Why is it that we only seem to pray for people going into ministry, but not for people going into business? I don’t remember anyone laying hands on the college grad headed into finance or engineering. But the missionary heading overseas? They got the works.
The message was clear, even if it wasn’t spoken aloud: there are “God jobs” and then there are the rest. Missions was spiritual. Tech was secular. Evangelism counted. Marketing didn’t.
But according to Scripture, that division doesn’t exist in God’s eyes.
In Colossians 1:16, Paul says that all things are created by Jesus and for Jesus. Can you think of anything that leaves out? Wouldn’t that include banking, construction, software, telecommunications, aerospace, fashion, journalism, graphic design?
The list could be much longer, but you see where this is going.
The Role of Business in a Society
Business plays a crucial and inextricable role in the world. In fact, management guru Peter Drucker once described business as an “organ of society.”
Let’s just think about that for a moment—business as one of the organs of the society we live in. Just like the different organs in our body collectively help us live and enjoy life, business functions to help society not only survive but thrive. It takes care of people’s needs. It feeds people, clothes people, gives people a home and ensures their safety.
Just like the heart, lungs or kidneys represent vital functions of the human body, business, schools, churches, government agencies and hospitals represent critical sources for society’s health and well-being.
This analogy might sound vaguely familiar. In 1 Corinthians, we hear the Church referred to as the Body of Christ. Each person and their specific gifts have a distinct and valuable contribution to the whole. While each member serves a different function, we form one body.
We can think of modern society in a similar way. We work in different areas of specialty—medicine, real estate, retail, law—and each serves a critical function in a society with God-given needs.
Later in Colossians 1, Paul suggests that God is in the process of reconciling all of the things He made through the redemptive work of Christ. Again, keep in mind, we’re talking about all things. God wants to redeem not just humans, but the things humans do. He wants them to begin doing those things in a way that more closely reflects His original vision and purpose.
Is Any Job Really Secular?
We habitually think of ministry-related jobs as the only ones that build God’s Kingdom. But if we think of God’s Kingdom as the place where what God wants done actually is done, then there are far more places where His Kingdom needs to take hold than just inside the Church.
If those on Wall Street had been doing things in a manner that reflected God’s wants, would we have incurred the financial crises of the past few decades? Thinking of some jobs as sacred and others as not only misses the point—it does real harm.
A.W. Tozer has much to say about this challenge in Christian thinking:
“Long-held habits do not die easily. It will take intelligent thought and a great deal of reverent prayer to escape completely from the sacred-secular psychology. For instance, it may be difficult for the average Christian to get hold of the idea that his daily labors can be performed as acts of worship acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The old antithesis will crop up in the back of his head sometimes to disturb his peace of mind. Nor will that old serpent, the devil, take all this lying down. He will be there in the cab or at the desk or in the field to remind the Christian that he is giving the better part of his day to the things of this world and allotting to his religious duties only a trifling portion of his time. And unless a great care is taken, this will create confusion and bring discouragement and heaviness of heart … The ‘layman’ need never think of his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be sacred as the work of ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”
According to Tozer, it’s not about whether you’re in business, nonprofit or full-time church ministry. It’s about why you’re there that makes it sacred.
I would add that why we do things naturally influences how we do them. And ultimately—at least from our co-workers’ and customers’ perspective—it’s how we do things that makes His Kingdom come.
Does Work in Business Really Matter?
Work in a for-profit organization really does matter. For-profit companies are a divine arrangement in human life to love people. We serve our customers by creating and selling something they truly need. In business language, we might call this the creation and delivery of value. In Christian language, we can just as easily call it an intelligent way of loving people.
Why? Because we’re serving the needs of people, solving pain, eliminating inconvenience or helping people get more fulfillment out of life. As businesspeople, we’re part of reconciling God’s creation back to His original intention.
So we can pray, “Lord, may your Kingdom come and let your will be done through me in my business as it is done in heaven.”