Recently, I was teaching an adult Sunday School class at our church about what the Bible says about our work. We had a lot of excellent conversation, but I found one particular comment to be of particular interest because I had never heard it before.

I asked how the attendees tried to integrate their faith with their work. This can be difficult in situations in which speaking of your faith is not permitted. One individual stated that we could integrate our faith and work if we lived what the Ten Commandments taught. I had never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense.

Here’s a few examples of how we can live our faith at work by obeying the Ten Commandments:

• You shall have no other gods before me. This commandment is about idolatry. Nothing – our careers, success, achievement, promotions, etc. – at work should be more important to us than God is.
• You shall not take the name of the Lordyour God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. We hear God’s name abused a lot these days – in movies, television shows, regular conversations and yes even at work. Those wanting to integrate their faith and work should not be known to use adult language.
• Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. We are made in the image of God, and one of the ways we can demonstrate that is to observe the Sabbath and not do any unnecessary labor on it. I know it’s a temptation to pull out our laptop and use Sunday to catch up on work that built up during the week, but that would not be setting a good example for co-workers and team members. Instead, use the Sabbath for worship and rest.
• You shall not commit adultery. Where I worked, there were many marital affairs between people who worked together. Oftentimes, these affairs resulted in divorce and split up families. Christians must be faithful to their marriage vows in the workplace. This is also related to the commandment which reads in part: You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
• You shall not steal. This commandment not only pertains to the theft of physical items from office supplies to money, but also to our time. Our employers pay us in exchange for work performed, and when we are spending company time on non-work matters, we are stealing from them.
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. How many times have we witnessed co-workers be untruthful about their contributions to a project at the expense of another, taking credit for work that they did not do? Christians in the workplace need to be known for their character, honesty and integrity.

These are just a few examples of how we can integrate our faith with our work by living out the Ten Commandments. What would you add to this list?