Depending on God (James 1:1-18)

            James begins with the principle that we can trust God to provide for us. “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you” (James 1:5). It is absolutely essential to grasp this. If you doubt that God is the source of all you need, you are what James calls “double-minded.” You have not yet made up your mind whether to follow Christ or not. This makes you “unstable in every way,” and you will not be able to accomplish much for the benefit of anyone, nor able even to “receive anything from the Lord” on your own behalf (James 1:7). James is under no illusions about how hard it can be to trust God. He knows all too well the trials his audience is already beginning to experience throughout the breadth of the Roman Empire (James 1:1-2). Yet he insists that the Christian life must begin with trusting God to provide.

            James immediately applies this to the economic sphere in James 1:9-11. If you are rich you must not delude yourself that this is due to your own effort. If you depend on your own ability, you will “wither away” even while you go about your business. Conversely, if you are poor, do not think this is due to God’s disfavor. Instead, expect to be “raised up” by God. Success or failure comes from many factors beyond yourself. If you’ve ever lost your livelihood due to recession, corporate sale, office relocation, crop failure, discrimination, hurricane damage or a thousand other factors, you can testify to that. God does not promise you economic success at work, nor does he doom you to failure, but he uses both success and failure to develop the perseverance needed to overcome evil.

            Notice that although James contrasts the goodness of God with the evil of the world, he does not allow us to imagine that we are on the side of angels and those around us on the side of devils. Instead, the divide between good and evil runs down the middle of every Christian’s heart. “One is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it” (James 1:14). He is speaking to church members. This should make us very slow to identify church as good and workplace as bad. There is evil in both spheres — as church scandals and business frauds alike remind us — yet by God’s grace we may bring goodness to both.

            In fact, the Christian community is one of the means God uses to raise up the poor. God’s promise to provide for the poor is fulfilled — in part — by the generosity of his people, and their generosity is a direct result of God’s generosity to them. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). This affirms both that God is the ultimate source of provision and that believers are responsible to do all they can to bring God’s provision to those in need.

Working for the Benefit of Others in Need (James 1:22-28)

            This brings us to the second principle of faithful work: working for the benefit of others in need. This principle is a natural consequence of the first principle, trusting in God. If we don’t trust God, we easily confuse working for others with working for our own benefit because our fears skew our perceptions. James calls us to confront our fears head on, facing the trials of our trust directly. When you are facing trials — meaning that you are trusting God, as we have just seen — then let God use those trials to increase your capacity to serve others in need. “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” (James 1:22). If you believe that you trust God (that is, you “hear” God’s word), but that trust does not lead you to act for the benefit of others in need, James suggests you are deceiving yourself. You don’t really trust God. The connection between work and trust is essential, not coincidental. If you don’t work on behalf of others, your inaction may point to a lack of trust. Why? Because if you aren’t working to benefit others, perhaps you are too busy working to benefit yourself. And if you’re busy working to benefit yourself alone, then perhaps you don’t trust God to take care of you. Failure to work for others’ benefit arises from a lack of trust in God. Or, as James puts it, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father [i.e., trust in God] is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). The source of James’s insight seems to be Jesus himself, especially his teachings about the poor and the practical care he showed to a variety of marginalized people.[4] This can be seen, for example, in James’s allusions to Jesus’ teachings regarding the special place of the poor in God’s kingdom (James 2:5/Luke 6:20), along with Jesus’ warnings about rotting treasures “on the earth” (James 5: 1-5/Matt. 6:19).

            This has direct application to work because meeting needs is the number one mark of a successful workplace. A successful organization meets the needs of its customers, employees, shareholders, constituents, students, clients and other stakeholders. This is not James’s primary focus — he is focused particularly on the needs of people who are poor or powerless — but it nonetheless applies. Whenever an organization meets people’s true needs, it is doing God’s work.

            This application is not limited to serving customers in established businesses. It requires even greater creativity — and demonstrates God’s provision even more — when Christians meet the needs of people who are too poor to be customers of established businesses. For example, a group of Christians started a furniture factory in Vietnam to provide jobs for people at the lowest level of the socioeconomic spectrum there. Through the factory, God’s provision meets the needs of both overseas customers and local workers. The overseas customers’ needs are not severe, yet by supplying good furniture at affordable prices, the factory does meet a genuine need they have. The local workers were previously in severe need due to unemployment. The factory has become the chief way God meets their need for provision.[5]

            Christians’ duty does not end with serving the poor and needy through our workplaces. Social structures and political-economic systems strongly affect whether the needs of the poor are met. To the degree that Christians can influence these structures and systems, we have a responsibility to ensure that they meet the needs of  poor and needy people as well as the needs of rich and powerful people.

