Work, Vocation & the Gospel

All right, good morning. I think it's 9.02 or 8.02 for those of you whose bodies are still adjusting to daylight savings.

! But I will go ahead and get started. We have quite a bit of ground to cover today.

And so I will say welcome everyone to this new series on work, vocation and the gospel.

This class is a natural sequel to the Sunday School class on the doctrine of creation that we just concluded.

And for those of you who may have not listened or at least as a good reminder before we start,

in that class we began or Luke began, I should say, by exploring the different ways to understand the creation story.

Especially looking at ways we can remain faithful to core anchoring truths that I believe he referred to as non-negotiables.

I think at some point in the class.

Even as we hold them in tension to the contemporary and scientific accounts that are prevalent today.

Then after this, Nick turned our attention to the doctrine of the creation of man.

Exploring or expounding what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God and the implications of that today.

Now, John Hinkson built on that by discussing the cultural mandate that is given to man in Genesis 1, 26-27.

And tracing how that mandate intersects with the arc of the gospel.

Creation for redemption and new creation.

That class in many ways serves as the functional introduction to this one.

And it's actually the bridge to this.

So, if you haven't listened to it, Nick sent out a newsletter highlighting it.

I would, again, encourage you to do so.

Because much of what we will discuss across this series will connect to themes that John introduced in that class.

But, because it is that important, if I could attempt to paraphrase John here.

The cultural mandate, as he described it, derives from being created in the image and likeness of God.

And it is essentially man's call to continue God's work of creative cultivation, which he, that is God, demonstrated in his work of creation.

So, how does that cultural mandate serve as a bridge to this class, this series?

John may have said it implicitly, but I will attempt to do so explicitly for the sake of this class.

Work, at its core, as I see it, is essentially how we go about fulfilling that cultural mandate that God has given to us.

Or, in other words, how we continue to creatively cultivate God's good creation.

Our goal, then, in this class, or in this series, I should say, is to unpack, over the next seven to eight weeks,

what the concept of work in the broader context of the story of salvation looks like.

What is God's original intention and design for work?

How sin and the fall corrupted and continues to corrupt God's grand design for it?

And how, through the power of the gospel, our work can be and is redeemed today in a way that not just restores God's original design,

but foreshadows and provides a foretaste of the fullness of what we would experience at the dawning of new creation.

My goal, specifically today, is to set the stage for the rest of the series by taking a closer look at God's original design for work,

as revealed in the Garden of Eden.

And from there, if we have time, I will quickly sketch out the rest of the terrain that the remaining classes will cover.

I'm not sure we will have time, but we'll try to get to that.

And then I stated in the announcement blurbs for the series, our guide will be this book,

Every Good Endeavor, written by Tim Keller.

Alex and I, who will be teaching this course together, will borrow liberally from this book as we teach this series.

We will supplement some of its ideas with a few of our own,

but we'll recommend getting the book and going through it as we go along,

so that you can, in some way, start to engage the ideas, even be ahead.

We talked about setting a class atmosphere before people started coming in.

You can read ahead and then come to class with questions that you have.

So, with that, let us turn to the Lord in prayer to ask for his help as we begin to look at this topic together.

Father Lord, we thank you for creating work and making it the means through which we join you in tending the rest of your good creation.

Give us wisdom and insight as we look now into your work to explore your design for it.

May that picture reveal to us ways you may be calling us now to reorient the work which we currently do to align with how you have made us

and the purpose for which you made all things.

That is, for the praise and glory of your name.

I ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Alright, so like I said,

today we are going to be spending much of our time looking at God's original intention and approach to work.

And it is helpful in that case to look at the context where work first arose.

And so, I will ask you to turn with me your Bibles to Genesis 1, 26.

And I will read until the end of chapter 2.

I may skip a few verses as we go.

Because much of our class will be in some way like an exposition of these verses,

Beth has kindly printed copies if you don't have your Bible.

And I will ask you to follow along as I read.

And then at the end, I am going to ask the class a couple of questions around,

what do you see from this passage pertaining to God's design for work?

And I will try and bring them all together after we do so.

So, I will start.

Again, I would say, I skipped a couple of verses.

But anyway, if you are following in the passage,

all I am going to read in the handout,

all I am going to read is here.

Okay, so, starting from verse 26, Genesis chapter 1, it says,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Then God said,

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the birds of the heavens,

and over the livestock, and over all the earth,

and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

And God blessed them, and God said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it,

and have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the birds of the heavens,

and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God saw everything that he had made,

and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,

and all the hosts of them.

