We spend a lot of time at work. So if I now have a wrong rela­ti­onship with work, this has devas­ta­ting con­se­quen­ces. Alt­hough work has its ori­gin in God hims­elf, it is also sub­ject to the effects of sepa­ra­ti­on from God. The result is hard work with many chal­lenges. A gre­at dan­ger of work is that we make our iden­ti­ty depen­dent on our work. Work as wor­ship quick­ly beco­mes the wor­ship of work. But as a fol­lower of Jesus, it is not work that is the source of my iden­ti­ty, but Jesus Christ. If I have a name with God, then I don’t have to make one for mys­elf through my work. My iden­ti­ty lies in the fact that I am part of the roy­al priest­hood of God.

Last Sun­day we loo­ked at the digni­ty of work and rea­li­sed that we spend ¼ of the week doing it. I would the­r­e­fo­re ven­ture the hypo­the­sis that a fal­se rela­ti­onship with our work has devas­ta­ting effects. Just as a posi­ti­ve rela­ti­onship can have a gre­at attraction.

The curse of labour 

God hims­elf is the aut­hor of the work. But the con­di­ti­ons have chan­ged. In the text rea­ding, we heard the con­se­quen­ces of sepa­ra­ti­on from God. It has a major impact on the area of labour. Hard labour and pain­ful labour pains are the result. In some lan­guages the­re is the same word for both, for exam­p­le «labour» in Eng­lish. Labour is no lon­ger just a form of wor­ship, it is also neces­sa­ry in order to survive.

Work is not a cur­se in its­elf, but it is under the cur­se of sin. Sin means the effects of sepa­ra­ti­on, which result in miss­ing the goal of work, which would be: work is wor­ship of God. Expe­ri­en­ces of frus­tra­ti­on are nor­mal! Part of the effect was «Thorns and thist­les will grow on it, but you must feed on the plants of the field» (Gene­sis 3:18 NLB). Thorns and thist­les sym­bo­li­se toil, lack of pur­po­se, lack of app­re­cia­ti­on, nega­ti­ve effects on health, etc. The­se can also be descri­bed as the cur­se of labour. Even if you are in the right place, thorns and thist­les are unfort­u­na­te­ly part of the job. Important: Work its­elf is not a cur­se, it is rather a bles­sing. But the cur­se is the worry, toil, frus­tra­ti­on, sweat and fati­gue asso­cia­ted with work.

Then the­re is the loss of mea­ning in work. I often no lon­ger work becau­se I want to make mys­elf useful to other peo­p­le, but only for mys­elf. The Pre­a­cher alre­a­dy wro­te about such work: «Life was com­ple­te­ly rui­ned for me, becau­se it’s all so point­less, like try­ing to catch the wind» (Eccle­si­as­tes 2:17 NLB). The fruits of labour fade, and at some point my per­for­mance is also for­got­ten. If work is now point­less for me, I try to find mea­ning. Be it in reco­gni­ti­on from peo­p­le, a good wage, sta­tus, the phra­se «still bet­ter than…» or out­side of work in lei­su­re time, con­sump­ti­on, tra­vel­ling, pos­ses­si­ons, sport, etc. This is becau­se our work has an impact on our self-worth. If my work is not respec­ted, then I feel bad and have to com­pen­sa­te. If my work is high­ly regard­ed, my nose goes up and I tend to show off. It’s dif­fi­cult to tell the dif­fe­rence from the out­side, but the­re are dif­fe­rent moti­ves behind it. But: the dis­ap­point­ment that we humans expe­ri­ence on earth becau­se of work has the poten­ti­al to detach us from work and lon­gin­gly seek God.