Faith and Work(s) (James 2:14-26)

            James takes up the topic of work in detail in the second part of chapter 2. He invariably uses the plural “works” (Greek erga) rather than the singular “work” (Greek ergon). This leads some to suppose that James uses “works” to mean something different from “work.” However, erga and ergon are simply plural and singular forms of the same word.[6] James is describing any kind of work, from works of kindness, such as giving food to someone who is hungry, to on-the-job work, such as increasing the sustainable yield of rice paddies. His use of the plural shows that he expects Christians’ work to be continual.

            James’s focus on work has led to deep controversy about the letter. Luther famously disliked James because he read James 2:24 (“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”) to be a contradiction of Galatians 2:16 (“A person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ”). Other leaders of the Protestant Reformation did not share this view, but Luther’s objection came to dominate the Protestant reading of James.[7] Although we cannot go into the long debate about Luther and the book of James here, we can inquire briefly whether James’s emphasis on work is at odds with the Protestant rejection of “justification by works.”

            What does James himself say? James 2:14 is arguably the centerpiece of his argument, so we will consider this section before moving on to James 2:1-13: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?” James bluntly answers his own question by stating, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17) — as dead (as he notes in a carefully chosen example) as someone in desperate need of food who receives only empty words of well-wishing from his neighbor (James 2:15-16). James takes it for granted that believing in Christ (trusting in God) will move you to feel compassion for — and act to help — someone in need.

            We have opportunities every day to meet the needs of people we work for and among. It can be as simple as making sure a customer finds the right item for their need or noticing the

            This is the heart of the book of James. James does not imagine that work is at odds with faith. There can be no “justification by works” because there can be no good works unless there is already faith (trust) in God. James doesn’t mean that faith can exist without works, yet be insufficient for salvation. He means that any “faith” that doesn’t lead to works is dead; in other words, it is no faith at all. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead” (James 2:26). James doesn’t command Christians to work for the benefit of others in need instead of placing faith in Christ, or even in addition to placing faith in Christ. He expects that Christians will work for the benefit of others in need as a result of placing faith in Christ.[8]

            The insight that Christian faith always leads to practical action is in itself a lesson for the workplace. We cannot divide the world into spiritual and practical, for the spiritual is the practical. “You see that [Abraham’s] faith was active along with his works,” James says (James 2:22). Therefore we can never say, “I believe in Jesus and I go to church, but I keep my personal faith out of my work.” That kind of faith is dead. James’ words, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24) challenge us to work out our commitment to Christ in our daily activities.

            The rest of the letter gives practical applications of the two underlying principles of trust in God and working to benefit others in need. Given our assessment of James 2:14-26, we will proceed with the perspective that these applications are outworkings of faith in Christ, valid in James’s day and instructive in ours.

Discriminating Against the Poor and Currying Favor with the Rich (James 2:1-13)

            James applies both of the underlying principles as a warning against favoritism towards the rich and powerful. He begins with the second principle — working for the benefit of others in need. “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin” (James 2:8-9). The sin is that when you favor the rich and powerful, you are serving yourself rather than others. This is because the rich and powerful have the potential to bestow a bit of their riches and power on you. The poor can do nothing for you. But they are the people in need. James illustrates the point by depicting the special treatment a wealthy, well-dressed person might be given in church, while a poor, shabby person is treated with contempt. Even in something as simple as coming to church, the poor are in need of a word of welcome. The rich — being welcomed everywhere — are not in need.

             James draws on Leviticus 19:18 — “love your neighbor as yourself”— to indicate that showing favoritism towards the rich and excluding or slighting the poor is no less an offense against God’s law than murder or adultery (James 2:8-12). Doing this means that either you are not treating your neighbor as yourself, or you are failing even to recognize that a poor person is your neighbor.

            James is talking about church gatherings, but there are workplace applications. At work, you can pay attention to people who can help you or to people who need your help. In a healthy workplace, this might be merely a matter of emphasis. In a dysfunctional workplace — where people are pitted against each other in a struggle for power — it takes courage to stand on the side of the powerless. Refusing to play favorites is especially dangerous when you are faced with socially-entrenched favoritism such as ethnic discrimination, gender stereotyping or religious bigotry.

