Why do you work? Most would say they work to make a living, but is there more to work than earning a paycheque?

This was a question that Pastor Benny Ho posed to more than 600 participants at the first-ever Christian Adult Educators Conference organised by Salt&Light on February 18.

Speaking on the topic of Integrating Faith and Work, the Senior Pastor of Faith Community Church in Perth shared that the idea of working merely for a paycheque originated from Adam Smith, who has long been considered the father of modern economics.

“He postulated the idea that people work for pay, nothing more, nothing less. His belief in the power of incentives therefore led him to argue for work to be divided into simple, easily repeatable, essentially meaningless units,” he explained.

“And that was the start of the Industrial Revolution.”

However, while the shift from farms to factories allowed work to be done more efficiently, it did not necessarily make work more creative or more meaningful, he argued.

“Smith was mistaken about our attitudes and aspirations regarding work. I have a feeling that it is in every man to want to find a lot more meaning in our work than just getting a paycheque.”

The theology of work

In what he called “the theology of work”, Ps Benny offered four biblical reasons why work has a purpose beyond just allowing us to pay our bills.

1. Work is a command from God

God is a worker who did the work of creation. So, as people created in God’s image, work should give us a sense of fulfilment and meaning.

Since the beginning of time, God commanded us to work. In Genesis 2:15, God took man, put him in the garden of Eden and commanded him to “work it and to take care of it”.

Ps Benny said: “Work existed before the entrance of sin into the world. Sin came in in Genesis 3. So work was not the result of Adam’s fall. It was God-ordained, something He gave men to occupy his days, for Man’s good.”

It was only when sin came into the world that work became a form of toil, he noted. 

When God gave the Law to the Israelites in Exodus 34:21, He repeated His command to work for six days (and rest on the seventh).

Since work is a command from God, we should give God our very best and work with a spirit of excellence, said Ps Benny. “When you do work and do it well, your work becomes a career.”

2. Work is a means of sanctification

Through our work, we can grow as disciples of Christ, said Ps Benny.

In Romans 8:28-29, God talks about His ultimate goal for us: To be conformed to the image of His Son. Often, He uses our work to form us as disciples.

Ps Benny said: “It’s very easy to be godly on Sunday in church. It’s only on Monday when we go back to work that we have to deal with temptation, issues of submission, issues of relationship.

“It is in the workplace that we are forced to make discipleship decisions. It’s in the course of interacting with people who don’t share the same value system as us that our discipleship should shine.

“I think God gave us work for that purpose.”

3. Work is a platform for ministry

There has long been a divide between faith and work, said Ps Benny.

In Australia, where he has been a Pastor for over two decades, there is a privatisation of faith, which is the mindset that “faith should be kept within the church and the home”, he explained.

“Faith has become a private thing. It’s something so personal that you should not even talk about it. Faith is seen to be, at best, a distraction; at worse, a hinderance to profit maximisation.”

But faith should not be kept out of the workplace. In Matthew 5, Jesus called His disciples to be salt and light in the world, which includes not just our church and our homes, but our workplaces too, noted Ps Benny.

This is especially important because we spend up to 40% of our lives at work.

Said Ps Benny: “It’s your work that puts you in touch with people that I, as a pastor, may never meet. Your work is a platform for you to carry out the ministry of reconciliation, for you to be salt and light.

“Your workplace is your church and your workmate is your congregation. Your work is your service. If your work is divorced from your witness, then something is missing, because we are there for that purpose.”

4. Work is a vehicle to transform society

Through our work, we can engage culture and transform society, said Ps Benny.

He added that through work in seven arenas – arts and entertainment; business, science and technology; communications and media; divine institutions and religion; education and schools; family and homes; and government and leadership – believers are to “point people to a better Kingdom and introduce people to a better King”.

“Therefore, we go to work not just to make a living but to make a difference, and to be salt and light to transform the marketplace for Christ,” he said.

The Seven Arenas, or Seven Mountains, with the Kingdom of God in the centre.

“If I could give you our purpose, it is two-fold: Number one is to intentionally live out Kingdom values, to bring about Kingdom culture in the marketplace.

“Number two is to intentionally influence others towards Christ, share the Gospel with them,” he continued.

“As salt, we bring in values. But as light, we confront darkness.”

Ps Benny ended with an appeal: “Pastors and church leaders do not hold the authority in the cities where change must originate. Business and government leaders hold the authority.

“Until we in the church equip and release the apostles in the marketplace or the workplace, we will never see our cities transformed for Jesus Christ.

“Dr Billy Graham said, ‘I believe one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the marketplace.’ I think he’s absolutely right.”

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