This is Part One in a two-part study on God’s view of “secular” versus “sacred” work—how God regards work—as opposed to how humans have historically viewed it. God sees all work done for His glory as a ministry.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15, NIV).

Imagine for a moment that Jesus has just completed his three years of training with the disciples. He has been crucified and is now commissioning the 12 to go into the world and disciple the nations. Now imagine him also making this statement to them.

"Dear brothers, it is now time for you to share what you have learned from me. However, as you share with others be sure that you keep what I taught you separate from your work life. The principles I have shared with you only apply in situations outside your work life. Do not make them fit into this context. The miracles you saw in me can only be done in certain situations outside work life. Keep this in mind when thinking about praying for the sick or the lost. These truths will not work in the marketplace."

Sound preposterous? It may, but this is the mindset of many in our world today. To them, the spiritual does not mix with the everyday world of the workplace. "What happens on Monday has no relationship to what takes place on Sunday," they say. These are the thoughts expressed so much in our day and time, although they are not expressed in such direct terms.

Let's think more about this idea. When Jesus came to earth, how did He come? As a carpenter—a man given to work with his hands and to provide an honest service to his fellow man. He did not come as a priest, although He was both a King and a Priest (Rev. 1:6, KJV). When it came time to recruit those for whom the church would be founded, He chose twelve men from the marketplace—a fisherman, a tax collector, a doctor, and so on. They all came from the marketplace.

Interestingly enough, none of his disciples were priests in the Jewish church, which is a natural place to recruit from if you were going to start a religious movement. Jesus called them all from the marketplace of life. Was it any accident that Jesus called men and women from the marketplace to play such a vital role in His mission? I think not.

When God created the earth, He demonstrated something right up front to human beings. He believed in work. He was above all else, the Master Creator. He was an artist, designer, strategic planner, organizer, project developer, assessor, zoologist, biologist, chemist, linguist, programmer, materials specialist, engineer, and waste management technician.

This work did not end when He created man, but it was only the beginning in His continued care for mankind. Whether we call our work "sacred" or "secular," all legitimate work reflects the activity of God. God is honored when we work with the goal of reflecting His life through our life and work. So why and how did society begin to draw a separation between faith and work?

The Great Divide: Elevating the Spiritual at the Expense of the Secular

If you were to conduct a survey on an average city street, asking whether people thought religion belonged in the workplace, chances are high that they would say no. Most people today see no relevance between God and work in today's fast-paced marketplace. Why is this? Why do many Christians even believe this? Well, it goes back to the early years before the Protestant reformation.

Os Guinness, in his book, The Call, provides us the necessary history of how we got to this segmented view of work and life.

“The truth of calling means that for followers of Christ, "everyone, everywhere, and in everything" lives the whole of life as a response to God's call. Yet, this holistic character of calling has often been distorted to become a form of dualism that elevates the spiritual at the expense of the secular. This distortion may be called the "Catholic Distortion" because it rose in the Catholic era and is the majority position in the Catholic tradition. Protestants, however, cannot afford to be smug. For one thing, countless Protestants have succumbed to the Catholic distortion as Wilberforce nearly did. Ponder for example, the fallacy of the contemporary Protestant term "full-time Christian service"—as if those not working for churches or Christian organizations are only part-time ministers in the service of Christ. For another thing, Protestant confusion about calling has led to a "Protestant distortion" that is even worse. This is a form of dualism in a secular direction that not only elevates the secular at the expense of the spiritual, but also cuts it off from the spiritual altogether."

Therefore, it is understandable why we are where we are today. Over many centuries, we have been trained to believe that the two worlds of spiritual and secular are to be separated. Now it is easier to understand why the separation of church and state is such a debated issue.  

"Full-time" vs. "Part-time"

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:17).

Throughout the church, a view of those in full-time Christian work versus those who work "secular" jobs has created a definite class distinction. There seems to be little evidence of this distinction in the Bible. Yet, we often hear testimonies from those who left their "regular" jobs to go into the mission field, or some other "full-time" Christian work.

My good friend, Rich Marshall, has been a pastor for more than thirty years. He came into this understanding of the walls that existed between the sacred and secular worlds. He came to recognize the calling that men and women had to the workplace, so he began ordaining men and women in his congregation for their calls to the workplace.

Rich came to realize that so often his fellow ministers had been guilty of training those in the marketplace to do the church's ministry instead of their ministry. And these are not necessarily the same, nor do they require the same skills. In his book, God@Work, Rich writes the following regarding two words (clergy and laity) that have brought confusion to the true call of men and women to the marketplace.

Two little words, words that misrepresent God and His plan, have been used by the enemy to bring about the development of a caste system within the Body of Christ—those who are called to "professional ministry" or "full-time ministry": the "clergy"; and those who are not: the "laity." It is my conviction that all of us in the Body of Christ are called to "full-time ministry." When we allow this caste system to disturb our thinking, we create a problem for many who experience the strong call of God on their lives. We need both a terminology and a mindset that works to eliminate the "second-class citizen" concept in the Kingdom of God.

John Beckett is a business leader who has written an excellent book for business leaders: Loving Monday. In it, he tells of his own journey into understanding the call of God. He wrote, "For years, I thought my involvement in business was a second class endeavor—necessary to put bread on the table, but somehow less noble than the more sacred pursuits, like being a minister or a missionary. The clear impression was that to truly serve God, one must leave business and go into 'full-time Christian service.' I have met countless other businesspeople who feel the same way."

The often-held view by pastors toward business people was brought home to me one day when I received a letter from a pastor in response to an internet devotional that I write for men and women in the workplace. This devotional is being distributed throughout the world and I have a surprisingly large number of pastors subscribed to it. One day I received a very simple note from a pastor that said, "How can a businessman have such wisdom?" This comment spoke volumes to me.

Basically, he was implying that clergymen were the only ones in tune with the spiritual matters of life, and businessmen and women are focused on the "secular" life. However, God has never said this. He is now helping many of us begin to understand our true calling as disciples of the Lord Jesus, but with different roles to fulfill in the body of Christ.

And no role is less holy than another.

Copyright by Os Hillman. Used by permission of the author.

Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders (www.oshillman.com), an organization that helps men and women discover their God-ordained calling to their vocations, and he is the director of the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries (icwm.net) which brings leaders in the faith and work movement together once a year at an annual summit. Os has authored several books including TGIF: Today God Is First; Making Godly Decisions; TGIF Small Group Bible Study; and Faith and Work: Do They Mix?