Self-esteem through work

What hap­pens when this does not hap­pen is exem­pli­fied by the sto­ry of the Tower of Babel in the ele­venth chap­ter. The path of work up to this point was cha­rac­te­ri­sed by work as the cul­ti­va­ti­on of crea­ti­on (Gene­sis 1–2) and by the fact that tech­no­lo­gy was used as a means to power (Gene­sis 4). Until now, the decis­i­on to build a tower. «And they said one to ano­ther, Go on, let us lay bricks and burn them. – And they took bricks for stone and ear­then res­in for mortar, say­ing: Come, let us build our­sel­ves a city and a tower, who­se top may reach to hea­ven, that we may make a name for our­sel­ves; for other­wi­se we shall be scat­te­red abroad over the face of the who­le earth» (Gene­sis 11:3–4 LUT). They wan­ted to make a name for them­sel­ves through their work. In other words, they wan­ted to con­s­truct an iden­ti­ty. «If you have to make a name for yours­elf, you don’t have one, which means you don’t know who you are» (Timo­thy Kel­ler). Eit­her we humans get a name or we have to make one. Sin­ce we spend ¼ of our time working on avera­ge, it makes sen­se to want to earn a name here. The peo­p­le buil­ding the tower atta­ched a reli­gious value to their work. They sought their hap­pi­ness in the fruits of their labour.

Work as wor­ship has beco­me wor­ship of work. This is also the case with us! That’s why it’s important to have a job with a high pro­fi­le, one that pro­mi­ses a lot of money, pres­ti­ge and/or influence. If work has the wrong prio­ri­ty, important things, espe­ci­al­ly rela­ti­onships, fall by the way­si­de: rela­ti­onships with work col­le­agues, spou­ses, child­ren, fri­ends and, abo­ve all, with God. «A man who lives alo­ne and has neither a child nor a brot­her and no fri­ends or acquain­tances. He works as much as he can and always wants more. Should­n’t he ask hims­elf: «Who am I actual­ly working for? Why don’t I allow mys­elf any plea­su­re? That too is point­less and a was­te of time» (Eccle­si­as­tes 4:8 NLB). Ever­yo­ne is in dan­ger of tur­ning work into an idol. Defi­ni­ti­on of idol: expec­ting secu­ri­ty, safe­ty, mea­ning, satis­fac­tion and beau­ty from some­thing that is not God. But only God can do this. I the­r­e­fo­re make some­thing good my hig­hest. «Whoe­ver sows on the soil of his sel­fi­sh natu­re will reap des­truc­tion as the fruit of his sel­fi­sh­ness. On the other hand, tho­se who sow in the soil of God’s Spi­rit will reap eter­nal life as the fruit of the Spi­rit» (Gala­ti­ans 6:8 New Tes­ta­ment). The­se things are not only visi­ble, but also in our hearts (Eze­kiel 14:17). So if work is my idol and I even do it suc­cessful­ly, then this has an impact. I then have the fee­ling that I have a clue ever­y­whe­re and about ever­y­thing. But it’s exact­ly the same the other way round: if peo­p­le are not suc­cessful at work, they are denied com­pre­hen­si­ve exper­ti­se. If work is my idol, then pro­fes­sio­nal suc­cess sedu­ces me and sud­den­ly makes me crea­ti­ve in exploi­ting other people’s limi­ta­ti­ons and much more. Then I do a lot of things that are legal at best, but still bor­der­line. Next time we will look at the gos­pel of work – how we can make a dif­fe­rence. But if work defi­nes my value, then I will expe­ri­ence a cri­sis of mea­ning at the latest when I reti­re or when the child­ren move out. After all, how can I make a name for mys­elf if not through work?

