Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Your Work Matters to God, Part 12 of 45

IDEA: All legitimate work is an extension of God's work.

PURPOSE: To show that while sin has corrupted work, it does not make work in itself evil.

We've made the point that work is inherently good. On what basis can we say that? [REVIEW: God is a worker / we are made in the image of God / we're co-workers with God.] So it is wrong to think of work as a 'necessary evil.'

Do you see any problems with saying that work is inherently good? Does this include all work?

I. What about the prostitute, the drug dealer, the thief?

They work, and they work hard. Could you say that their work is inherently good? Why not?

II. We probably should limit what we were saying to "all legitimate work is inherently good."

How would you define "legitimate"? It's what God wants done in the world to benefit us, and it doesn't actively contribute to what God does NOT want.

Our work is corrupted by sin.

Work can be done for ungodly purposes. While the work itself may be good, its purposes can be bad. For example, God's gift of sex is good, but it can be perverted. It can be used in illegitimate ways on the Web, on TV.

III. Does this mean that work has to be religious?

We simply have to ask, "What does God want to do in the world, and how does our work contribute to that?"

We need to ask that question very broadly. Is the work I do part of the process to accomplish what God wants to do in sustaining His creation?