And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done,

and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy,

because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created,

in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

When no bush of the field was yet in the land,

and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up,

for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the land,

and there was no man to work the ground,

and a mist was going up from the land,

and was watering the whole face of the ground.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living creature.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east,

and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up

every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden,

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden

to work it and keep it.

And the Lord commanded the man, saying,

You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field

and every bird of the heavens,

and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature,

that was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock,

and to the birds of the heavens,

and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,

and while he slept, took one of his ribs,

and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man,

he made into a woman,

and brought her to the man.

All right.

Hopefully as you were reading, you were thinking.

So now this is where I open up the class,

to get your ideas.

What does this passage,

or what are some of the things you observed from this passage,

about God's design for work?

Yes, ma'am.

God all the time made,

and everything he made perfect.

Okay.

You can see this to the perfection.

Okay.

God made everything perfect.

Yes.

How did God,

was the process by which God made everything perfect?

But please,

all right.

Yes.

How is that?

Yeah.

Okay.

With his work.

Yeah.

And with using man to take care of the field,

and take care of the garden.

Okay.

So God created man to take care of the garden.

Anything else?

That's the problem of seeing when humans feel bigger than God.

Ah.

That's how it is.

Nobody,

I mean,

you can even,

you know,

we are a grasshopper.

Yes.

So sin,

we will find later,

corrupts God's work.

Yes.

But,

it's not in the passage today.

Today is God's good design for work.

What do we see?

Yes.

So work is good,

it's a harsh part of our life,

but it has limits.

Okay.

Work is good,

work has limits.

Where do we see that,

that work has limits?

That work has limits.

God rested from his work.

Okay.

God rested from his work.

Maybe God's work has limits.

Why do we know that those limits apply to us?

I should have mentioned,

by the way,

sorry,

Susan,

I should have mentioned,

we see many ideas here that are amplified in the rest of scripture.

So it's not,

feel free if you have to defend to go outside of scripture.

Yes.

All right.

All right.

So we come in?

Uh-huh.

Yes.

So we find out later that this was a specific pattern that God had for us,

even though it doesn't say it so very explicitly in this passage.

What else?

There's still quite a few more.

What do we see or learn about work in the passage?

Well,

Adam has administrative responsibilities.

Okay.

According to verse 26.

Uh-huh.

So what does that mean about work in general?

Well,

every job I've ever had

has a certain amount of administrative responsibility,

even if it's very circumscribed.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So there are different elements or parts to the work that God gives us to do,

is how I would generalize it.

Ma'am.

Can you perhaps fulfill God's purpose?

Work is meant to fulfill God's purpose.

Did I hear that right, Ma'am?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I think that's fair.

Yes.

Again, Peter?

Work isn't meant to be alone.

Mmm.

Like God created a helper.

Yeah.

I struggle to include that.

But I think it is true.

We will come back to that at the implications.

But yes.

Work is not meant to be alone.

I agree.

I have a question.

Do we have to rest for seven days?

Do we have to rest?

No, yeah.

Like, you know, like special days.

Okay.

Ma'am, I will again come back to that.

Oh.

We will.

No, no, no.

It's good.

Do we have to?

So over the course of the class, there's a lot of the questions that, the implications for which we will tackle.

Yes.

Tackle.

Yes.

Alex, do you have?

Okay.

Anyone else?

Josh?

It seems like our work is meant to be an extension of God's authority or dominion.

Mmm.

He says have dominion.

Okay.

Yeah.

Over creation.

Yes, indeed.

We, in some way, work underneath God's work.

And that, I think, we will see also in the rest of the passage.

Yes, Richard?

So the passage is not exclusively about work because in verse 28, he says, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it.

That's true.

But increasing in number is not work.

Yeah.

So the cultural mandate of work is not the entire mandate that God gives us.

And I think we're just looking at that particular mandate of, you know, subdue the earth.

And I think John talked about it actually quite a bit in his class.

But, yes, the entire mandate is not limited to work.

Be fruitful and multiply is not essentially the work.

But we're looking especially at the work element of it.

Anyone else?

The multiply can be to make things better, to multiply good.

Okay.

Okay.

Or you make it easier.

Okay.

I think, like, work is tending beauty but also functional.

Ah.

So, Lord God made us bring up every tree that is pleasant to sight and good for food.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think, John, again, sorry, I keep referring to it.

I really recommend you listen to the class.

I listened to it twice and I read it.

The transcript, it is that good.

John talked about it.

He, like, the creative, the word creative cultivation in some way brings together those two ideas of both the beauty,

the creativeness, but the cultivation bringing order to it.

