective psyche a concept that work is bad because it is inherently unfair. They problems of the human Fall are never personalized, but only seen reflected in those who have more goods than oneself. The upshot is an ironic and grotesque sense of unfairness and materialism in the human soul.

Hopelessness/Worthlessness – Jacques Barzun speaks for this attitude that is often seen in our time, especially regarding work and career: “It is a very active time, full of deep concerns, but peculiarly restless, for it sees no clear lines of advance. The loss it faces is that of Possibility. The forms of art as of life seem exhausted; the stages of development have been run through. Institutions function painfully. Repetition and frustration are the intolerable result. Boredom and fatigue are great historical forces.” – Jacques Barzun, Dawn to Decadence, xvi

Preaching schedule for the series:

Date                Message

June 1              God declared it good!

June 8              Ethical issues in work

June 29            I hate my work!

July 6               From paycheck to payoff

And if you have stayed with this introduction this long, here’s a little reward that illustrates the need for our biblical work ethic: