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TRANSCRIPT
Our Calling in the Workplace #1
Vocation
I. Introduction
Good morning! According to the Department of Labor, Americans spend more
time working than any activity other than sleeping. For something so central to our
daily lives, so central to our lives in general, it’s important to ask the simple
question, “Why do I work?” Not “How do I work?” or “Where should I work?” The
most fundamental question is “Why do I work?” That’s our focus for the next six
Sunday mornings.
But before we dive in, let’s get our bearings for the material over the next few
weeks. We’ll start out the class this week by backing out from the workplace to the
broader doctrine of “vocation” or “calling.” Why do that? Because so many of our
difficulties with our jobs stem from the fact that we have confused them with
callings—and haven’t understood how they fit with all the callings God has given
to us. Then over the next four weeks we’ll focus specifically on one specific
calling: paid employment, or the work we do in the workplace. So in our second
lecture, we’ll consider the purpose and danger of employment. Then how
redemption impacts our employment. Fourth, we’ll talk about how the Bible calls
you to choose a job, and then in the fifth, how we can live as Christians in the
workplace. Week six, we’ll circle back around and consider how all of our
vocations fit together, answering the question you might have thought of in terms of
finding “balance”—really by turning that idea on its head. Christians are not
balanced people. And we’ll end with a panel discussion.
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So, back to today’s class on calling. Two topics I’d like to cover: first, I want to
take a giant step backwards and discuss what every person is called to be. Only
after we understand our calling generally can we possibly understand what we are
called to be in particular, like in the workplace. So we’ll talk about general, or
primary, callings, and particular, or secondary callings. Second, I want to discuss
how the doctrine of calling, or the doctrine of vocation, has been distorted over the
years. That’s left most of us without guidance on why we work, much less how to
work or how to choose a job. Those are our two points for this morning: first, the
basic principles of calling; and second, recapturing the doctrine of calling from
common distortions.
II. The Basic Principles of Calling
A. Defining some terms
So first, the basic principles of calling. And as always, it’s helpful to begin by
defining our terms. The word “called” comes from the Greek word that we see in
Romans chapter 8, verse 30: “And those he predestined, he also called; those he
called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” This is calling in its
most comprehensive sense: this is calling by God of all those predestined for glory.
And “vocation” simply comes from the Latin translation of the same word: vocare.
(“vo-KAR-a”) Think of calling and vocation as synonymous. Same word, different
languages. So then, what is our calling according to the Bible?
B. Primary Calling
First, let’s talk about our primary calling. Os Guinness has a great working
definition of “primary calling” from his book The Call. In his words: “Our primary
calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him.” “By him,” “to him,” 2
“for him.” Second Thessalonians 2:14 explains that we are called by Christ: “He
called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Romans 1:6 shows that we are called “to him”: “And
you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” And finally, for
him: Ephesians 2: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”1 This calling on all
Christians: by Christ, to Christ, that we might do good work for Christ. It’s our
primary calling both because it happened first and because it supersedes every other
calling on our lives. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.”2
C. Secondary Callings
Now that we’ve firmly planted in our minds the truth that all Christians share the
same primary calling—the calling to new life in Christ—we can begin to think
about the other secondary call-ings in our lives. Guinness once again poses a
helpful definition of secondary callings. He writes: “Our secondary callings,
considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in
everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him. They are our personal
answer to God’s address, our response to God’s summons.” As we read in
Colossians 3:22–24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working
for the Lord, not for men . . . . It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” “Whatever you
do.” Those are our secondary callings.
If you’re a mother, “work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” If
you’re a student, “work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” If you’re
a wage-earner, “work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” If you’re 1 Eph. 2:102 Matt. 6:33
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retired, if you’re unemployed, if you’re a pastor, if you’re a husband—you get it.
This is the essence of secondary callings: that we are called to do things “as
working for the Lord.” And in that, we bring glory to him. So what exactly does
that mean? Let’s use as our lens what Jesus in Matthew chapter 22 described as
“the greatest commandments”: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love
God. Love your neighbor. Through that we can see how our secondary callings
ultimately serve to bring glory to God, which is our primary calling.
1. Love of God
First, our secondary callings are a major way in which we love God. How do we
love God through our work? By working as if we are working for him. Because we
are. Do you feel that your work is drudgery and toilsome? Love the one who
created you in Christ by doing that work cheerfully and with excellence. Scripture
itself makes that demand in Ephesians chapter 6. “Obey your earthly masters with
respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. . . .