And so, yes, 100%.

Okay.

Yes?

Yes, ma'am.

God is in order.

He perfectly ordered.

Yes.

God's order.

Our creative cultivation is actually patterned after God's way of work.

Yes.

So, God was also doing that ordering creation even after making it.

All right.

So, we have quite a number.

So, I will walk through a couple of them just for comprehensiveness and then discuss what these observations tell us about the way God designed work to operate.

I think, first of all, God worked, I think somebody may have said, and delighted in his work.

We see this in verses 2, in chapter 2, verses 1 to 3.

There is an inherent goodness to work, but it is something that God did and God enjoyed.

It is in contrast with the perspective and myths of some of the ancient Greeks and also in some quarters today, which we will talk about later.

The second is that it's not at least obvious because our Bible is in English, but I think Tim Keller in his book talks about how the word that was used to describe God's work was pedestrian work.

It was a pedestrian work.

It was the same word that was used to describe human work.

God, in creation, was willing to get his hands dirty.

And he literally got his hands dirty in forming man from the dust of the ground.

And so, there is an essence in which God work is, it's not just, there is not a humbling aspect of work, but work takes on a great range of forms.

And God's work spans that range from what we did creative to the actual manual and practical.

And all of those, all that work is good.

The next one somebody mentioned was work is done, I think, in rhythms.

That's what Susan was talking about, like this, rhythms of work and rest.

We see this dimly in each day.

We didn't read Genesis 1, but we see that dimly in Genesis 1.

Then we see it a bit more clearly in Genesis 2, verse 3, in the sense of God's work.

Genesis 2:3

But as I discussed, it comes to life more fully as we go further in Scripture.

And then the explicit pattern in Exodus 20 is where it's set before us.

And it states in verse 18, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

I read this and I thought it was funny.

God, I don't think this is exactly what he's saying, but it sounded like, I made the heavens and the earth in six days.

You can rest from your work because you're not making the heavens and the earth.

I don't think that's exact.

But it's like, yeah, you know, like how busy can you be that you cannot rest on the seventh day?

A thought to consider.

If we keep moving in the passage, we will also see that work was something that God created man to do and something that God calls him to do.

And we see this in chapter 2, verse 15.

And I will just try and find it here.

It said,

The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Work was part of our original creation and purpose.

And we will in some way come back to that later.

Then next, we are designed to benefit from and enjoy the fruit of our work.

We see this in chapter 2, verse 16.

And it's a point that while it begins here, it's amplified in scripture.

I think you all may be familiar when Paul picks this up.

Deuteronomy picks this theme up about do not muzzle an ox while it is shredding the grain.

And Paul, twice in the New Testament, picks this pattern up that the idea that we are, it's a good thing to be able to enjoy and reap the fruits of your work.

And that's how work has always been.

And so God, in asking the man to tend the garden, also encouraging him to eat of its fruit.

Yes, ma'am.

In heaven, we're going to walk too.

Yes, that was a point that John made as well.

Yes, indeed.

We're going to walk.

It's not going to be singing and, you know, all kinds of that.

No, you know what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no.

It's thinking, oh, more, more.

We're going to be busy.

Yes.

Yes, indeed.

And then finally, someone mentioned that we are called to a variety of work.

I think Sarah, that was the point.

I think Richard, it's Richard, right?

Yes.

Okay, yeah.

Like Richard, you mentioned the administrative component of work.

We see in this passage, Adam called to different kinds of work.

He's called to creative work in naming the animals.

He's also called to manual, practical work in 10 in the garden.

There is a spectrum and a variety of work that God designs us to do.

And then I think Peter mentioned a point that I didn't want to make too much of, but I do

think it's very important that work was designed to be done in community, in a sense.

I think community is a strong word because, you know, here the pattern, the bigger pattern

at the core of this passage is marriage and the partnership in marriage.

But I think it was a point that embedded in the nature of work helps us to see that that

social component of work is a critical component.

Actually, studies have shown that for those who go back to work, who may not even need to

go financially for work, especially those who have rich retirement age, the social and

meaning component of work is a primary driver of why many go back to work.

So that part is definitely something that is worth us to consider.

So how do these observations together tell us about the way God designed work to operate

in a way that I think we can in some way engage on today?

I think, first of all, work is good.

I said that before.

God's working and delighting in his work reminds us that there is an inherent goodness to work

for it is something God did and enjoyed.

I think, okay, I guess it comes in the second one.

The second one is that we were created to work.

I think it's, the Lord God made man in some way to tend the garden.

