A New View of Work: The Nature of God

I always thought of work as a necessary evil.

I don’t know if I was taught that or just caught it, but I definitely thought it.

It took me years to come around to a different way of looking at work, but that is not because the Bible is not clear on the subject. It is very clear.

The very first thing the Bible records the Lord doing is working: “In the beginning God created . . .”  (Gen. 1:1) And He didn’t stop there. Jesus said, “My Father is always working and so am I.” (John 5:17).

God was working in the beginning, He has continued to work since then and His Son did the same thing. So, why do we look at work as a necessary evil? God doesn’t do anything evil, but we know He works. So, work cannot be evil, not even a necessary one.

Jesus is the ultimate example because He is God in human flesh. We are called to be like Him. The very purpose of our lives is to be conformed to His image. And in Jesus we see a worker.

We see Jesus walking all day from Capernaum to Nain, approximately 30 miles, and instead of looking for the nearest Hilton, He finds the time and energy to raise a boy from the dead. (Luke 7:1-17). In another place, we see Jesus feeding 5,000 people. After sending them home, He goes up and apparently spends all night in prayer before walking out to the Sea of Galilee to help His disciples who are battling the waves sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.. (Mark 6:3-52). Jesus didn’t live a “balanced life.”

We’ve started with the lifestyle of God, whom we are supposed to imitate. Next we’ll look at God’s original intent for man. GS

 

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