“SPIRITUAL” AND “SECULAR” WORK

Today Christians tend to separate that which is “spiritual’ from that which is “secular” in life.  But this is not biblical, for everything in life is “spiritual”. 

For Paul the apostle said, “And whatever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ”. Colossians 3:23-24

Jesus was a carpenter for approximately 15 years of his earthly life before he began his “ministry” at 30 and continued until his death on the cross at the age of 33.  Thus he spent approximately 5 times as many years as a carpenter than he did ministering “vocationally”!

Therefore according to Scripture whether a person is a carpenter, plumber, housewife, lawyer, doctor, farmer, waitress, cook, flight attendant, teacher, student, engineer, accountant, builder, construction worker, manager, owner or employee, etc., every vocation should be “spiritual” and “done as unto the Lord.”

Believers are to work in order to help others as Paul taught in Ephesians 4:28 “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands and the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” 

In Acts 20:34 Paul set the example, “Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.”

And again Acts 20:35 Paul wrote “I shewed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Paul set the example by working with his hands making tents according to Acts 18:1-3, 20:34; I Corinthians 4:11-12; Ephesians 4:28 and I Thessalonians 4:9-11.

Thus we see that believers can make as much a spiritual impact upon the market place as what most now call spiritual ministry of the “clergy” (though the term “clergy” is also not biblical).

Every Christian regardless of their vocation is to follow the command of the Lord, “As you go, (wherever you go at home or abroad) make disciples of all people!” Matthew 28:19-20 “Ye shall be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8