If you read that, when he said, when, when it, in some way we start the narrative and talking

about the creation of man, it talks about, you know, when there was no fruit or no shrub

coming up in cultivation because there was yet no man to work the land.

And God made man and God planted him in the garden to work the garden.

We were made to work and work thus is a critical component of a meaningful life.

Now, while work may take on different forms in different stages of our life,

it is a key part of it.

A life purely of pleasure and leisure, while often romanticized sometimes,

is a life at risk of being devoid of meaning.

We were designed to work and it's not something we have to do, but what we were created to do.

So, if we are offered dreams of a life without any kind of work, sometimes that's the AI,

the AI mantra.

That dream is not, in some way, it's almost more closer to hell than heaven.

In part because if you think as a, ma'am, I don't think I remember your name.

Is it Julia?

Oh, yeah.

Julia?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yes.

Working or serving.

Yes.

You can serve all made around.

You know, not necessarily a serving.

Serving community, serving anything.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

But as Julia had said earlier, that if, as John put it in his class,

that work will continue in the new heavens and new creation that God will bring about.

You can then imagine, by definition, life without any form of work cannot be heaven.

And if it is not heaven, I leave it to your imagination what that life is exactly.

Maybe it is in hell that people don't work.

They just suffer.

But work is meaningful and is critical to the meaningful component of a life worth living.

I think third is that God called man to work.

Man did not define or create his own work, but responded to God's call to work.

Now, underneath this is a couple of ideas that I think came up in the course of our discussion.

First is that this work has a variety of forms.

It's intellectual work, practical work, and neither of them set up intention against the other

or as one being superior.

And that goes a grain to grain of our world today, where depending on where we sit on that divide of intellectual work,

white-collar work, or blue-collar work, we often tend to magnify one and demean the other.

We see both of them coming together in the garden, and it's also coming together actually in God's own work itself,

not necessarily just in man's work.

And so we are reminded that there is no superiority in either of these kinds of work.

But that said, even though we are called to a variety of work, Adam was still called to particular work.

Now, you will notice that Adam was called to tend to a specific garden.

He wasn't called necessarily to feed the birds of the air or the fish in the sea.

He was called to tend the garden.

And so maybe perhaps as humanity became fruitful and multiplied and filled the earth and subdued it,

that broader mandate would have been picked up as it is in the variety of work.

But if you look at Adam particularly, he was called to specific work.

And thus, it is a reminder to us that there may be a variety of things that we are, but we are called to specific work.

I don't want to go too deep in this because this is something that I think Alex, in his class next week on work as a calling,

will speak in more detail about.

In particular, as it relates to the idea that what God called Adam to,

I mean, Alex, I'm speaking on your behalf, but I imagine,

what God called Adam to was what is seemingly secular work.

But it's actually in contrast to what we think about calling today.

Adam was called to work the garden.

And it was a great cry of the Reformation that all God, all work is God's calling to work.

It's not all good work, I would say.

It's God's calling to work.

There is no special class for spiritual work that the people in the church do.

We can all be called to the work that we're doing.

But I will leave Alex to expand on that later.

Next, and I think this goes deeper into what Susan had mentioned.

This work that we are called to do came with constraints that were designed to remind us that we are not masters of our own selves.

But our work is underneath a greater work, which is God's work.

And our work is ultimately directed to the person who calls us to work.

I think we had, in one of the sermons in the past, in the series that we're currently going to,

the idea that when you are called, like being a steward of resources,

you are called to do and manage them on behalf of someone.

And we see these constraints that God has given.

God put constraints in place in work, even in Eden,

as a reminder of that reality,

that we do not work as unto ourselves, but unto somebody,

unto God who made us.

And there are two, these constraints we see in two specific places.

First, in the Sabbath.

We talked a little bit about the Sabbath.

And then secondly, we see it in the restriction God gives Adam

to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But because we generally chafe at the idea of constraints,

we all think about, you know,

best life is a life with all options and unconstrained.

I can do whatever I want.

But, I mean, as some of you know,

there is this thing called the paradox of choice, right?

Like if you are presented with too many options,

you actually, it's harder to make decisions

than when you are given a set of constrained choices.

So even though we chafe at the sound of constraints,

it is within the scope of these constraints

that we are designed to enjoy and find meaning in our work.

So if we look at the Sabbath, for example,

we know that rest is good

because being finite creatures is good for our recovery.

But this rest was patterned after God's rest.

And God, as we know in Psalm 121,

neither slumbers nor sleep.

