It is, but you might not know it.
Let me explain. The very first words God spoke to Adam were to charge him with a lifetime purpose (work the Garden and keep it) and then to give him a job, within that greater purpose (name the animals.) God then worked with Adam to help him complete the task that He gave him.
In that moment, God established the precedent that work, and by extension, business, would be mankind’s primary occupation and the first place in which He would have a relationship with mankind. Here’s the pattern: God gives a person a specific task, and then works with Him to complete that task.
We see that pattern repeated over and over in the Bible. Here are just a few note-worthy examples:
- God gave Joseph the task of saving Egypt (and the Hebrews) from the famine and worked with him to provide the means to do that.
- God gave Moses the task of moving the Hebrews out of Egypt, and then worked with him to do it.
- God gave Bezalel the task of creating the temple furnishings, and then worked with him to complete that.
- God gave Nehemiah the task of rebuilding the wall, and then worked with him to complete that.
- God gave Paul the task of taking the Gospel to the gentiles and then worked with him to do that.
Not only does he show us this pattern with multiple examples through out the pages of the Bible, but, just to make sure we don’t miss it, he tells us that in this verse:
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10
At this point, the cultural Christian may respond, “Ah, but he is talking about good works. A business isn’t a good work, it’s just a work.” That, of course, has long been the position of much of the religious establishment, who maintainss that ‘good works’ are those programs and practices of the institutional church, and everything else doesn’t much count.
God, on the other hand, doesn’t have such a distorted view of business. He said,
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 4: 23
So, we will be rewarded with an inheritance from the Lord for anything that we do, if we do it for the Lord, not for men. “Whatever you do” means just that. Ministry is not defined by what you do, but rather by who you do it for. Anything done for the glory of God is ministry. (See The Good Book on Business)
And that includes our businesses. Almost every business is a ‘good work’ created by God in advance for us to do. Your business is a ‘good work’ that God created in advance for you to do and assigned it to you. It is the primary venue in which he wants to work with you, just like he has from the beginning.
As we strive to do good work, and to do it for the glory of God we are earning our inheritance as a reward.
As we strive to work with Him in the business and bring him into all the decisions that we make, we are earning our inheritance as a reward, and following, in our generation, the pattern that God established in those first days of creation.
That means that your business is on a mission – a task given to you by God – you just may have never realized it before.
(WAS-92)
