There is a serious problem when we view our work as beyond the scope of Jesus' Lordship. We often fall into the trap of living dualistically, as if there were a domain of Christian faith separate from the domain of work, and ordinary life. (For those interested, the University of Canterbury Christian Union ran a conference on this topic in April of this year. I summarised the material of the main talks in three blog posts.) What unites these things? Surely it is that when Jesus' kingdom breaks into our lives, he claims possession of everything. As the Dutch theologian and prime-minister Abraham Kuyper once said,'There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’'All of life is lived in the service of our King, who owns us by right of creation, as well as redemption (see Colossians 1:15-20).
However, I have questions about the way this truth is often stated by some Christians. For example, Wayne Kirkland writes:
'Is certain work more "spiritual" in content? Should it be valued more highly? ...This kind of thinking causes us to frequently view what we work at during the week as simply a means to an end, or even worse, as a second best option.Elsewhere Kirkland says,
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What we need are Jesus followers who have been captured by the challenge of partnering God in his work of building the kingdom. When everything we do is connected to our followership of Jesus, we will discover that all work done with God is "spiritual " work.
...
I've come to see no dissonance - just different contexts to work out my calling. God is at work in all these places and he calls me to work with Him. All of it is "the Lord's work"'(1)
"There is no hierarchy of tasks." (2)I thoroughly agree with the sentiment of this point-of-view, that work is not simply a means to an end. Work for the Christian is a sharing of God's good gifts, and a way that humans express rulership of creation in the image of God. It is not less glorifying to God and doesn't make someone less of a Christian if they work rather than spend all their time in the mountains meditating - quite the contrary.
All the same, these are questions that come to mind when hear the 'work issue' articulated in this way.
- How do we define the kingdom of God? Particularly, how does the coming of Jesus in the flesh shape our understanding of the kingdom? Often we look to the doctrine of creation to correct our dualism, and to instructions in the NT about how believers are to work 'for the Lord', but fail to apply the central truths of the gospel to the issue of work. If Jesus' kingdom is brought about by his once-for-all death and resurrection, how does this shape our understanding of the kingdom?
- How does our secular work build the kingdom of God? Does producing high quality fast food build the kingdom of God in the same way as proclaiming Christ crucified? Perhaps our work can embody the values of the kingdom to a lesser or greater degree, but because the actual kingdom is hidden, our work does not in itself build the kingdom? Is it not true that the kingdom is built through people receiving Christ as Lord, not receiving a higher quality environmentally-safe burger? - however much this may be an outworking of kingdom values.
- Is it possible to have priorities but not be dualists who don't value work at all? I agree we shouldn't see dissonance between doing our jobs 'as for the Lord', and proclaiming Christ - both are spiritual acts of worship. But surely there is a sense of priority in the Christian life. Take 1 Corinthians 7:29ff for example. The kingdom has been inaugurated by Jesus, 'the time is short', and even the immense responsibility and joy of marriage comes second-place to 'the Lord's affairs' in Paul's mind. Surely there is a sense of hierarchy (or priority) here?
- If everything we do is "the Lord's work", why does Paul use this phrase exclusively for the work of proclaiming Christ and building the church? (i.e. 1 Cor 3:5-9, 7:29-35, 9:1, 15-27, 10:31-11:1, 16:10, Titus 1:7, Phil 2:22, 29-30, Rom 14:20, 16:12, Col 4:17).
- It's interesting that Jesus' last instructions to his disciples are to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name. The commission of Jesus doesn't exclude having all of life transformed by the gospel - that's what discipleship is about! But if we're not allowed to say that anything in the Christian life is 'more important', then what do we make of Jesus' final instructions to his church?
1) Kirkland, W. (2007). Working with God. Canvas Magazine, Issue 46, p.4-5
2) - (2000). God's Co-Workers. Reality Magazine, Is 38.
3 comments:
That's a very nice summary, Scott. The theology of work is a neglected topic in mainstream Christianity and I am happy to find out somebody interested in it as much as I am.
hey scotty! congrats on getting married and everything. i missed being able to chat at SLC this year
we had an interesting discussion you might have heard about on this issue during stream 3 at SLC. i agree to a certain extent that certain activities need to be prioritised before others in terms of building the kingdom and being a disciple; but i think in many ways the whole "creation work/new creation work" distinction can seriously miss the point; much in the way that the "everything is equally important" crowd does.
for a start, i'm concerned that on both sides of the argument the concern about work and the kingdom of God is viewed from the perspective of isolated individuals. its always about our decision as individuals on how we can contribute to the kingdom through our work. For example, i heare alot of chat about being a really great engineer restored in the image of God (forgetting that its not just imago dei but imago trinity)....or on the other hand whether we as individuals should spend significant ammounts of time devoted to "word ministry" as opposed to a regular job. I think this buys into our cultural concept of "occupation" too much and our calling as individuals rather than our calling to be the people of God.
