Work: We Are Co-Creators With God

God from the very beginning intended for humans to be “co-creators” with him. 

Genesis 1:28; “God blessed them and said to them,” Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the ground.”

Genesis 2:15; “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

This is what Christians and Jews refer to as the Cultural Mandate.

Humans were created in the image of God, which does not mean we look like him. It means humans have some of the virtues and abilities of God such as self-awareness, purpose, an understanding of moral right and wrong, the capacity to love and be loved and the ability to create. All these virtues and abilities in humans are limited and because of sin are flawed in ways God’s never are. 

Let me be clear: God can and did create something out of nothing. Humans cannot. However humans can imagine something-a song, a building, a story, an image in our minds that we can “create” from an idea into reality. Every invention of mankind began with an abstract idea, often born out of a need and the inventor managed to make what he, or she imagined into something useful, or beautiful. Which is why we say someone creates art. 

Work also is a form of creative art. It’s the ability to imagine a task that needs to be accomplished then organize and plan the steps needed to complete the task.  That’s exactly the assignment God gave Adam. Take care of this earth for me. Nancy Pearcy writes this in her book, Total Truth: 

“The lesson of the Cultural Mandate is that our sense of fulfillment depends on engaging in creative, constructive work. The ideal human existence is not eternal leisure or endless vacation- or even a monastic retreat. But a creative effort expended for the glory of God and the benefit of others.”  

God assigns to every believer spiritual gifts, opportunities, life experiences intellectual and relational “capital. Then he “says” use all of it to bring me glory and to make life better for others. (The 1st and 2nd greatest commandments)

Here’s the disconnect I see far too often. I hear some Christian business owners talk at conferences or in books extolling the biblical idea of work and giving one example of how they’ve done that by “creating jobs for people,” and I don’t doubt they’ve done that and that creating jobs is a noble task. And many are giving generously of their wealth earned from their work to various ministries.

But is that enough? Is the driving force of what they do, “For the glory of God and for the benefit of others?” I have my doubts. 

 When I owned my manufacturing business, even as a Christian my primary goal was to benefit me- increase my net worth, improve my lifestyle and impress others with how bright, hard-working and successful I was. It wasn’t for the glory of God, or the benefit of others.

Yes, I provided lots of jobs and we tithed our profits. But it wasn’t  until years later that I realize I had distorted and used the Calvinist Work Ethic I grew up with to justify why I paid myself 20 times what my average employee made. 

I expect owners and managers to make more money than a press operator, or cook. And I’m less concerned about how much more, than I am about employers asking themselves, “Are my employees making enough to live without fear of not having enough? If Jesus second greatest command was to, “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you,” if it’s within your power are you paying them what you’d need to live without a pit in your stomach when the transmission went out on your car?

A few years before I sold my business, I finally began to understand what God was getting at after reading this in James 5. “Now listen you rich people…The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you…You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.” 

 So I met with our Human Resource person and asked why we were only paying $3.75 an hour (40 years ago) starting wage to people in the plant. “Clare, we have more applications from people happy to work for that than we can use. The “market” is telling us we’re paying a fair wage.” I wasn’t so sure. I asked her to do a little research to figure out what a typical worker would need to earn to not have to work a second job to provide for a family of four. She came back with $4.50. After praying about it, we raised our starting wage and everyone’s pay in the company proportionately.

I don’t tell you this because I was so spiritual. I tell you this story because as a Christian businessman I let the “market” tell me how much to pay our people and not the Bible. I let the lifestyles of other successful business owners be my benchmark how I ought to live and not the Bible. The Bible does not condemn wealthy people for simply being wealthy. It does condemn them for spending too much on themselves and too little on the poor. The story of “The rich man and Lazarus,” couldn’t be a better example. And I think a Christian business person who pays his/her people poorly but gives generously to  Christian ministries is still being disobedient because in essence they are giving to God, that which they withheld from their people. Caring for the poor and God’s warning if we don’t is one of the most predominant themes in Scripture. 

When believers truly are “co-creators with God” we will work and live like Pearce describes. “For the glory of God and the benefit of others.” Anything else is a a self-delusional counterfeit.