Work is a blessing, not a curse.Thank God it’s Monday! Bridge the Sunday gap to Monday.Bridge the Sacred and Secular divide.Work is a ministry, not just a job.Work as Worship – work is more than a paycheck.Receive blessings from God and be a blessing at work.Keep an empty seat for Jesus at work – a reminder to invite Jesus to intervene, integrate our faith at work.Take Jesus to work – don’t leave Jesus at home. Don’t lock Jesus outside of your office.Embrace and enjoy our work with God’s 5P blessings – His Presence, Power, Promises, Provisions, Pleasant surprises.
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66: The big picture of work (Revelation 18:1-20; 21:1-7; 21:23–26; 22:1-2)

Scripture ReadingRevelation 18:1-2021:1-721:23–2622:1-2

Insights into the big picture of work come in Revelation’s concluding chapters, where the worldly city Babylon is set against God’s city, the New Jerusalem. Babylon represents the dead-end street of humanity’s attempt to build their culture apart from God. It has every appearance of being the paradise for which humanity has always longed. But it is in fact a counterfeit, doomed to be exposed by God in the final judgment.

The lesson that God would judge a city for its economic practices is a sobering thought. The fact that much of the condemnation appears to stem from its self-indulgence should hit with particular force at modern consumer culture. But the most worrisome thing of all is that Babylon looks so close to the New Jerusalem. God did create a good world; we are meant to enjoy life; God does delight in the beautiful things of earth. It is precisely the genuine benefits of technological advance and extensive trading networks that constitute the danger. Babylon slowly but inexorably twists the good gifts of God—economic interchange, agricultural abundance, diligent craftsmanship—into the service of false gods.

Revelation offers an alternative vision of life together: the New Jerusalem. At one level, the New Jerusalem is a return to Eden—there is a river flowing through it, with the tree of life standing by with fruit-laden branches and leaves for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). Humanity can again walk in peace with God. But the New Jerusalem is not simply a new and better garden: it is a garden-city that forms the counterweight to Babylon.

Parsing out precisely how this works is not easy. Will there still be farming in the new heavens and new earth? Will a godly computer programmer’s 1.0 software be consigned to the flames while version 2.0 enters the heavenly city? The Bible does not answer these types of questions directly, but we may once more look at the big picture. God created humans to exercise dominion over the earth, which entails creativity. Would it be sensible for such a God to then turn and regard work done in faith as useless and cast it aside? On balance, it seems far more likely that he would raise it up and perfect all that is done for his glory.

Prayer: Jesus, I want my work to honor you. Help me do everything I do for your glory. Amen.

For Further Exploration: Read Babylon and the New Jerusalem: A Tale of Two Cities (Revelation 17-22) from the Theology of Work Bible Commentary.


Author: Theology of Work Project

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org

You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.

© 2014 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

54: Work and money (1 Timothy 6:3-10, 17–19)

Scripture Reading1 Timothy 6:3-1017–19

The last section of 1 Timothy is packed with powerful exhortations and warnings for rich Christians. 1 Timothy 6:3–10 and 17–19 have direct workplace applications. In reading and applying these passages, however, we must avoid two common mistakes.

First, this passage does not teach that there is no “gain” to be had by being godly. Paul encourages his readers to know that there is great gain in godliness when it is combined with contentment in the basic necessities of life (1 Tim. 6:68). Paul commands the righteous rich “to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share” (1 Tim. 6:18)—not to sell everything they have and become poor. They are to be rich in good works so that they might store up for themselves “the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life” (1 Tim. 6:19). In other words, godliness is a means of gain as long as that gain is understood as life and blessings in the presence of God and not only more money now.

The second mistake to avoid is thinking that this passage and its condemnation of a love for money means that no Christian worker should ever seek a raise or promotion or that no Christian business should try to make a profit. There are many reasons why someone could want more money; some of them could be bad but others could be good. If someone wanted more money for the status, luxury, or ego boost it would provide, then this would indeed fall under the rebuke of this section of Scripture. But if someone wanted to earn more money in order to provide adequately for dependents, to give more to Christ-honoring causes, or to invest in creating goods and services that allow the community to thrive, then it would not be evil to want more money. To reject the love of money is not to oppose every desire to be successful or profitable in the workplace.

Prayer: Lord, help me discern my desires so that I may always serve you in godliness combined with contentment. Amen.

For Further Exploration: Read 1 Timothy: Working for Order in God’s Household from the Theology of Work Bible Commentary.


Author: Theology of Work Project

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org

You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.

© 2014 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.