So the primary purpose of this rest as a pattern

is not just rest, physical rest,

as it is, even if we look at Exodus 20,

where it talks about the Sabbath is unto the Lord.

The goal of rest, it came at the end, at the seventh day,

almost as a sense that it is a pointer to an end to work.

Now, end here I use not in the sense of chronological end,

like it's finished,

but in the teleological sense,

in which there is an end as a purpose

to which work is designed and oriented.

When we enjoy the Sabbath,

the goal of the Sabbath is meant to point us

to an end to work,

an end and a purpose and not a meaninglessness.

And I think Keller points out this in his book

around when he talks about leisure,

that good leisure allows us to see and appreciate

and reflect on the beauty and the purpose

and the end of work.

It's not really just,

oh, I'm tired, I need a break after six days of work.

It's actually an opportunity for us

to step back and see

this greater purpose of rest.

And then furthermore,

this is pre-fall or pre,

yeah, this is even before the fall.

After the fall,

this idea of rest takes on an even bigger perspective

in the rest of scripture.

Hebrews talks about it ultimately,

and I think picking up on Psalm 95,

this idea of rest,

that when we enter God's rest,

we rest from our own labor.

And that I think we're talking about

in this series on Galatians,

that ultimately we rest from our works

in God's completed work.

And that pattern was already set in the garden

and set in this idea of Sabbath.

So the Sabbath is not really just physical rest,

but this idea of an end to work

and an end, like I said,

in the teleological sense,

which means work,

we can see work as purposeful and meaningful

when we see it through the lens

of the rhythms God has designed

for work and rest,

as revealed in the Sabbath.

Then the second constraint we see in 2.17,

where God gives man a command

not to eat of the fruit of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, presumably that restriction

did not mean that man was not allowed

to tend the tree.

Remember, that tree was in the garden,

and Adam was called to tend the garden.

Yet he was forbidden to eat from that tree.

And depending on how you think about it,

some commentators say

there was nothing really special about that tree

as it was meant to be a symbol

of the constraints around which

God had set man to work.

It reminded Adam,

whenever he tended that tree

but not eating of it,

that his work was as a subject

of somebody who was greater.

But if you notice,

that restriction does not constrain Adam

from enjoying everything else in the garden.

And that, like,

satisfying the restriction of,

I will not eat from this tree

did not mean,

oh, now I'm suffering.

He could eat from whatever tree.

He could eat from the tree of life,

from all these other trees,

as long as he remembered

that this tree,

that knowledge of good and evil

was a tree that he was forbidden from eating.

Yes, ma'am.

I have a question about that.

Yes.

So, as well as the point of his authority

over Adam,

would it not be important

that he not eat of that tree

because when he did,

he had to leave?

Yes.

But, yeah.

That tree,

I mean,

it was,

it was even more than,

it was as well,

as well as God's authority,

that tree held a door open

that was shut down

because he chose it.

Yeah,

I think there are two elements

in which we can talk about

the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil.

Like there could be,

like I said,

some commentators would say,

I said,

some would say

there was nothing special about the tree.

Some may say

there was something special about the tree.

Regardless of whether

there was something special

about the tree or not

in a practical sense

of what it did,

there was a bigger point

to the tree.

And that was,

at the very least,

it would remind Adam

that you are not the commander

of this garden.

Right.

You,

this garden,

you are putting here to work

underneath the command

of someone.

And I'm,

knowledge of tree

opened the door

to the earth

of science.

And a lot of people

don't believe that.

Yeah.

Maybe,

I don't know.

No,

I think,

I'm trying to avoid

the conversation

around the elements

of the tree

because I do think

that regardless

of what you think

about the purpose

of the tree,

the bigger purpose

of the tree

still stands.

Yes,

ma'am.

Could it be also

obedience

and honoring God?

I mean,

God is asking

that,

of course,

you're going to

honor and be obedient.

Yes,

exactly.

Yes.

So the point is

that the signifying

obedience

is how we,

we work

underneath

God.

It's like a symbol

of man's status

relative to God.

We are not gods

of our own selves.

We are created

underneath

someone

to work.

I think,

yeah,

so we see this point,

by the way,

picked up

in different parts

of scripture

later on.

This idea that

even though

we enjoy the benefits

of our work,

there are portions

of the benefits

of our work

that are restricted

to us somewhat

as a reminder

that the work

is not ours.

We see in the

Old Testament

this idea of the tithe

that was God's

portion in the

things that he had

given them.

Presumably,

again,

a way I'm not saying

there's one-to-one

correlation,

but this idea

that there are

reminders in the

work that we do

and the fruit of

our work,

even though we

can enjoy it,

that remain to

God.

