Does Work Matter to God?
Preached by Jason Abbott
August 30, 2015
If you’re at all like me then you’ve had jobs which you probably considered, in many ways, worthless. Or, at the very least, you have had parts of some job which you considered to be worthless.The summer before I went to college I became hopelessly lazy and apathetic about finding work. This was a huge mistake! Because: my dad took this as a sign from God that he was to help me find work. So it was that I started my short career at the Capital Hardwood Products lumberyard—essentially I stacked wood all day in the Missouri summer heat.I was probably one of the best employees there; this simply meant I arrived on time each day and didn’t fight with the other employees and didn’t get arrested. That was what it took to be employee of the month at Capital Hardwood Products of Jefferson City, Missouri.Surprise! I thought that job was worthless. If you would have asked me whether God cared how I worked at that job, I would have said without hesitation: “Absolutely not!” However, I wouldn’t answer that way today. In fact, my answer of “Absolutely not!” is absolutely not true. Instead, I would answer in this way: “God does care about our work—all our work!”Let’s see how all work matters to God by jumping into an important passage from Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. I’ll read the passage and then pray for God to teach us through our study of it.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.58 Therefore…be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
In this letter to a struggling congregation (Is there actually any other kind?!), Paul corrects, in this section, some bad teaching about the resurrection of the dead, and he relates the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus to how believers should live and work now. As he does this, Paul has one foot of his argument firmly grounded in the beginning chapters of Scripture (Genesis 1-3), and the other firmly grounded in the doctrine of Christ’s 2nd coming—what would finally be the closing chapters of Scripture which John would eventually pen (Revelation 20-22).In other words, Paul looks here at the problem of sin and death (Genesis 3) and, then, looks at the solution to that problem (Revelation 20), which is found through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ only.All this has implications (believe it or not!) to how believers live and work in the now. All this shows that our work matters to God.Let’s see how.
1. God recreates us to work (Garden).
In fact, this is a big part of what we were originally created to do…work. You see, human beings were never supposed to negatively experience our labors. Rather, we were meant from the beginning—in Eden—to enjoy and thrive in work. So God gives Adam and Eve this blessed commission:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over [it]” (Genesis 1:28).
Notice: This is no “working for the weekend” career. It’s to be a blessing!“Why then,” you may ask, “is my work so regularly a pain in the neck now? Where did all the blessing go?” That’s a great question, and one Paul touches upon in today’s passage. Look at what he says:
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (v. 56).
What does that mean? Well, Paul’s putting his weight once again in Genesis. He’s referring to how the world has now changed because of our sin against God. Death now reigns because of our sin, and every death reminds us of our rebellion against God—that stings!Moreover, we were created for a joyous life in a perfect universe governed by God’s grace, not by law. Everything in the Garden of Genesis 1 and 2 was free! God did not put a price on any of his good and very good creation. Adam and Eve didn’t merit or earn the right to enjoy that perfect world. It was given without cost in God’s grace.However, grace isn’t what governs this tainted, fallen world where we live. The power that governs here is the law. Consider how this has transformed work:
It means my value in work comes ultimately through my production in work. So, I am constantly under the pressure to justify my value as an employee. No wonder work becomes oppressive to us!
It means, to use the old cliché, nothing in life is free. As opposed to Eden, things—our food, shelter, and clothing; even rest and relaxation—are bought at a price. No wonder we view our work so negatively!
However, God has broken into this fallen world in the person of Jesus Christ in order to redeem you and reverse the curse that taints your labors—your work. This is why Paul doesn’t stop with all that stuff about the sting of death and power of sin. He continues on to the remedy for the curse:
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 57).
God hates death so he puts it to death. God hates sin so he breaks its power. Moreover, God loves the world he created and you as the pinnacle of his creation so he’s at work rescuing and restoring his good purposes for you and your work!Friends, God cares about our work so he recreates us, in Christ, to do work. If that’s the case, it should change the way we do whatever it is God calls us to do. It should change how we work as lawyers and judges and engineers and architects. It should change how we work as nurses and doctors and teachers and principals. God’s concern for our labor should change how we work as stay-at-home-mothers and how we work as chief-executive-officers.How so? How should it change our work? Well, this brings us to point two.
2. God works us to recreate (New Garden).
This is where the first part of today’s passage comes into sharp focus for us. This is where Paul has his other foot planted firmly in the doctrine of Jesus’s return and God’s new creation. See, in Jesus’s resurrection, new creation has now come. It’s a present reality. And it’ll continue to move forward and come into this world through God’s work in us and our work in Christ.One theologian put it this way—look at what he writes about this passage and its implications for our work:
…what we can and must do in the present, if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, energized, and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom. This brings us back to 1 Corinthians 15:58 once more: what we do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire…. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make.1
Friends, God does not recreate us to work until our work really matters. Rather, God recreates us, in Jesus Christ, to work at recreating in the here and now in Jesus Christ. And, as we just read, this has tremendous implications for our work in the here and now.God has called each Christian to some kind of work for his good purposes. Consequently, he equally values and equally cares about how we do that work. God wants us to do everything for his glory! This is why Paul says:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
I once heard novelist Brett Lott interviewed. He was talking of his writing and the craftsmanship of writing—working out every sentence to make it excellent. During the interview, he paused and said this:
Paul was a tentmaker…You know?! …He just made really good tents. You know he made really good tents…. So when I’m writing my novels I’m just doing the very best job that I can, to tell the best story I can.2
We’re called to look at work in this way. We’re called to do our best work for the glory of God and for the advancement of God’s kingdom—here and now. So how do you build your tents?
Does your honesty and integrity glorify God and advance his kingdom?
Does your attitude when you work reflect God’s kingdom come in your life?
Is there an otherworldly joy and real contentment about you as you do work, or do you seem to your co-workers as someone who sees work as vain?
Let me close with this. Benjamin and I had a geeky theological conversation on Thursday about the sermon. Just before he left, he said, like Paul with the tents, that Jesus probably made a pretty good table. In fact, doing anything but his best, with his carpentry, would have been sinful. And, that would have disqualified him from being our Savior. God really does care about work! Doesn’t he?!God has recreated us to work and calls us now to work in order to recreate. Make really good tents and tables for the glory of God and the Gospel!
1N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 208.
2See this interview.