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know
that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does . . . .” We love God
when we work “with all our hearts.”
If the Lord was your boss, or even more intimately, if the Lord was your master and
you were an apprentice, how would you work? Wouldn’t you always use the right
tool for the job? Wouldn’t you always take an extra moment to make sure that line
is straight, those numbers are correct, those double hyphens are converted to em
dashes? Would you ever hand in a document with typographical errors? Would you
ever be tardy, or take a “surf the internet against your boss’s wishes” break? Would 4
you leave those dishes in the sink for your wife or roommate to do, or let the leaves
remain unraked?
If we truly are to “work at it with all ours hearts, as working for the Lord,” our work
will be dramatically different. I try to encapsulate this notion in one word:
excellence. Our Lord deserves no less. The Bible calls us to no less a standard.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 challenges us to excellence like this: “Whatever your hand finds
to do, do it with all your might . . . .” We love the Lord through our secondary
callings when we perform them with excellence, “as working for the Lord.”
2. Love of neighbor
But secondly, we bring glory to God through secondary callings as we love our
neighbors. The Lord taught us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” But it
has been some thousands of years since bread has rained down from heaven.
Instead of making a daily miraculous provision for us, God gives us our daily bread
through the work of others to which he calls them. God calls the farmer to farm; the
miller to mill; the baker to bake; the trucker to deliver; the shopkeeper to stock; you
to purchase and prepare. These are all secondary callings by which God through his
providence causes us to love our neighbors.
Do you see how God gives each person a specific set of talents that are to be used to
love our neighbors? Any lawful occupation is worthwhile, and fits in to God’s
providential care for people and creation. All lawful occupations have dignity
before the Lord, and are useful to him. Consider the meditations of some of the
Reformers as they explored the biblical doctrine of callings. Martin Luther wrote:
“The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ
one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the
woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before 5
God by faith alone . . . .” William Perkins, the English Reformer, wrote: “The
action of a shepherd in keeping sheep, performed as I have said in his kind, is as
good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving sentence, or of a
magistrate in ruling, or a minister in preaching.”
So there is value in all of our secondary callings, no matter how mundane they may
seem to us. But it’s important to note that that value is found as our secondary
callings line up with God’s purposes, not our own. This view of secondary callings
should humble us. Instead of being self-satisfied in our education, or training, our
abilities, or even our successes, we must realize that our sovereign Lord equipped
us for our particular callings to please him and to love our neighbors through our
work—in fact, He prepared these good works in advance for us. If you work only
for yourself, or only for your boss, or only for your clients or employees, you are
missing the point of your secondary callings. You are called to what you do for
God’s purposes. Next week Sebastian will take us through God’s purposes for our
work. And you’ll see that no matter the specific calling at hand, they all line up
under these two headings. Love for neighbor and, more ultimately, love for God.
There’s one final thing to keep in mind as we think about secondary callings—
which we’ll hit in greater detail later on in this course. Secondary callings all stem
from commands in Scripture, and secondarily, according to God’s providential
working of our circumstances—in that order. For example, back when I worked in
business, I knew that I had a secondary calling to that company. Why? Because I
received a missive from heaven with that company’s name on it? No! Because in
Genesis 2 I read that the man was assigned to work, and in 1 Timothy that I’m to
provide for my family, and in Ephesians that the normal way to do that is through
the money I make at a job. Those were the commands from Scripture that guided
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me to my calling to the workplace. And only then, secondarily, do I know I was
called to that specific company, because in God’s providence that was the job I was
given. In the same way, mothers, wives, the unemployed, and the retired can all
look to Scripture for their specific secondary callings. As you read through the
general commands in Scripture that relate to your secondary callings according to
your design as a man or a woman, you can be confident that if you have a specific
workplace—inside or outside the home—that fits within those general parameters,
you are called to be there, at least for now, and to work hard as unto the Lord.
So, some of you may be called to a specific line of work. That’s entirely possible.
God sometimes does lead subjectively. But aside from truly unusual circumstances,
it’s impossible to know for sure. So when people say things like “But I feel called
called me to be a lawyer” as if that’s the end of the matter, they are almost elevating
a subjective reading of their experience to the level of a calling in Scripture—and
making it very difficult for a Christian friend to ever question whether or not that
line of work is in fact the best way to fulfill God’s calling to work. My subjective
view of my specific calling is controlled by the objective commands of Scipture.