            Although James couches his argument in terms of working to benefit others in need, this application implicitly raises the principle of trusting in God. If you truly trusted God for your provision, you wouldn’t be tempted to favor the rich and powerful so much. You wouldn’t be afraid to associate yourself with the unpopular crowd at work or school. James is not exhorting you to do good works despite lacking faith in Christ and trusting God’s provision. James is demonstrating how good works are made possible by faith in Christ. Ironically, the poor themselves already live this truth on a daily basis. “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5).[9] The poor are not inheriting the kingdom because they are better people than the rich, but because they put their trust in God. Lacking the means to depend on themselves, or to curry favor with the rich, they have learned to depend on God.

Listening Well and Taming the Tongue (James 1:19-21 and 3:1-12)

            James continues his practical guidance with words about listening (which actually appear at the end of chapter 1, though closely related to chapter 3) and speaking (in chapter 3). Christians need to listen well both to people (James 1:19) and to God (James 1:22-25). “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). You listen, not as a technique to influence anyone else, but as a way to let God’s word “rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness” (James 1:21, emphasis added). Interestingly, James suggests that listening to others — and not just listening to the Bible — is a means of ridding yourself of wickedness. He does not say that other people speak God’s word to you. Instead, he says that listening to others removes the anger and arrogance that keep you from doing God’s word spoken in scripture. “Your anger does not produce God’s righteousness….Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls” (James 1:20-21).

            What is the result of listening to others and to God’s word? Action on behalf of people in need. “Care for the orphans and widows,” James says (James 1:27). Jesus’ followers work on behalf of those who cannot meet their needs through their own work. This could mean charity, or it could mean making it possible for people to meet their own needs, or both. Today’s orphans (and widows) could be tomorrow’s workers. Starting a company that employs people in need may be a more effective way of looking after orphans and widows than donating money, especially in societies with high unemployment.

            As we noted earlier, James’ advice applies to all kinds of work and workplaces. Listening is well established in the business literature as a crucial leadership skill.[10] Businesses must listen well to their customers, employees, investors, communities and other stakeholders. In order to meet people’s true needs, organizations need to listen to the people whose needs they hope to meet. This reminds us that the workplace can be fertile soil for God’s work, just as the Roman Empire was, hardship and persecution notwithstanding.

            Speaking is the flip side of listening, and it’s no surprise that James warns against bad speaking as much as he encourages good listening. “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless” (James 1:26). In 3:1-12, James picks up the theme with some of the fiercest language in the book: “And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell…It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:6, 8). James is no doubt well aware of the Old Testament proverbs that speak about the life-giving power of the tongue (e.g. Proverbs 12:18, “Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing”), but he is also aware of the tongue’s death-dealing powers. Many Christians rightly take care not to harm others through harsh speech at church. Shouldn’t we be just as careful at work not to “curse those who are made in the likeness of God?” (James 3:9, with reference to Genesis 1:26-27) Water cooler gossip, slander, harassment, disparagement of competitors — who has never been injured by harsh words in the workplace, and who has never injured others?

Business Forecasting (James 4:13-17)

            James moves to a new application in giving a warning specifically about business forecasting.[13] Somewhat unusually, he focuses first on the principle of trusting God. He opens with sobering words: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14). It might seem that James is condemning even short-term business planning. However, planning ahead is not his concern. Imagining that you are in control of what happens is the problem.

            The following verse helps us to see James’s real point: “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15). The problem is not planning; it is planning as if the future lies in our hands. We are responsible to use wisely the resources, abilities, connections, and time that God gives us. But we are not in control of the outcomes. Most businesses are well aware how unpredictable outcomes are, despite the best planning and execution that money can buy. The annual report of any publicly-traded corporation will feature a detailed section on risks the company faces, often running 10 or 20 pages. Statements such as, “Our stock price may fluctuate based on factors beyond our control,” make it clear that secular corporations are highly attuned to the unpredictability James is talking about.

            Why then does James have to remind believers of what ordinary businesses know so well? Perhaps believers sometimes delude themselves that following Christ will make them immune to the unpredictability of life and work. This is a mistake. Instead, James’ words should make Christians more aware of the need to continually re-assess, adapt and adjust. Our plans should be flexible and our execution responsive to changing conditions. In one sense, this is simply good business practice. But in a deeper sense it is a spiritual matter, for we need to respond not only to market conditions, but to God’s leading in our work. This brings us back to James’ exhortation to listen with deep attention. Christian leadership consists not in forcing others to comply with our plans and actions, but in adapting ourselves to God’s word and God’s unfolding guidance in our lives.