When God,

beyond even the

tithe,

right,

when God was

giving the

Israelites laws

about harvest,

they were not

to harvest to

the very edge

of their field

and harvest every

little grain.

They were meant

to leave things

as they went,

things that fell off.

It gained that

idea that there

was a portion

in our work

that does not

belong to us.

As we think

about that,

regardless of

what you believe

today about

tithe or not,

there is a sense

that of the

work that we

do,

all of the

fruit does not

belong to us

because it's a

reminder that

our work

comes from

someone else.

prayer.

Prayer.

Prayer.

You have time

for God.

Prayer.

Prayer is very

important.

Yeah, that is

fair.

So what's the

definition of work?

Ah, what is the

definition of work?

I thought I said

it implicitly in the

beginning, but I

think it's a good

one and I will

call it back.

I will go back to

that.

I think work

is the way we

continue God's

mandate in this

creative cultivation

of the world

today.

That is work.

That is how we

were meant to

fulfill the

cultural part of

that mandate.

Like Richard

mentioned, there

are multiple

parts of this

mandate that he

gave in 126 to

27, and that's

what we would

unpack in Genesis

126 to 27.

That part of

continuing his

creative cultivation

of the world

is work.

work.

How we do

that is what's

work.

Now, that

definition, though,

I would say is

not complete.

It's not complete

because the New

Testament picks

up more.

There is almost

like a component

of that element

that we see more

clearly in the

New Testament, but

I want to hold

that thought for

when we then

come back to

what is added to

that definition

of work, that

the New Testament

really, really

amplifies.

Josh, you had a

question?

This might go

wrong with that,

but we touched

on the end of

the purpose, the

telos of work, but

I wasn't clear on

did we come down

on that somewhere?

Did we define that?

The purpose of

work.

That was the last.

Well, the purpose

of work I mentioned

earlier in the

prayer, but it was

actually the subject

of Nick's last

class in the

previous series.

The purpose of

all is for God's

ultimate glory.

That's the end

of all creation.

Okay, you did

say that.

Yes, but yeah,

no, I think.

Okay, so if this

is what work was

meant, let me pause

because before we

transition to the

rest of this

class, any

further questions?

I have tried to

take a few as we

went along.

No?

Okay.

I'm going to write

it down to daylight

savings.

People are still

booting.

It's still 840.

It's 840.

Yes, Sarah.

Yes.

Just to provide a

perspective to

like maybe thinking

about the scope of

work as broader

than just vocation,

but, you know,

some of like,

let's say,

I'm hearing people

and other things

just to throw some

kind of other

perspectives out

there.

Yeah, so.

I mean, all that

falls under what

you said, but just

to kind of make it

explicit.

So, no, I agree.

We will notice it

says nothing about,

I mean, even though

we are enjoined to

benefit from the

work, it says

nothing about being

paid for the work.

And so sometimes

people are like,

ah, if the work

I'm not paid is

volunteer, like being

a stay-at-home

parent.

Well, you could

even say that the

Bible shows that

that is really work.

There was a stay-at-home

parent who was

actually paid to be

a stay-at-home parent

in Scripture.

Do you know who

that is?

Somebody who was

paid to be a

parent.

Was it Moses'

parents?

Exactly.

Moses' mom was

paid to be a

mom.

In some way, like,

so if you argue

that, like, it's

not paid, well, it

has been paid in

Scripture.

And, like, I

mean, for those of

us who work, who

keep our kids in

daycare, we pay

people to care for

our kids.

So even though

there's not

necessarily a, to

your point, a

financial exchange

in that, like, this

is work.

Because even

children are the

gifts of God, and

we are called to

cultivate them in

some way.

I mean, we use

different words

because they are

human beings.

But in the way

of the Lord, and

that creative

cultivation that

is done as

parents is part of

God's design for

work.

Even though you

could argue that

because it's a

special class, we

call it something

else.

We call it

parenting.

But it is as

much work as

regular work as

most people who

have kids will

attest.

I think from a

worldly standpoint,

being a stay-at-home

mom for a number of

years, raising my

kids, I had to

finally realize,

instead of always

defending myself,

like, you know,

people would say,

oh, it must be

nice.

Yeah, it's a joy.

You know, it's

wonderful.

Was that the day

that my value is

equated to a

paycheck written by

someone of this

world totally

negates my value as

a child of God.

And there's no

connection.

And when you can

finally, when I

could, at least me,

could finally,

clearly, I stopped

defending myself as,

well, I'm not

working right now,

but I will again

someday.

