A Gracious Perspective on WorkExemplo

Instrumental Value

Your daily work has value to God, to others, and to you. There are two levels of value to work—the Instrumental Value and the Intrinsic Value. The Instrumental Value of our work is defined this way: Our work accomplishes another, deeper goal that is instrumental to the value of the work. This could include survival, but it can also include the ability to support ministry or to take advantage of business relationships to share one’s faith.

While these are important results of work, the danger is to see these as the only value to work and bypass the value of the work itself. This perspective diminishes the role of business in God’s Kingdom work and replaces it with a view that a person can only make their mark for God in “full-time” ministry. That perspective believes that only full-time ministry is the “front lines” of God’s Kingdom work and everyday business is a supporting role and not really where the action is. 

The writers of both the Old Testament and the New Testament would vehemently disagree with this view. Going all the way back to Genesis chapter 1, we see that God designed His creation to be given to man to “tend His garden.” Man was to be productive naming the animals and having dominion over them and over God’s creation. This was prior to the Fall of Adam. Man was to work alongside God to care for what He had brought into existence. In Genesis 2, we see that Eve was brought into the work picture as a partner to Adam. 

In Genesis 3, where we see the consequences to sin, work—which was not meant to be a punishment but a privilege—was also affected by sin. However, work itself still maintained its importance beyond the instrumental value. All valid work was sacred to God and it was intended to be a place of sacred service to Him. Our work was given to us by God to be a blessing in partnership with Him, to play a role in building up His Kingdom. 

This is a calling worthy of doing well.