When Jesus talks about how his disciples are supposed to behave and live (see especially Matt 5-7), and when he gives the great commission it is a task given to the church as a community, not as individuals who are left to determine their own fate! When he talks about the kingdom in parables, while he might talk about individual reactions and parts of the growing kingdom (ie the sower), much of it goes far beyond this and refers to what happens when God's rule and reign breaks into the present beyond the lives of individuals, and even the community itself and grows (look at the parable of of the mustard seed). Indeed, when we look at the proclamation of the gospel and the news of God's rule and reign in the early church we see it is intimately connected to the kingdom community. Likewise, when you look at the way people's professional working lives changed in the early church (Corinth being a good example) you see it is incredibly connected to their participation in a community that was radically different and truly was living under the reign and rule of God as opposed to the "salvation" that others like caesar might offer. Hence i think we need to look at the idea of how the kingdom, community and our individual working lives interject more.
People need to think more about how their work affects the proclamation of the kingdom through the church more, rather than just viewing it interms of their individual life choices. Its more than just asking "should i care more about being a good engineer or more about spending time telling my friends about jesus". We need to ask the question "how does my engineering affect my participation in the life and mission of the church to proclaim the gospel and how does being part of a christian community with the gospel at its heart change my perspective on my work?"...or "how might the mission of the community to make disciples and proclaim the rule and reign of Jesus challenge my individual commitment to my job etc". Of course the problem here is that churches need to take their mission of proclaiming the gospel as primary for once, rather than seeing it as suboridinate to other purposes and goals.
i also fully agree that we need to prioritise the proclamation of christ over other things...but i'm uncomftable about the whole "Creation/new creation" split and the concept of "word ministry". Often i think that idea of "new creation work" turns into something that is overly focussed on verbal proclamation of the gospel and on things like preaching and public evangelism,often within the context of professional minsitry with all its problems. To me this ignores the fact that word and deed are equally important in the ministry of the early church and the ministry of Jesus and almost always go together. The reason the jerusalem community in Acts find oppotunities to preach is because of the kind of miracles that are happening (see both Acts 2 &3, this is a deliberate structure of writing Lule uses in both his books).
The reason attentive people in Israel know that the God's kingdom has come in Jesus, during his ministry, is through the fact that the marginalised have been healed, that poor have heard good news, that the lepers are clean etc. (see luke 7:18-35) When Jesus himself preaches, it is almost always accompanied by some sort of deed or commenting on an event, or made in a reaction to an event. Think about how his ministry of table fellowship proclaimed the kingdom, and how that practice of Jews, Gentile, clean and unclean meeting together would proclaim the kingdom and what he achieved through his life, death and resurrection after his acension in the early church.
I'm not trying to suggest the silly "preach christ at all times, and use words if necessary" cliche is the way, nor am i suggesting that our actions and signs of the kingdom give us an excuse not to mention the ultimate act that won us the kingdom in the cross and ressurection...but i think that signs of the kingdom and words proclaiming the the gospel need to have equal priority given to them....and its here where i think we find that creation and new creation work can somehow overlap and intersect at this point. i'm not sure how that contributes to how we view faith in the work place as much as we view professional ministry, but i think it can have good application in certain areas both indirectly and directly.
Hi Richard!
Yeah, I heard Strand 3 was doing stuff related to this as well. I missed catching up too, SLC is always a highlight. :)
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about the individual/corporate distinction. If it's just that we contribute to the kingdom in many different ways within the same framework of priorities then I agree - but I sense you're saying something more than that? It's interesting that the passage we'd often go to on this issue is 1 Corinthians 12, which talks about differing roles within the one body in contributing to the growth of the church
In a sense, could the individualism be a separate issue? I've heard it said that although the church as a whole recognises the centrality of 'word ministry', that doesn't mean every single member is an apostle, prophet, or evangelist. This in no way devalues others of course, because all are part of the one body, and all are needed.
To be honest, I'm not entirely settled on the terms 'creation/new creation work' myself - although I feel it does maintain a distinction which the New Testament does exhibit. It recognises that there is something new happening through the gospel - that the way people are being renewed in the image of their creator is through the Word of Christ. I like your discussion about the community of Christ, because I think this is clearly the central focus of this new creation work in the NT, which indeed spreads out and infects the surrounding culture. The kingdom of God is definitely bigger than the gathered church - because the church does not determine the gospel, rather the reverse. That is the error of the RC church - to equate the kingdom with the church.
'Word ministry', I think, is a helpful, if sometimes mis-understood term. Quite clearly, the kingdom grows through the word of Christ. New creation deeds, or (transformed) creation work, or whatever you want to call it, isn't the thing which takes seed in people's lives and brings new birth. That is the work of God's word, calling people to new life in Christ. If we understand this, but also don't devalue the absolute necessity of the gospels' outworking through the whole of life - I think we're getting close to a balanced view. In a sense it's very similar (identical?) to the faith/works debate. Really it shouldn't be an either/or, because you can never have one without the other. But there is a primacy - that of faith - and I think that's what is trying to be communicated by prioritising word ministry. It is the Word which brings faith to life, and is the origin of a changed life and new community of transformed believers. I think that holding to the primacy of the Word is nothing less than honouring Christ in our midst, and being humble and ready for the Spirit to be at work in us.
Feel free to come back at me on that, I was mainly rambling... :)
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