The Sacredness of Everyday Secular Work: 4 Ways Your Job Matters for Eternity (Even When You’re Not Sharing the Gospel) by Jordan Raynor. WaterBrook. 224 pages. 2024
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Jordan Raynor is a leading voice in the faith and work movement. He is the best-selling author of books such as Master of One, Called to Create and Redeeming Your Time). He also hosts the Mere Christians podcast and the weekly The Word Before Work devotional.
The purpose of his latest book, which was dedicated to Tim Keller, is to help you see how your so-called “secular” work matters for eternity. He begins by looking at the instrumental value of your work. Your work matters for eternity because you can leverage it to share the gospel with those you work with. The core idea of the book is that in addition to your work having instrumental value, it has eternal intrinsic value to God. That is, your work matters for eternity even when you’re not leveraging it to the instrumental end of sharing the gospel with those you work with.
Raynor looks at the Great Commission, which all Christians are familiar with. He writes that this was not the first commission we were given. The First Commission that we were given, also known as the creation mandate, was the call to fill, subdue, and rule this world with God and for his glory.
Raynor addresses what he refers to as the “Abridged Gospel,” which has become the dominant version of Jesus’s good news preached in our churches today. The Abridged Gospel is all about what Jesus has saved us from—namely, sin. But, Raynor states, without the beginning and end of the Gospel story, it’s impossible to see what Jesus has saved us for. With the Unabridged Gospel in view, we can understand and embrace our dual vocation: the Great Commission to make disciples and the First Commission to make an entire world for God’s greater glory.
The author tells us that it’s not a coincidence that the Abridged Gospel came to prominence at roughly the same time the Great Commission became the only commission we preach, as the two ideas are inseparable.
The book is very well organized, built around twelve propositions. For example, Proposition 1 is: Your work has intrinsic value because God works for the pure joy of it. The author also includes four ways your work matters for eternity.
At the end of each chapter, a helpful “Your Sacred Response” asks the reader to respond to what you’ve read by working through a single practice. You can write your answers in The Sacred Response workbook, which the author gives you instructions on how you can download it for free. Also included are “Free Resources for Mere Christians and “Free Resources for Pastors”.
I’ve read and can recommend all of Raynor’s books. This book will help you to understand how your work matters for eternity.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
- The purpose of your life isn’t something as small and fleeting as your happiness. The purpose of your life is to participate in the ultimate cosmic drama—working with God to cultivate heaven on earth.
- Any work you do for God’s glory, powered by God’s Spirit, and according to God’s rules will last forever.
- While the world defines excellence as being the best, God seems to define it as doing our best. That’s what brings him pleasure!
- The Master finds great joy in watching you pursue excellent stewardship of the talents he has given you—especially if you find joy in your work.
- While all Christians share equal status as adopted children of God, we will not all share equal station and responsibility in the Eternal Heaven on Earth.
- You earn eternal rewards every day you work hard at the work God has given you to do—especially when you don’t love your job (see Colossians 3:22).
- Whatever you do for God’s glory and the good of others—big or small—matters for eternity.
- Every single action you take today has an impact on the treasure, crowns, words of affirmation, clothing, and vocation you’ll be rewarded with in the Eternal Heaven on Earth.
- We’re called to a very specific kind of work. To make a Garden-like world where image bearers can flourish and thrive, where people can experience and enjoy God’s generous love.
- While leveraging our work to the instrumental end of evangelism is far from the only way our work matters to God, it certainly is a way.
- When you know that God cares about 100 percent of the time you spend at work and not just the 1 percent when you get to explicitly share the gospel, it makes you come fully alive.
- Since the beginning, Christianity has spread most rapidly through mere Christians embracing the Great Commission as they go about fulfilling the First Commission to fill, subdue, and rule this world for God’s glory.
- Our co-workers won’t know we are Christians if we work only with excellence. They will know we are Christians if we work with excellence and love.