LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Assignment Title: How Does Human Work Connect to God’s Work?
Course: CHMN 699 - Internship
Student: Kristine Sage
Date: January 29, 2022
Professor: Dr. Joel Breidenbaugh
How Does Human Work Connect to God’s Work?
When it comes to answering the question, ‘Does our work matter to God?’ most churches say yes.
But they give different answers when it comes to explaining ‘How does our work matter to God?’ For
some, work is just about people earning money to support themselves and the work of the church.
Others prioritise the importance of evangelism in the workplace. Neither of these approaches sees work
as being a spiritual exercise and having intrinsic value. For these people work has only instrumental
value, work matters only for what it means in terms of making money and opportunities for evangelism.
Others expand on this to include work as a context for serving other people.
For example, Christians involved in what are sometimes called ‘helping professions’ (doctors,
nurses, social workers, counsellors and teachers) sense that their work matters to God in a way that
people involved in most other professions don’t. Most churches seem to affirm the worth of more
direct, person-to-person service kinds of work, and words like ‘ministry’ and ‘service’ are often applied
to this work. Christians involved in other industries also look for opportunities to help people in their
workplaces, but fewer churches affirm the intrinsic value of work outside the helping professions.
Perhaps, the term ‘helping professions’ is part of the problem, as it suggests that the other professions
—such as business, law, engineering, finance and all the rest—do not help anyone. In reality, all good
work is a helping profession. A biblical understanding asserts that all work matters to God and provides
an opportunity for people to participate in God’s ongoing creative work, as called for in Genesis 1:26-28.
A more complete understanding of the meaning of work can be visualized as a three legged stool.
Each of the legs represents one of the three great callings we read about in the Bible; the Great
Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-38) and the creation calling
—or “Cultural Mandate,” as it is often called (Genesis 1:26-28). The Great Commission emphasizes the
importance of Christians being involved in sharing their faith and making disciples. The Great
Commandment emphasizes the importance of Christian service, demonstrating love in action. The
Cultural Mandate emphasizes that our work in itself can be an act of worship and participation in God’s
work. It is actually the first of all commandments, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue
it,’ (Genesis 1:28), and the others complement, but do not supersede it. Hence, just as a stool requires
all three legs to stand, so an integrated theology of work needs to affirm the importance of witness,
service and intrinsic worth, although particular people according to their different giftings or
circumstances may emphasize one more than the others.
