đź“– Why did God create work?

The meaning of work

March 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Why did God create work?

God created humanity, placed them in a garden called Eden, and told them to take care of it.

And so, the work began.

A garden is a place of balance between nature’s beauty and humanity’s creativity. By placing humanity in the Garden, God was calling us to take the potential of Earth and turn it into something good.

Walk outside your door and you’ll enter a world brimming with opportunity. Resources to be harnessed. Experiences to be had. It’s all out there, but if we don’t do anything with it, nothing will come from it.

And that’s where we find the meaning of work.

In taking advantage of this world’s potential for the glory of God.

Co-Laborers

Martin Luther King Jr. made a great point when he said:

“Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”

Which, in many ways, is an echo of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3v8-9:

The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Do you view your work as being done alongside God?

God created humanity as His partners. Not as equals, but as individuals with the dignity of guiding creation alongside and for Him.

Our work should be healing, showing what life with God can be. We should do our work well to serve as a shining example that transforms the little corner of human existence that God has given us.

It’s art. Plain and simple.

Raw Materials

Tim Keller put it well when he said that work is “rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.” 

What are these raw materials you ask? They are…

  • Software

  • Colors and shapes that become a graphic

  • Lab work

  • A taxi 

  • The lessons you leave your children with

  • The projects you manage

  • …and so much more.

What are the “tools” of your trade and how can they be used to show God’s Kingdom on Earth?

For Brother Lawrence, these materials were a kitchen and ingredients. What are they for you? Do you use them to create a place where humanity flourishes in a relationship with God?

Something to consider. The meaning of our work rests on doing so, after all.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter

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