As the “work week” begins remember the biblical view and context of your labors. Tony Payne & Colin Marshall (in their new book The Trellis & The Vine) share this brief summary….

• Working is a good and fundamental part of being human in God’s world. Form the very beginning, mankind was placed in teh garden to work it and to keep it.

• This side of the Fall, work is cursed and frustrating… but it remains good and worthwhile and necessary.

• Christians are strongly motivated to work, not only because of the place of work in creation, but also because work (like any other field of life) is a theatre for our service of Christ. Whatever you do, says Paul to the Colossians, “in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

• At a deep level, when we work at any job, we work for Christ. As Paul goes on to say in Colossians 3, “Whatever you do , work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

• As Christians, we do not work in order to gan self-fulfilment or fame or personal kudos. We work not for ourselves but for others, to serve them, to not be a burden to them, and to have something to share (Eph. 4:28; 1 Tim. 5:8)

• Secular work is thus very valuable, worthwhile and important. But like any good thing, it can become an idol. We can start to look to our work for our significance and value.

[pp. 137-138, emphasis added]