(7) Work Well

"Six days you shall labor, and do all your work" (Ex. 20:9). The reason is simple: "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (11). We are the image of God. We work because he works. But Scripture doesn't simply command work, but a particular way to work. Living vocationally is more than getting a job and showing up. How we work says a lot about who we are and what we really believe about God. After all, even bondservants serve the Lord Christ (Col. 3:24). We must all "work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (23). We must always abound in the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).

Here's the problem: Only about half of self-identified believers say that Christians should "do excellent work in an effort to bring glory to God (58%)." This means that many Christians fail to realize that how we work is meant to "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior" (Titus 2:10).

How we work can either validate or undermine our profession of faith and our claim of repentance. John exhorted those who came to be baptized to "bear fruits in keeping with repentance" (8). And we cannot separate our work life from our life of repentance and faith. Of those who asked John what penitent fruit-bearing looked like in practice some were tax collectors and others soldiers. And John explicitly applied repentance to their vocation. This passage suggests several ways we can live out a life of repentance and faith at work.