Business Oppression (James 5:1-6)                               

            At this point James returns to the principle that work must serve the needs of others. His words in the beginning of chapter 5 are scathing. He warns “the rich” to “weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you” (James 5:1). While the gold in their vaults and the robes in their closets may look as shiny as ever, James is so certain of their coming judgment that he can speak as if their riches were already decomposing: “Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted” (James 5:2-3). Their self-indulgence has only succeeded in “fattening” them “for the day of slaughter” (James 5:5).[14]

            These rich people are doomed both for how they acquired their wealth, and for what they did (or didn’t do) with it once they had it. James echoes the Old Testament as he excoriates them for their unjust business practices: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4; cf. Leviticus 19:13).[15] Money that should be in the hands of laborers sits instead in the treasuries of the landowners. And there it stays: they hoard their wealth and ignore the needy around them (James 5:3).

            Business leaders must be especially diligent about paying their workers fairly. An analysis of what constitutes fair pay is beyond the scope of this article,[16] but James’s words, “the wages you have kept back by fraud” (James 5:4) are an accusation of abuse of power on the part of these particular wealth landowners. The workers were owed wages, but the rich and powerful found a way out of paying them without incurring punishment by the legal system. The rich and powerful often have means to subvert the judiciary, and it’s astonishingly easy to exercise unfair power without even recognizing it. Perhaps — as some claim — it is a sin to openly pay workers a wage that is too low to live on. But doubly sinful is the hidden abuse of power, say, to misclassify certain workers as independent contractors, or to inaccurately place them in a lower skill code in order to pay them less, or to pay women or minorities less for doing the same job as others. Misuse of power can never be excused just because it is a so-called standard practice.

            James also condemns those who “have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure” (James 5:5). The question of what constitutes living in luxury and in pleasure is also complex, but it confronts many Christians in one way or another. An American Christian, for instance, might well justify having a retirement account, since this is one of the mechanisms American society employs to ensure that workers can sustain themselves after their income-generating days are over. But how much is enough? At what point does saving become hoarding?

Waiting for the Harvest (James 5:7-20)

            James concludes his letter with a variety of exhortations on patience, truthfulness, prayer, confession and healing. As always, these appeal either to the principle that faithful works must benefit others or that it must be done in dependence on God, or both. And as usual, James makes direct applications to the workplace.

Resident Aliens and Priests (1 Peter 1:1-2:12)

            In the opening line of his letter, Peter addresses his readers as “exiles…who have been chosen” (1 Peter 1:1), a phrase which foreshadows Peter’s entire message. This phrase has two parts: “exiles” and “chosen.”

             If you are a citizen of Christ’s kingdom, you are an exile because at present the world around you is not under Christ’s rule. You are living under foreign rule. While you await Christ’s return, your true citizenship in his kingdom is “kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). Like exiles in any country, you do not necessarily enjoy the favor of the rulers of the land where you live. Christ came to this land himself, but was “rejected by mortals” (1 Peter 2:4); all citizens of his kingdom should expect the same treatment. Nonetheless, God has called us to stay here, to reside in this alien land while conducting the work of Christ (1 Peter 1:15-17).

            Although couched in a political metaphor, Peter’s discussion rings with workplace terminology: “deeds” (1 Peter 1:17), “silver or gold” (1 Peter 1:18), “tested by fire” (1 Peter 1:7), “purified” (1 Peter 1:22), “built into a…house” (1 Peter 2:5). Peter’s workplace terms remind us that we live in a world of work, and we have to find a way of following Christ in the midst of the working world around us.

            Having described what it means to be “exiles,” Peter takes up the other term from 1 Peter 1:1 — “chosen.” If you’re a Christian, you have been chosen by God. For what purpose? To be one of God’s priests in the foreign country you inhabit. “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). The title of priest is repeated in 1 Peter 2:9 (“royal priesthood”).

Suffering Under the World’s Authorities (1 Peter 2:13-4:19)

            What might it look like for Christians to exercise our calling as resident aliens and priests in the work environment? Peter addresses this directly in instructions to his readers as foreigners and slaves. As foreigners, we are to honor and submit to the civil rule of whatever country we find ourselves in (1 Peter 2:13-14), even though our citizenship in God’s kingdom entitles us to live as “free people” (1 Peter 2:16). As slaves — which apparently constituted a large segment of Peter’s readers, since he does not address any other class of workers — we should submit ourselves to our masters, whether they treat us justly or unjustly (1 Peter 2:18-19). In fact, unjust treatment is to be expected (1 Peter 4:12) and it offers us an opportunity to follow in Christ’s footsteps by suffering without retaliating (1 Peter 2:21). Notice that James is talking about suffering unjustly, not suffering from the consequences of your own incompetence, arrogance, ignorance, etc. Of course, you need to suffer obediently when receiving just punishment.