I've been working

since the day I was

born, and I will

until the day I die

for God's glory.

And that's all I was

doing.

And that was really

important for me.

So, you know, when

you say what the

work is, it's all

for His glory.

And it's, we

benefit from us,

but He didn't have

to give us all

those benefits that

He gave us.

He could have

said, I don't want

you to eat anything

out of the garden.

Just go and take

care of it in order

to get the dog

else to get it.

Exactly.

I mean, but,

you know, in our

sin, obviously,

that's the whole

other part.

We mess it all

up.

Yeah.

Okay.

Even like

retirement, you

know, just

different phases

of life work can

take a very

different picture

than just, you

know, plan-clied

vocation or

whatever we think

of traditionally,

just calling that

out.

I agree.

Yes, ma'am?

And parenting

is not the most

important.

It's certainly

most important,

very important,

and,

it's 24,

you know,

24-7,

but it's,

it's, yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's the

most important

thing that we

are called,

I think we are

the most,

it's the most

important thing

that we are

called to do

because everything

else we have

to do are

dealing with

things that

will pass away.

But the souls

of the kids

that we are

giving are

eternal.

Like, we are

human beings

and caring for

people,

actually, I

would say,

maybe more

extendedly,

right?

Like, people

are the one

eternal thing

that we walk

around and

exchange,

and engage

with, and I

think engaging

with eternal,

I think, is

definitely important.

All right, so,

if this is the

design for work,

we can see that

there are many

elements of this

design that

still resonate,

or still,

we can think

about as we

consider work

today.

Even though

sin has

corrupted,

sin in its,

sin actually

corrupts much

of what was

God's original

design for

work.

If we go

back to the

list that I

had, right,

like, what

did it mean?

That, you

know, the

idea that

work is good

is corrupted

by sin,

like people

think, and

there is

work that

is evil,

and it's

evil because,

you know,

men have in

their desire

for some of

the other

characteristics of

good work

have corrupted

the goodness

that is in

work.

work being

good is

corrupted by

sometimes,

like,

meaningless

work,

droning on

work, or,

you know,

we probably

have, like,

working in

sweatshops,

or labor

that the

corruption of

sin has

seeped into

God's design.

Work being

really fruitful,

so if we see

the garden,

the Bible

talks about

God planting

a garden that

yielded so

much fruit,

and then Adam

was just called

to tend,

and then after

they sinned,

the first thing

God tells Adam

is that the

ground will no

longer be

fruitful,

that by the

sweat of his

brow, the

idea that we

sometimes labor

so much to

produce only

very little,

that is a

function of

sinning, and

it's a reality

that we still

live in today.

I think our

desire to

define and

create our

work, it is

the mantra of

today.

You can be

everything you

ever wanted to

be, like, your

mind is the

limitation.

You can, of

course, identify

the good that

people are trying

to point to

in some of

that, like,

John also

mentioned in

this class about

being good

cultural critics

that recognizing

the good in

some of these

things, and yet

the corruption

of sin, but

yet, as we

find out in the

garden, that is

actually not

true.

We are

designed to

be all that

God calls us

to be, and

the work is

figuring out

what God

calls us to

be.

I think there's

a quote, I

forgot to look

it up, that

Einstein said,

or it's attributed

to Einstein, that

if a fish spends

all his time

trying to, like,

climb a tree,

you may think

he was made

for nothing,

but that's

because that's

not where the

fish was designed

to operate.

And so some

of that idea

of recognizing

the constraints

of which the

work that we

have been

called to do,

what God

has called us

to do is

where work

has always

been fruitful

and flourish.

everybody has

different work,

you know,

everybody is

important, so

somebody is

saying mindless

work, but

everybody is

different.

Yeah, that's

fair.

Beth?

It seems

like work is

sort of this

way of

participation in

creation, and

when we are

working as

unto the

Lord, or we

think working

pre-fall

mentality, it

sort of is

both an

expanding of

us and a

cultivating of

us, as well

as expanding

and cultivating

God's created

order.

I think we

like, we

grow, I guess

would be a

simple way to

say that.

I think what

seems to enter

in through the

fall is

exploitation.

Like, even

when we're

toiling and

it's not

yielding much

harvest,

it's sort

of like

exploiting, and

then when we

think about the

interpersonal power

dynamics and

whatnot, there's

often just that

entrance of

exploitation as

opposed to

cultivating.

Yeah.

I think that's

fair.

I think that

sense of

exploitation, I

think, connects

quite well to

this idea of

not all the

often results

when we are

trying to get

everything we

can from the

work that we

do.

