21 Days to Finding Eternal Purpose in Your Daily WorkSample

After a particularly frustrating day at the office, it can be tempting to believe work itself is a curse—a “necessary evil” and consequence of living in a fallen world. But that’s not at all what Scripture teaches.

As we’ve seen over the past two days, God himself worked, thus giving great dignity to our work today. Then, he passed the baton of creation to us to work and “fill the earth” in his image. Genesis 1 and 2 show us that work is inherently dignified and good. Work was designed to be worship.

But—and this is a big but—sin messed everything up. As today’s passage from Genesis 3 makes clear, sin doesn’t just impact our souls and standing before God; it also impacts the material world and the world of work. Because of sin, our work has become “painful toil” as the “thorns and thistles” of fallen creation make our work frustrating and arduous.

Work is not hard because it is inherently bad. Work is hard because we still live in a fallen world.

But the gospel promises that one day, Christ will “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5), including our work. That’s right—I am suggesting we were made to work forever, including in God’s eternal kingdom. It is that truth we will explore more closely tomorrow.