Question of the Week 13 - Besides the money, what's so important about work? (06/27/2003)
(http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Columns/ Worldview_for_Parents/200311/Question_of_the_Week13.htm)

The BreakPoint answer is: Christians see work as a means of serving God and a way, along with prayer, of becoming more and more conformed to the image of God in which we are made. That’s why its such a big deal; its part and parcel of the spiritual life. When we do good work and offer it up to God, we praise God in a way that pleases him.

The standard suggested for our work is that we do it in a way that pleases God.

Another page offers a different perspective on work, that the work performed should be that which pleases the community for which the product is offered. Each of us, as a social creature, is part of our community. What we do and what we make should be beneficial for others. If Jesus had made elegant whale spears that the Inuit would appreciate, he might have done good work and the results might have pleased God but they would not have been used by anyone. The work of Jesus in this case would not be considered ‘good’ though it might have meant his standards and God’s standards. If the fable about something that Jesus made, by his own hand, was really still in use one hundred years later, then he must have made something that was beneficial to others and he did it well enough that others continued to use it. That is clear indication that he did good work. Whether the work pleased God or not is not part of the conclusion.

The importance of our work is related to our economic interaction with others. When we make something with our own hands, we own that output of our labor and we deserve compensation for our labor and/or products. This simple statement is the basis for the human economy and is explained in many libertarian works.

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created - Dec. 2004
last change - 12/31/2004