But the idea

that, like I

mentioned, work

had originally

always been

designed in

some way for

there to be a

part of our

work that is

not really for

us or about

us.

And I think

in relating to

that, I think

your point around

exploitation and

where some of

that comes from

and a desire to

grab and hold

on to everything

that we can, I

think definitely

stems from

that.

Yes,

Christina.

Could we

also expand

the topic of

children to

spiritual children

and discipleship

for those who

don't have

children and

yeah, kind

of outside of

them?

Yeah, I

think so.

But in that

case, you

could even

think about

that work

as almost

directly spiritual

work, which

we would

actually recognize

today as

spiritual work

of people who

disciple others.

In some

churches, they

even have

positions of

spiritual director

or something.

So, yes, we

can because we

already do so

in any case.

Okay.

All right.

So, we were

talking about

other ways in

which sin

corrupts God's

grand design.

I think I was

talking about the

idea that we are

the masters of

our own work and

I think this idea

is a sinful

idea.

We are created

to work as God

calls us to

work and we

need to be

figuring out

what does that

mean to be

called.

And again, that

I think is a

topic we will

discuss in the

next class.

Work also, as

Keller talks

about in his

book, becomes

selfish.

It becomes all

about us.

It downstream

of that idea

of being

masters.

And he uses

the Tower of

Babel as an

example of that

selfish, self-oriented,

self-glorifying

element of work

that was not

designed in the

beginning.

And so, over

the course of

this class, we

will talk about

this part of

work, like

going into detail

and how work

has been

corrupted and

how then

ultimately landing

at how the

gospel redeems

work.

The gospel

gives us a

new narrative

for work and

a new power

and a new

purpose for the

work that we do.

And maybe to

the point that

I mentioned

earlier, in

the gospel, and

that's the

addendum to the

definition of

work that I

said in the

beginning, in

the gospel we

see work

repeatedly being

talked about in

the context of

service to

others.

And so, you

could argue that

it is sort of

embedded in that

creative cultivation

that I defined

earlier, but it's

not as explicit.

That work is

continuing this

work of God's

creative cultivation.

work in the

service of

others.

And that lens

of working to

serve others is

a lens that we

will come back

to in the

final phase of

the purpose of

work.

Paul admonishes

he that steals

should steal no

longer, but

work with his

hands.

Not so that he

can stop stealing

to satisfy, but

so that he may

have something to

give.

Because actually

working was a

way to transform

stealing from

taking to give

everything.

Because work is

meant to be done

in service of

others.

In fact, we

will talk about

that in the

latter part of

the class, about

the gospel's

redemption of

work.

So, yes

ma'am.

God doesn't like

pride.

Very, very

against God.

So, somebody

working for, you

know, for

pride, yeah,

God doesn't like

pride.

Yeah, no,

absolutely.

And that embracing

that humility that

comes with work is

also something that,

to Julia's point,

the New Testament

picks up.

I think Paul

mentions, I

think it's in

Thessalonians,

like, you know,

aspire to live a

quiet life and to

work with your

hands.

Not because

working with your

hands, in some

way that, because

in that culture

working with our

hands was seen

as, you know,

second grade to

working with your

minds in the

Greek and the

Roman culture of

the day.

And so that

humbling aspect of

the humility that

comes with service,

I think is

something that is

part of the new

narrative of how

we should think

about work.

So I think I

will end there

unless there are

more questions.

Yes, Richard.

If work is good,

and I agree,

is unemployment

a great evil?

I think it would

depend on what

the drivers of

the unemployment

are.

Yeah, I think

it depends.

What's causing

the unemployment?

Well, most

economists would

agree that a

certain level of

unemployment is

desirable.

Yeah, I think

that that is,

I don't know

then that it's,

so I think it

depends on how

you define

unemployment and

the context in

which when they

talk about

unemployment, I

think they

generally talk

about paid

employment.

So unemployment

in that regard

maybe you could

debate, but

whether you are

paid or not,

people who work

at home, I

don't think are

technically, I

don't know how

they are accounted

for in the

unemployment numbers,

but we've talked

about, right,

like that is still

work in God's

eyes.

So I don't

know.

I think there's

a clear yes or

no to that answer.

I think it

really depends on

the kind of

the unemployment

and the

reasons for it.

Oh yeah,

that's true.

That's also a

reason why people

can be unemployed.

All right,

well, thank you

for coming.

If you have any

questions, happy to

stay behind till

10 and answer

them, but

otherwise we'll

see you next

week.