What Makes Business Christian?

Oct 17 | Pastor J.D. | 2 Comments |

The church hasn’t done a great job in teaching Christians how to follow Jesus in the workplace. Living for Christ is framed largely as something done “after-hours:” Serve Jesus by giving money to the church; Serve Jesus by getting involved in a small group; Serve Jesus by volunteering on Sunday morning. But an after-hours view of service to God, though common in the minds of Christians today, doesn’t find much backing in the Bible. Most of the miracles done in Acts, for instance, weren’t done in a church service. Most of the parables that Jesus told had a workplace context. And of the 40 miracles recorded in the book of Acts, 39 of them occurred outside of a church setting.

The question, then, isn’t how Christians ought to serve Jesus in their off-time, but how to serve Him through their work. Bad answers to this question abound. Some Christians assume that for work to be Christian they must be consistently forcing evangelism on their helpless workmates, as if God is displeased with them for working an entire day without converting anyone. Other Christians assume that for work to be Christian they must give God some lip-service through their company name—opening a beauty salon called “A Cut Above” or a coffee shop called “He Brews.”  Most Christians, however, don’t see a viable way to make their work Christian; they view it as a necessity that must be endured to put bread on the table. God simply isn’t involved in their work.

But the Bible is not silent on this issue. In fact, the Bible speaks clear and radical words to people in the workplace, showing them how even the most menial of jobs can present an opportunity to serve God. As God reveals to us in the Bible, Christian work is marked by five features: It is Creation-Fulfilling, Excellence-Pursuing, Holiness-Reflecting, Redemption-Displaying, and Mission-Advancing.

1. Creation-Fulfilling:

When God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He didn’t just tell Him to keep away from certain bad apples. God placed Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). Remember that God said this before the curse, indicating that work wasn’t a punishment inflicted on Adam for his sin, but was a part of God’s original design. The first purpose God had in mind for Adam wasn’t to read a Bible or pray, but to be a good gardener.

The Hebrew word translated “work” shows just what God means. The word is ‘abad,’ and it has the connotation of preparing and developing. Adam was placed in the garden to develop its raw materials, to cultivate a garden. Christians can fulfill the created purpose of God in the same way, by taking the raw materials of the world and developing them. In principle, this happens all the time: Architects take sand and cement and use them to create buildings; Artists take color or music and arrange them into art; Lawyers take principles of justice and codify them into laws that benefit society.

This isn’t just an accident; this is God’s plan. Martin Luther, the famous German reformer, put it this way: “When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal.”

What this means is that a Christian’s secular vocation helps to bring God’s presence to the world. God is active through a person’s work to ensure that families are fed, that homes are built, that justice is carried out. Too many Christians begrudge their work when they ought to revel in the fact that God is using them, in whatever small part, to fulfill His purposes.

Another great example of this comes from the classic movie, Chariots of Fire. The movie follows a Christian track athlete, Eric Liddell, in his preparation for the 1924 Olympics. At one point in the film Liddell is confronted with an objection to his career, since there are more pressing matters in life for a Christian than merely running. Liddell responds, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” At some point or another, while working at something we love or are good at, many of us have had a similar feeling. It is as if we feel inside of us, quite literally: this is what I was made for.

 

2 Responses to “What Makes Business Christian?”

1. Jason says:

   October 18, 2011 at 12:56 pm

   JD,
   Thank you for this. You are right, there is not much for us businessmen from inside the church. I look forward to your following posts and hopefully (hint, hint) you will make them available in a printable document like your buddy Mark Driscoll does with a lot of his mini-series’.
2. Greg says:

   October 20, 2011 at 11:23 am

   This is a great article that addresses a concern that I have often asked myself, “I work in the secular world and I enjoy what I do, but am I honoring God”. Thank you for bringing clarity to this question