D. Multiple callings
So now we’ve explored primary and secondary callings. And we’ve explored
something of what we are meant to do through our secondary callings. At this point,
it should be obvious, but it is important to be clear. We are not called to a single
calling. As God’s workmanship, new creatures in Christ, we all have multiple
callings. A Christian man is called primarily to salvation and discipleship—to new
life in Christ. He may also be called secondarily to be a husband, a father, an elder,
an accountant, and a voting citizen in a nation. He is called to all those things. And
in all those things, he should strive to love God and love his neighbor.7
Think how freeing it is that you have multiple callings in your life, all from one
Boss, who sets standard for faithfulness in all of them and gives you that standard.
It’s not as if he’s given us an impossible mandate for every area of our lives—
though in this fallen world it may feel that way at time. Rather, he’s given us a
specific standard of faithfulness in each of our callings and then one goal for all of
our callings. For example, believers are called to be church members. Christ’s
standard of faithfulness is the commands in Scripture summarized in our church
covenant. If you’re called to be a father, Jesus’s standard is that you instruct your
children in the discipline of the Lord and provide for your family. Because we know
that Scripture is sufficient, you should be able to find Christ’s standard of
faithfulness for every calling in your life. And, as I said, across all these callings,
there is one goal: to “do all to the glory of God,” to “make the most of every
opportunity because the days are evil” to quote Paul in Ephesians and Colossians.
So, should you spend more time at work, or at church, or caring for your aging
parents, or caring for your indigent neighbor, or signing up for a family camp with
your kids? You should use immerse yourself in the Word so that you can fully
understand Gods’ standard of faithfulness for each of these multiple callings and
feel the urgency of your one goal: to bring him glory. And then you have
tremendous liberty in Christ to trade off across these different callings in order to
accomplish that goal, something you’ll do prayerfully as you seek wise counsel
from others.
So as we finish this part of the lecture on basic principles of calling, let’s recap. We
know now that “calling” and “vocation” are one and the same. We know too that
believers share a primary calling to salvation and discipleship. We know as well
that all people enjoy secondary callings, though which we love and glorify God and
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love and care for our neighbors. And we know now that we have multiple callings.
Let’s turn now in the time left to us to a couple of distortions of these truths that
have left the modern church in disarray when it comes to understanding God’s
calling in our lives.
III. Distortions of the doctrine of calling
This distinction between primary and secondary callings carries great challenges
that have been misunderstood historically by the church. The first challenge is that
we must keep the two categories of calling in the right order: primary calling first,
and secondary callings second. The second challenge is that we must keep the two
categories of calling together: we must make sure that the primary calling leads
inexorably to the secondary callings. The church’s failure to rise to these challenges
has led to two great distortions of the doctrine of calling. We will call the first the
Catholic distortion, and the second, the Protestant distortion. Not that either is
always true of either school of thought, but historically because of correlations of
error with different types of people, this is what historians have called them. Let
me also preempt some confusion by telling you that while I’m going to treat these
two distortions as equally harmful, I in no way want to suggest that being Protestant
or Roman Catholic is basically the same. The Roman Catholic Church condemned
the Biblical gospel; Protestant Christians at the Reformation recovered it. And we
teach at this church the gospel we see in Scripture, in line with the heritage of the
Protestant Reformation.
A. The Catholic distortion
The Catholic distortion is so called because it arose in the Roman Catholic Church.
This distortion fails the first challenge of primary and secondary callings: making
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sure that the primary calling comes before the secondary. Instead of considering
these callings in order, Rome separated them completely, and believed that some
were called to a primary calling of ministry, and others were called only to
secondary callings of work. So Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesarea, wrote that there
are two ways of life in the church: the perfect life and the permitted life. The perfect
life was spiritual and was reserved for priests, monks, and nuns. The permitted life
was secular and was reserved for maids, soldiers, and kings.
This distorted dualism affected later church thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas,
who elevated the contemplative life over the active life. The active life—while
praised—was viewed as second-class; the contemplative life was the life of
freedom, and was to be preferred. But this view is not biblical. Look to the account
of creation to see that God had secondary callings—before the Fall—to tasks other
than “the contemplative life.” God called Adam and Eve to marriage in Genesis
3:24, to parenthood in 1:28, to collection of food from the bounty of creation in
1:29, and to stewardship of all creation in 2:15. Remember, these are all pre-Fall
directives and secondary callings. Of course, the Fall resulted in these callings
becoming toilsome and corrupted. But that does not mean that secondary callings
are inherently toilsome or corrupted.
