If you missed Dan’s message from Sunday, you should download it and give it a listen. In the continuing series through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Dan taught from chapter six, verses 5 through 9, showing that work is a spiritual matter. He shows us how we are called to submit our selves to our employers out of reverence to God, in the same pattern as husbands, wives, and children within the family.

I’d like to offer some additional thoughts on the spiritual value of work. Jesus told us that the Law could be summed up in two great commands: love God and love your neighbor. Ephesians six shows us work in light of the greatest command (love God). I think it is also helpful to look at work in light of the second (love your neighbor).

The beauty of a market economy is that two parties agree to trade goods or services when both parties gain more benefit from what they receive from the other than what they are giving up. So, as you engage in trade, you are providing a benefit to all those you trade with. In a highly interconnected economy such as ours, merely participating as a productive member provides a benefit to society as a whole. Most of us participate in the market place through an employer. Each day that we come to work and provide at least as much value as what we take home in pay, we are benefiting our neighbors.

I think it can be helpful to look at our work this way. For example, I work for a software company that produces software that allows check processing to occur without physically moving the paper. As we make a better product, more people will adopt the technology, fewer checks will need to be transported across town or across the country, reducing the use of fossil fuels and pollution. It will also free our clients to make more productive use of their time. In addition, as our software sells, we provide a financial return to the investors that own the company, encouraging other investment in improving the overall standard of living for our society. For my contribution in this effort, society (through my employer) gives me a house, food to eat, and the other material blessing that I enjoy.

Paul was specifically condemning idleness in 2 Thessalonians 3 when he laid down the principle that if one is unwilling to work, he should not eat. But I think there is an underlying principle that we have a moral obligation to give at least as much value to the community as we take from it. [This is why I have a problem with believers who make their living in ways that provide no benefit to society. Consider, for example, pyramid schemes where no value is created, but wealth is simply moved from the gullible to the savvy. This can provide a comfortable living for those at the top, but purely at the expense of others, producing no value to society. Alas, that’s another post for another day…]

This is also a reason that I don’t think that all believers meant to be in vocational ministry. The world needs food to eat (and hence farmers), houses to live in (and hence builders), clothes to wear (and hence textile workers), etc. Is it any less honorable to feed, house, and clothe your neighbors than it is to minister to the Church?

I encourage you to look at your work both as service to God as well as service to your neighbor. Each day, may we be worth our wages.