Working For the Lord

Overview

Many of us view work as something negative that we should avoid if at all possible. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that work was beneath aristocracy—meant for slaves instead, so that the aristocracy could devote their time to leisure and debate. The Greek goal, if one could afford it, was the contemplative life rather than the active life. This negative view of work continues today in a variety of forms. For example, people might hope to win the lottery so they don’t need to work any longer. Or many see the goal of retirement as the end of work and the start of the “good life.” This is expressed most extremely in the FIRE movement (Financially Independent Retire Early), which teaches people how to live cheaply while building enough savings so as to retire early—the goal is to retire in one’s 30s or 40s!—and live that cheaper yet work-free life.

Unfortunately, Greek thinking about work was so powerful a cultural norm that it even infected early Christian theology, creating a two-tiered Christian system, with the higher path involving withdrawal from the world and meditating on Scripture and praying, leaving second-class Christians to work and raise families. Fortunately for the church, one of the early insights of the Reformers was to dismiss this as unbiblical. In fact, we see the Bible paints a very different picture right from the start.

In this Journey Section you will:

• Answer the question, does my work matter?
• Learn what the Bible has to say about our work
• Discuss how we are designed, redeemed, and intended for work

Author: Brandon Cooper

As a native of the Chicagoland area—born in Evanston, raised in Glenview—Brandon has a deep love of the culture and community of this city. He is the fourth of five children and is happy to have his entire family still living in the area. He attended the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), where he studied English Literature, before completing his Master of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with an emphasis in Discipleship-Evangelism. He is the author of A Word to the Wise: Lessons from Proverbs for Young Adults. He and his wife served on the mission field in Bogotá, Colombia for seven years, giving him a deep passion for missions, Latin American culture, and the country where his first two children were born. Brandon and his wife, Amy, have four adorable daughters: Charis, Adiel, Ceely, and Brielle, and a son Callum. He loves literature and music and is an avid soccer enthusiast (Arsenal FC) and lifelong Chicago sports fan.