            In practical terms, you are not free to disobey those in authority even in order to get what you think is rightfully yours. You will surely find yourself in situations where you don’t get what you deserve — a promotion, a raise, an office with a window, a decent health care plan. You may even find your employer actively cheating you, forcing you to work off the clock, punishing you for your boss’s errors. It might seem ethical to cheat your employer just enough to make up what you were cheated out of — calling in sick when you’re not, charging personal items to the company, stealing office supplies or goofing off on company time. But no, “It is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil” (1 Peter 3:17). God does not give you the option to take back what was wrongfully taken from you. The fact that you lied to or cheated someone to make up for how they lied to or cheated you, does not make your action less evil. Your call is to do right, even in a hostile work environment (1 Peter 2:20). “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult” (1 Peter 3:9). Instead, Christians should treat those in authority — even harsh and unjust masters — with respect and honor.

            Why? Because our vocation as priests is to bless people, and we can’t do that while defending ourselves, just as Christ could not die for the salvation of the world while defending himself (1 Peter 2:21-25). Christ, of course, was not afraid to exercise power and challenge authority in certain circumstances, and Peter is not claiming to recapitulate the entire Gospel here. Other parts of the Bible — especially the Prophets — emphasize God’s call to resist oppressive and illegitimate authority. And submission doesn’t always mean obedience. We can submit to authority by disobeying openly and accepting the consequences, as Jesus himself did Here and throughout the epistle, Peter draws us almost exclusively to the self-sacrifice of Christ as a model.

Instructions for Leaders and Followers (1 Peter 5)

            Peter now gives instructions for church leaders, termed “elders” (“presbyters” and “bishops” in the Anglicized Greek derivations used in many churches today). The advice is good for workplace leaders, too. It focuses on serving others. “Tend the flock of God…willingly [and] eagerly” (1 Peter 5:2). Don’t be greedy for money (1 Peter 5:2). Don’t lord it over others, but be an example for others to emulate (1 Peter 5:3). Peter advises humility to the young — in fact, to everyone — when he quotes Proverbs 3:34, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). These are not unique to 1 Peter, and we will not expand on them here. It is enough to remember that the concept of servant leadership, circulating widely in today’s workplace, is well-known to Peter. How could it be otherwise, since Jesus is the servant leader par excellence (1 Peter 4:1-2, 6)?

The End of the World and the End of Work? (2 Peter 3:1-18)

            Does our earthly work matter to God? Darrell Cosden has given a resounding “yes” to that question. Central to his argument is the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which (1) affirms the goodness of the material world, (2) demonstrates that there is continuity between the present world and new creation,[21] and (3) is a sign that new creation, while not fully realized, has been initiated. Our work is ultimately valuable because the fruits of our labor, having been redeemed and transformed, will have a home in heaven. But chapter 3 seems to call into question two integral aspects of Cosden’s theology of work: (1) the inherent goodness of created matter, and (2) the continuity between this present world and the world to come, the new creation.

            Peter is responding here to lawless scoffers who claimed that God would not intervene in history to judge evil (2 Peter 3:3-4). He appears to describe a future that lacks all continuity with the present world; instead, it looks like the annihilation of the cosmos:

(1)   “The present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.” (2 Peter 3:7)

(2)   “The heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.” (2 Peter 3:10)

(3)   “All these things are to be dissolved.” (2 Peter 3:11)

(4)   “The heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire.” (2 Peter 3:12)

            But we should not be too quick to assume that annihilation is really in view here.[22] Peter is using the end-times imagery commonly found in Old Testament prophetic oracles to assure his readers of God’s impending judgment. The Old Testament prophets and Second Temple Jewish literature regularly employed fire imagery metaphorically to refer to both the purging of the righteous and the destruction of all evil.[23]