And while we call this the Catholic distortion, it has had impact far beyond the
Roman church. Consider the account of William Wilberforce, who as a Member of
Parliament led the abolition of the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
When he was first converted at the age of 25, his first thought was to leave politics
for the paid ministry. Like many, Wilberforce believed the life of the ministry to be
more important than so-called secular work. Happily, John Newton—the celebrated
composer of “Amazing Grace”—persuaded Wilberforce otherwise. In 1788
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Wilberforce wrote in his own journal: “My walk is a public one. My business is in
the world; and I must mix in the assemblies of men, or quit the post which
Providence seems to have assigned me.” If Wilberforce had left politics for the
pulpit, he would have “quit the post” God assigned him for the abolition of a great
evil.3
Our callings are not divided into spiritual and secular: the callings of a believer are
all spiritual. A secondary calling to be a priest or a pastor is not inherently superior
to a secondary calling to be a dishwasher. William Tyndale wrote “that if our desire
is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes, and preaching the
Word ‘is all one.’”4 And Luther—in his typical earthy style—once wrote “God and
the angels smile when a man changes a diaper.”5
Please don’t misunderstand me on this: I am not suggesting that paid ministry is not
a worthy calling. What I am saying is that if a man is called to the ministry as his
paid occupation, he is called to a great and sober task with eternal rewards. But if a
man is not so called—and self-evidently not all believers are so called—he should
not view his actual calling with regret, or consider it “second-rate,” or “secular.” As
believers, our primary calling to salvation and discipleship should flow naturally
into our worthy and spiritual secondary callings, whether they are paid ministry or
motherhood paid in the laughter of children. In all our secondary callings, we work
for God’s glory and the love of others.
B. The Protestant distortion
Now, on to the so-called “Protestant distortion.” “Whereas the Catholic distortion
is a spiritual form of dualism, elevating the spiritual at the expense of the secular, 3 Cf. II Cor. 7:17.4 Guinness at 34 (paraphrasing Tyndale).5 Id. (paraphrasing Luther).
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the Protestant distortion is a secular form of dualism, elevating the secular at the
expense of the spiritual.”6 The early Reformers and the Puritans had a clear
understanding of the doctrine of calling. They did not confuse primary and
secondary callings. But slowly over the course of time, the celebration of the
spirituality of secondary callings became imbalanced. Words like “work,” “trade,”
“employment,” and “occupation” came to have the same meanings as “calling” and
“vocation.”
Os Guinness puts it well when he writes: “Eventually the day came when faith and
calling were separated completely. The original demand that each Christian should
have a calling was boiled down to the demand that each citizen should have a job.”7
And then work itself was made sacred. President Calvin Coolidge once declared:
“The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships
there.” And Henry Ford said: “Work is the salvation of the human race, morally,
physically, socially.”
This is the distortion in which many of us find ourselves in today’s world,
especially here in DC. Few of us give a thought to calling in the biblical sense. We
don’t understand why we work, though we can appreciate why we may need to
work. We give little thought to what work we should do, other than what seems
enjoyable to us, or something for which we might have an aptitude—and sometimes
declare that because we enjoy something or are particularly good at it, we are called
to it. And then when work and other duties (or callings) collide, say a difficult job
and caring for a family, we don’t have frame of reference to resolve the competing
imperatives. Worse, we can become defined by our jobs, not our Caller, and so
6 Guinness at 38.7 Id. at 39.
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when we are unemployed, underemployed, or unsuccessfully employed, we can
face an existential crisis.
Thank God, there is a way forward, and it is simple. We must at all times recognize
that we are not primarily called to do something or go somewhere: we are instead
primarily called to someone—to our creating God. Our first vocation is our primary
calling of salvation and discipleship as new creatures in Christ. The primary call
requires us to be devoted to no one more than God; to desire nothing more than
God; to glorify nothing but God; to enjoy nothing beyond God.
IV. Conclusion
Well we should wrap up. I hope that you’ve come to understand today that all
believers are primarily called to salvation and discipleship as new creatures in
Christ, and that God’s work in his primary calling spills over into our secondary
callings. Our secondary callings are our personal response to God’s primary call—
the ways in which our own particular skills, talents, and gifts as His workmanship,
are put to work providentially to love God and our neighbors. I hope that you have
understood—and perhaps identified in your own thinking on work—the great
historic distortions of the doctrine of calling. Above all, I trust that you are now
beginning to get a Christ-centered focus for your work, because only in Christ will
you be able satisfactorily to answer the question “Why do I work?”
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