Why Do We Work?

When it comes to work, we often live in cycles of dissatisfaction. Work is whatever you put your hands to during the day, and it’s the one thing we do more than anything else besides sleep. So if the thing we spend most of our lives doing is a source of dissatisfaction, then we need a better vision of how God enters into this part of life.

What is the purpose of our work?

From the very first page of the Bible, we see that God works. He created. Eden wasn’t a vacation; it was work. God created everything we would ever need. He took chaos and brought forth beauty and order. This is how we should view our work—using our talent and time to create and to serve. Like God, we can help cultivate beauty and order out of the chaos around us.

But what did God do after He finished creating the world? Did He rush off to happy hour to complain about all He had just done? No! He declared that His work was good and took joy in it. Genesis 1:26–28 tells us how God made mankind uniquely in His image. Every person has dignity and a God-given purpose. He calls us to step into the work He is doing and entrusts us with creation to cultivate and care for it.

God also models balance for us: work and rest. He chose to stop, to cease, and to celebrate. Rest is sacred and holy. Our purpose is to reflect God and partner with His work.

But our purpose was distorted in Genesis 3.

God placed humanity in the garden to work and gave one guardrail—not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent deceived mankind, challenging God’s love and authority. When Adam and Eve took from the tree, brokenness and death entered the world. A holy God cannot exist with unholy people. In the Fall, everything was distorted: our relationship with ourselves, others, God, and our work. The curse poisoned the purpose we once had.

As a result, we’ve swung to extreme motives. Either we overwork to prove our worth, or we despise work altogether and do it only so we can escape to things that don’t fulfill. No wonder we live such anxious and restless lives—our purpose was poisoned in the Garden. When we chose ourselves instead of God, our work was broken.

Here’s the good news: We can’t fix work, but we know the One who can. Before God cursed work, He promised to send His Son to redeem what was broken. Jesus came and took the death we deserved so that we could be restored to right relationship with God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. When you put your faith and trust in Him, He gives you new life now. That means we get to join Him in His Kingdom work today.

Ephesians 2:8-10 reminds us that work doesn’t save us—grace does. But we were created to do the good works God has prepared for us. Ephesians 4:22-24 shows how our work was distorted, but in Christ we are invited into a new reality: to take off the old self and put on a new posture that partners with God to make things different.

The gospel transforms us so that every corner of our lives—even our work—can become an offering to God.

The posture of our work comes from Matthew 5:13-16.

Jesus gives His followers this responsibility: You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

Salt preserves what is good and adds flavor. We preserve what is good in society, and we bring life and richness to the world around us.

Light pierces the darkness and reveals what is true. The world is dark, but we are called to reflect the love of God. Even a little light shifts the perspective of reality.

Your purpose is to illuminate God to the world—and in doing so, to bring Him glory.

Six postures of living as salt and light in our work:

• Our work is marked by integrity.

• Our work is marked by purpose.

• Our work is marked by balance.

• Our work is marked by excellence.

• Our work is marked by generosity.

• Our work is a witness.