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As Christians, we approach work as a reflection of who we are in Christ. We know that one of the many aspects of sin’s spoiling effect in this world is the corruption of our labor. What was originally designed as a good and fruitful blessing for all (Gen. 2:15), we now experience as toil and hardship—the curse of thorn and thistle (3:17–19). For those of us who have been redeemed from the curse of sin by the gracious blood of Christ, our experience of work in this fallen world remains difficult, but we are not without hope. In Christ, we have everything we need to navigate the thorns and thistles of our various callings with God-honoring purpose and clarity.
To help us chart a healthy way forward in reclaiming God’s good gift of work, we would do well to consider Paul’s exhortations in Colossians 3:23–24: “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.” In these verses, we see the foundational truth that our work is an act of worship to the Lord—ultimately, it is He whom we are serving and from whom we will receive our reward. This worshipful mindset moves us to honor God and reflect Him in our work. It helps us keep Christ at the center of it all, shaping our posture and our purpose as we care for His creation through the good vocations He has given us.
The Christian’s Posture at Work
Whatever our experience with the workforce may be, whether as employee, as volunteer, or even on the opposite side as customer or client, it’s no secret that people bring a range of attitudes and dispositions to their jobs. We’ve all probably encountered a colleague or employee whose heart just wasn’t in it, someone who truly embodied the “working for the weekend” mindset. Or, on the other hand, perhaps you’re more familiar with the type of person who cares too much about work. Idleness at work isn’t his problem, but idolatry of work certainly is. As followers of Christ, where do we fit in on this spectrum? Looking more closely at Colossians 3:23–24, we can gain helpful insights into what a mature Christian’s posture at work should be.
The first attribute we see is diligence. “Whatever you do, work heartily” (Col. 3:23). With a Christ-centered mentality, we know that whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the Lord—so work hard. Trust that God has you where He wants you, that He means for you to be a blessing to those around you, and that He has the power to equip you for every good endeavor to which He calls you. Now, confident of these truths, be diligent and work with all your heart. Scripture often cites hard work as a key attribute of one who is wisely walking in the way of the Lord. In Proverbs, for example, we are told, “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense” and “the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (Prov. 12:11; 13:4). When God is at the center of our work, He is glorified by our diligent, hearty effort.
Another attribute that flows from Colossians 3:23–24 is integrity. While the word isn’t explicitly stated in the passage, the clear inference is that our work ought to be aligned with the Lord. Since we are working “for the Lord” and “serving the Lord Christ,” it stands to reason that the means and outcomes of our work exemplify Jesus. If your posture at work is to lie, cheat, and steal your way to a successful quarterly report, you may be pleasing your stockholders, but you are certainly not pleasing the Lord. Serving Christ means living in a manner worthy of His gospel (Phil. 1:27). To this end, meditating on Philippians 4:8 can be a helpful way to calibrate our thoughts and actions on a daily basis: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If our hearts and minds are filled with what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent, then exemplifying God-honoring integrity in the workplace will be our natural overflow.
One last attribute to highlight as a commendable posture for a Christian at work is excellence. Here, we are again drawing a necessary inference from the twin truths that we are called to “work heartily” and that we are ultimately “serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23–24). As long as we are not working in a sinful occupation that inherently harms others or dishonors God, we can be sure that God has a good purpose for us in our labor and that we should be encouraged to work with excellence to honor Him. “Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength” (Eccl. 9:10, CSB). In this context, strength is not merely limited to power or might; working with all my strength also implies striving to do the best I can—endeavoring for excellence. A parallel verse in Titus encourages Christians to embrace good, faithful work, “so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:10). Here we see good work pictured as an outward expression of our inward gospel transformation and renewal. Simply put, we do not adorn the gospel with shoddy, careless work on the jobsite. We glorify God and adorn His gospel by honoring Him with excellent work.
The Christian’s Purpose at Work
If diligence, integrity, and excellence can be considered healthy postures for Christians at work, it should be apparent that these are not mere outward ornamentation. These are just a sampling of the natural overflow that comes from the power of the Spirit’s working in us to transform us into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). These are the good fruits that come forth when we, the branches, abide in Jesus, the Vine (John 15:5). If we are rooted in Jesus in this way, He defines our identity and gives true purpose to our lives. As it helps us live out these God-honoring postures at work, Colossians 3:23–24 also shows us God’s true purpose for us in our work.
In calling us to work “as for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23), Paul isn’t just teaching us about who our ultimate boss is. To be clear, he is teaching us about that—more on that soon—but in this verse, Paul is also helping us see that our purpose in working for the Lord is to reflect Him in this world. God is the source and authority of our calling, so it makes sense that it should be shaped by His standards, not our earthly boss’s. Whatever our job, our work should manifest a gospel culture, because we’re the ones doing it. Similar to how the postures of diligence, integrity, and excellence “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:10), when we bring a clear understanding of our calling into the arenas of work and service in which God has placed us and we “walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16) as we enter that holy work, we reflect Christ and adorn His gospel in the world. In a sense, this is the same mandate that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden when He created them as image bearers and called them to represent Him as subrulers over creation: “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’” (Gen. 1:28). As Adam and Eve worked and tended the garden, stewarding God’s creation under His ultimate authority, they were to be a reflection of His goodness and His glory. Sin tainted their mission, but the plan still remains: We are called to bless the world by stewarding the work that God has given us, reflecting His goodness and glory as we bear His image and proclaim His kingdom (Acts 28:31).
In addition to reflecting Christ, we are called to serve Christ in our work. Paul charges us to “work heartily, as for the Lord” (Col. 3:23), and in case that wasn’t stated clearly enough, he adds, “You are serving the Lord Christ” one verse later (v. 24). Anyone who has had the demoralizing experience of working for a bad boss or feeling stuck in a menial job should take comfort in these verses. Even when our earthly experience of work is less than satisfying—remember the cursed effect of sin on our work—we can find ultimate joy and fulfillment in knowing that we are doing the Lord’s work. Every seemingly random task, role, or responsibility we have matters and has true purpose in Christ. Keeping Him at the center helps us remember that our work—whether it’s building widgets, crunching numbers, or helping the needy—is an act of worship unto the Lord. It all matters, so serve Christ with your whole heart and then go and get a good night’s sleep.
As we reflect and serve Christ in our work, another aspect of our purpose at work has to do with our reward. Many say to pick a job you’d enjoy doing even if you weren’t being paid for it, but that’s not very realistic. We all have bills to pay and mouths to feed, and it’s reasonable to expect an appropriate wage for good work (1 Tim. 5:18). But in Colossians 3:24, Paul has a much better reward in mind as he encourages us to honor God in our work, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.” Again, the focus is not on our earthly boss, job description, or paycheck. Paul’s point in all this is that our lives—including our work—belong to God and should be joyfully devoted in worship to Him. Even before he focused in on our work lives, Paul set the overall tone in this passage when he wrote, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). In Colossians 3, we have a guide to a life of worship in which the Word of Christ dwells in us richly (v. 16), transforming us inwardly and overflowing into outward expressions (or postures) of word or deed. As we trust in God’s plan to use our lives as a blessing to others through our jobs and vocations, Colossians 3:24 reminds us that our pay scale is set according to God’s economy, not ours. A right understanding of God’s purpose for us in our work should lift our eyes upward to an eternal inheritance and a heavenly reward, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt. 6:20). Whatever our work or wages may be, we will experience true satisfaction only if we find our reward in Christ. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 21).