True identity

Identity/having a name does not come from some­thing I can «earn». Iden­ti­ty is not defi­ned by my work as a tea­cher, pas­tor, archi­tect, carer, etc. But wit­hout the gos­pel of Jesus Christ, we are con­dem­ned to work not for the joy of ser­ving others or for the sake of the work its­elf, but to make a name for our­sel­ves, an iden­ti­ty. But as a fol­lower of Jesus, I don’t need to make a name for mys­elf, becau­se «[…] And I will give him a white stone, and a new name will be writ­ten on the stone, which no one will know except the one who recei­ves it» (Reve­la­ti­on 2:17 NLB). The new name is an essen­ti­al part of being rede­e­med from the stan­dards of this world. It is a sign of the rene­wal of the per­son and the being through the rela­ti­onship with God. We alre­a­dy see this with Abram to Abra­ham, Jacob to Isra­el or Simon to Peter. The redemp­ti­on from the stan­dards of this world, i.e. the can­cel­la­ti­on of sepa­ra­ti­on, was accom­plished by Jesus Christ. I can­not work this out for mys­elf. But God can and has done it! «[…] But thou hast made me labour with thy sins, and hast made me toil with thi­ne ini­qui­ties. I, I blot out your trans­gres­si­ons for my own sake and do not remem­ber your sins» (Isai­ah 43:24–25 LUT). Sin is when I make an idol for mys­elf – as alre­a­dy men­tio­ned: making some­thing good into the hig­hest. But we are often blind to our own idols. Why don’t you ask your spou­se or good fri­ends, they will cer­tain­ly be hap­py to help you. If this feed­back or some­thing at work leads you into a cri­sis, don’t let it pass you by unu­sed. Cri­ses are not a bad thing, they help us to matu­re spi­ri­tual­ly. Becau­se beco­ming more like Jesus Christ is a lifel­ong pro­cess. «I am quite sure that God, who has begun his good work in you, will con­ti­nue and com­ple­te it until the day when Christ Jesus returns» (Phil­ip­pians 1:6 NLB).

Do you have a name with God or do you have to make one for yours­elf? I would like to invi­te you to rep­ent. To rep­ent from a fal­se iden­ti­ty that does­n’t hold up. To turn away from the defi­ni­ti­on of «being bet­ter» at work. Not a defi­ni­ti­on of good work, good pay, but bet­ter work than … or bet­ter pay than .… To rep­ent of things in which you have made some­thing good the hig­hest. In the Bible, anoin­ting with oil is a sign for kings and priests. Anoin­ting with oil is the­r­e­fo­re a sign of roy­al priest­hood (1 Peter 2:9) and the­r­e­fo­re of iden­ti­ty as a fol­lower of Jesus. Anoin­ting is a sign that God gives you a name, an iden­ti­ty – and not your work. This mor­ning the­re is an offer of anoin­ting. I would like to invi­te you to be anoin­ted. In doing so, you are expres­sing your con­scious decis­i­on not to make a name for yours­elf. It is a tur­ning away from the idol of work or ano­ther idol and an acti­ve tur­ning to God. It cer­tain­ly takes over­co­ming. A heart­felt invi­ta­ti­on to over­co­me, becau­se cer­tain things are rein­forced by the action. Per­haps it does not cor­re­spond to your form of pie­ty. Then it is a heart­felt invi­ta­ti­on to a sym­bo­lic action on your who­le per­son. It is an affir­ma­ti­on of your iden­ti­ty as part of the roy­al priest­hood. It is an affir­ma­ti­on of your iden­ti­ty as a bel­oved daugh­ter or son of God.

Possible questions for the small group

Read Bible text: Gene­sis 3:16–19 & Reve­la­ti­on 2:17

1. Whe­re do you reco­g­ni­se the dan­ger of making your iden­ti­ty and self-worth depen­dent on work?
2. What «thorns and thist­les» (frus­tra­ti­on, effort, lack of reco­gni­ti­on, over­load …) do you expe­ri­ence in your work? How do you deal with them?
3. In which moments or pat­terns do you reco­g­ni­se that work can beco­me an «idol»? What are your per­so­nal war­ning signs?
4. What does it mean to you that God gives you a «new name» (Reve­la­ti­on 2:17)? How does this chan­ge your view of work and performance?
5. Has the­re been a work-rela­ted cri­sis in your life that has led you clo­ser to God? What did you learn from it?
6. What con­cre­te steps can you take in ever­y­day life to live work more as «wor­ship of God» and less as a source of your identity?