            A truly apocalyptic[24]reading of 2 Peter 2:7, 10, and 2 Peter 3:12, then, would understand the fire and melting imagery as a metaphor for the process in which God separates good from evil.[25]This is how Peter uses fire imagery in his first letter, reminding his readers that, like gold, they too will be tested through fire; those who make it through the fire will be praised and honored by God (1 Pet 1:5-7). These passages stress not that the heavens and the earth will be literally annihilated, but rather that all evil will be utterly consumed. Likewise, Peter carefully describes the world in terms of transformation and testing: “dissolved,” “melt with fire,” “judgment,” “reserved for fire.” Douglas Moo points out that the word Peter uses for “dissolved” in 2 Peter 3:10-12, luō, does not connote annihilation, but instead speaks to radical transformation. He suggests that an alternate translation might be “undone.”[26]

            Peter’s reference to the flood of Noah’s time (2 Peter 3:5-6) should caution us against reading “deluged” to mean total annihilation. The world did not cease to exist, but was purified of all humanity’s wickedness. Humanity’s goodness — limited to Noah, his family, their possessions and their work of tending the animals on board — was preserved, and life resumed on the physical earth.

            Finally, Peter’s positive vision of the ultimate future describes a renewal of the material order: “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home” (2 Peter 3:13). This is no thin, disembodied netherworld, but a new cosmos that contains both a “heaven” and an “earth.” In 2 Peter 3:10 we read that “The earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.” Disclosed, not destroyed. Thus even after the burning, “works” will remain.

            This is not to say that 2 Peter is the chief source for the theology of the eternal value of present work, but only that 2 Peter is consistent with such a theology.[27] While we may not receive as much detail as we would want, clearly for Peter there is some sort of continuity between what we do on earth now and what we will experience in the future. All evil will be utterly consumed, but all that is righteous will find a permanent home in the new creation. Fire not only consumes, it purges. The dissolution does not signal the end of work. Rather, work done for God finds its true end in the new heavens and new earth.

Do We Believe the Two Principles?

            We see countless situations in our workplaces. Some cast doubt on whether God can be trusted for our provision. Others affirm it. We all know people who seemed to trust God but didn’t get what they needed. People lose jobs, houses, retirement savings, even life itself. On the other hand, we receive good things we could never have expected and never have caused to happen ourselves. A new opportunity arises, a small thing we did leads to a big success, an investment works out well, a stranger provides for our needs. Is it true that we can trust God to provide what we truly need? The General Epistles call us to wrestle with this deep question until we have a firm answer. This could mean wrestling with it for a lifetime. Yet that would be better than ignoring it.

            The principle that we should work primarily for the benefit of others in need is likewise questionable. It is at odds with the basic assumption of economics: that all workers act primarily to increase their own wealth. It clashes with society’s prevailing attitude about work: “Look out for Number One.” We demand proof (if we have the power to do so) that we are being paid adequately. Do we equally demand proof that our work benefits others adequately?

Are We Applying the Two Principles in Our Work?

            We can assess our level of trust in God’s provision by examining the things we do to provide for ourselves. Do we hoard knowledge to make ourselves indispensible? Do we require employment contracts or golden parachutes to feel secure in our future? Do we come to work in fear of being laid off? Do we obsess over work and neglect our families and communities? Do we hold on to an ill-fitting job, despite humiliation, anger, poor performance and even health problems, because we are afraid there may be nothing else for us? There are no rigid rules, and some or all of these actions may be wise and appropriate in certain situations (obsession excepted). But what does the pattern of what we do at work say about our degree of trust in God for our provision?

            The most powerful measure of our trust in God, however, is not what we do for ourselves, but what we do for others. Do we help others around us to do well at work, even thought they might get ahead of us? Do we risk our positions to stand up for our co-workers, customers, suppliers and others who are powerless or in need? Do we choose — within whatever scope of choice we may have — to work in ways that benefit others in need as much as ways that benefit ourselves.

            We need to hold ourselves and others highly accountable for applying these principles to our work every day, as the letter of Jude reminds us. Obeying God’s word is not a matter of religious sensibilities but of flesh-and-bone consequences for ourselves and those affected by our work. Yet accountability leads us not towards judgmentalism, but towards a merciful heart.

            The General Epistles challenge us to re-conceptualize our notion of not only of work, but of who it is we’re working for. If we trust God to provide for our needs, then we can work for him and not for ourselves. When we work for God, we serve others. When we serve others, we bring God’s blessing into a world in which we live as members of society, yet citizens of another kingdom. God’s blessings brought into the world through our work become God’s next steps in transforming the world to become our true home. Therefore as we work “in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home” (2 Peter 3:13)