#354 Work and Worship

Dr. craig’s response

Thank you so much for your interesting and thought-provoking question, Lawrence! It brings home how differently Christians and non-Christians regard certain aspects of our lives. Let’s talk about work and worship.

1. Why is work practically the center of all life? You are quite right in reminding us that we as Christians need to develop a theology of work. In particular, you’re right in pointing to God in the creation narratives as an example of one who works before taking a day off as instructive. This is clearly meant to provide a model for our own lives. I find it fascinating that in the creation story Adam is given work to do by God wholly before Adam’s fall into sin: “And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2.15). Work is a sacred activity that characterizes even a sinless existence.

The way in which you characterize ideal existence, by contrast, however understandable, is a hedonistic view of life quite contrary to the biblical view. A world which “revolve[d] around enjoyment, exploration, fun, relaxation, and a chance enjoy each other as human beings” sounds like a teenager’s dream, but in fact it would be a nightmare. Such a world revolving around pleasure is a self-centered view of life that is antithetical to responsibility, sacrifice, achievement, and growth in moral virtue. Mature moral agents would never evolve in such a world. Work is thus a great boon to human development, both individually and corporately. Now, of course, as you point out, the virtues achieved through work are not automatic. “Many who do work the hardest and longest in society can often do so out of pride and competition, as their way of validating their self worth (probably because they have no social life), or greed.” But that is not due to any deficit inherent in work itself; it is due to human sinfulness, which can pervert even great goods. A Christian theology of work will also involve the proper motivation for work, such as serving the Lord with gladness and providing for one’s family. A Christian theology of work will probably also involve the notion of calling, the idea that God has called me to be a plumber or a professor or a homemaker or a farmer. When I see my work, however mundane, as a calling from God which I can do for Him, that helps one to have the proper motivation, especially when we serve Him out of a grateful heart for all the good that He has bestowed upon us in Christ.

The mention of human sinfulness serves to remind us, however, that we live in a fallen world in which work becomes much more difficult. Again, in the creation story we find that after the fall God says to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. . . . In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3.17, 19). In a sinful, fallen world work is often corrupted by exploitative labor practices, poor wages, corruption, domination, and discrimination. Thus, it is hardly surprising that “the degree to which life is filled with drab and mundane work on a constant daily basis seems disproportionate to any good it might produce.” Or at least to any earthly good it might produce (though, given our limited perspective, we really have no idea of the future goods that our labor might produce!)! As we discharge faithfully our duty to provide for ourselves and our family and to do the work that God has called us to do, we do so knowing that this earthly life is but a brief and transitory existence which prepares us for the afterlife, in which God abundantly rewards those who have faithfully served Him. To Christian slaves in Colossae, Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; for you serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3.23-4). The problem, Lawrence, is that you are thinking of this terrestrial life as all the life that we have. But according to the Christian faith that is not true. Now I fully appreciate that as a non-Christian this may sound like pie-in-the-sky to you; but the point is that if Christianity is the truth, then this is a reasonable perspective on work in a fallen world. It needs only be added that we have good grounds in the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection for our hope.

2. Forced to worship? I couldn't help but smile when I read your second question, Lawrence, because it again so vividly illustrates the different way in which Christians and non-Christians see things! Would you believe that I love to worship God? It’s true! After coming to know God and His salvation as a teenager, I found it tremendously fulfilling and exhilarating to sing praises to the Lord and to pray to Him in corporate worship. I love Him! He is my Savior, who gave his life on the cross for me, undeserving as I am, to forgive my sins, to restore me to a right relationship with Him, and to give me eternal life! How could I not praise Him? Forced to worship God? Never! It is my joy to worship as well as serve Him.

Moreover a little theological reflection reveals that He is the summum bonum, the highest good, the paradigm and source of all value and love. He is, as St. Anselm taught, the greatest conceivable being. So He merits worship and adoration. I suspect that your problem, Lawrence, is that you’re thinking of God, in the words of one British journalist, as “a sort of a chap,” and it would, indeed, be creepy if there were some chap requiring us to worship him! But there is nothing strange or unsuitable in worshiping the greatest conceivable being, the Highest Good.

I'm not at all offended by your questions, Lawrence; on the contrary I found them precious because they are such a vivid reminder of how differently the believer sees God than the unbeliever. What makes Christianity great is, first and foremost, that it is the truth. But besides that, it gives to your work, even when it is burdensome, an eternal meaning and value, and connects you to an incommensurable good, the knowledge of God Himself.