Biblical Theology of Work

Topic tags
I am peaching tonight at a nursing home and I am confused by a passage eph 2:10. Does this mean secular work or work done in the body of Christ? Not all of us have jobs we are passionate about or in areas where we are most skilled due to the economy and other factors. Should we just quit a job we hate and fine one we love? Thats the way many contemporary authors put it, however Piper, MacArthur, Stanley, Lutzer, Hughes, and others say e are missionaries in a fallen world and our secular jobs are not exactly about us being fulfilled. Thanks if anyone can shed light on this topic.

John

Discussion

John,

We are re-newed by grace, through trust unto ‘good works’. This is best explained by Romans 2:9, 10. Salvation is the dividing line. prior to salvation we can do no good, but having be rebirthed we walk in the Light and by the nature of that Light what we do is accepted as good by the Father because this is what the Son has made possible.

Huw.

[Huw] John,

We are re-newed by grace, through trust unto ‘good works’. This is best explained by Romans 2:9, 10. Salvation is the dividing line. prior to salvation we can do no good, but having be rebirthed we walk in the Light and by the nature of that Light what we do is accepted as good by the Father because this is what the Son has made possible.

Huw.
I consulted some commentaries and the application based commentaries shed more light on this passage than the more exegetical ones. Apparently the works described in this passage are not referring to vocational work, but it could mean that. So the contemporary authors whom career/job books talk about self fulfillment in the workplace have got it wrong, because its not about self fulfillment, but about glorifying Christ.

I am gonna consult Piper (Dont waste your Life) Hughes (Disciplines of a Godly Man) & Lutzer (Making the best of a bad decision) for my sermon tonight on the subject of work.

Consult a seminary library for books on the doctrine of vocation. The Protestant tradition—both Reformed and Lutheran—includes a theological understanding of our work in the world.

For introductory treatments, see Gene Edward Veith’s God at Work and Leyland Ryken’s Work and Leisure in Christian Perspective. For more thorough treatments, check out Gustaf Wingren’s Luther on Vocation (republished by Wipf and Stock last I checked). Also consider our “secular” work from the biblical-theological standpoint of creation-fall-redemption, and consider Albert Wolters’s Creation Regained.

Grace and peace,

Michael Osborne

Michael Osborne
Philadelphia, PA