To Do List

^"27'Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.' ²⁸Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' ²⁹Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'" Jn. 6:27-29

What if God wasn’t at the top of the list, but was the entire list? Denis Haack explains the often mistaken Christian view of work asserting that many Christians justify all of the things and activities on their lists in terms of spiritual goals. Haack bothers me with his Biblical statement that, “Our careers (a term adopted from the world) are seen as secular but able to provide opportunities to do spiritual things, like evangelism rather than seeing our work itself as spiritual.” The Puritan William Perkins summarized the biblical teaching correctly when he said, “The main end of our lives. . . is to serve God in the serving of men in the works of our callings.” Does not the listing of priorities (even with God graciously placed at the top) seem like a completely inappropriate Christian perspective on our calling as created beings? Let’s consider work from a truly biblical perspective before we buy in to the worldly notions of the role of work in our lives (as if they were really ours anyways).