Should Christians work secular jobs?

[Angeleyes7715]

I realize we need money to survive in this world, however is working a secular job how we as Christians are supposed to go about it?

I've realized some things about myself personally in relationship to a secular job, might just be my personality, but might go deeper.

1. When I was a senior in college 2 years ago, I spent my time studying like no tomorrow. Studying and school was my priority not God. I spent time with God, but school took so much out of me, STEM major, that there was no way God was first in that situation.

2. I graduated life became about money and having the best career. God has not been first in this situation either because fighting to make it to the top takes all my time and energy. I feel like Cain offering what's left to God and it's not my best.

3. When I get consecutive days off I spend my time with God. I become closer to God and I can see the difference in my attitude, how I treat people, my prayer life, how much I read. When I am focused on my job it's rush rush rush, spend time with God if there is time, need to make money, stress, I don't have time for people, always angry, frustrated, mean, not smiling.

I am working on my own business to change this because I believe being put in that secular environment for 40+ hours a week destroys my soul and it's taking my eyes off of my salvation. I don't enjoy working for someone else anyway and feel like a slave, but I'm wondering if there is something spiritually wrong with Christians in secular jobs too...

Maybe others are able to balance both, ive seen some people praising God or very happy while at work, but is balancing putting God first? I've also watched people who are regular workers on my off days and they look like slaves to me. In all honesty I feel guilty asking a worker for help at the grocery store because that person has to work for slave wages just to support themselves. It hurts me. When I see people with health problems working slave wage jobs it hurts even more.

I always think about Peter and the guys that were fishermen and Jesus told them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. They left their secular careers for God.... should we as Christians be looking for other ways to support ourselves besides working for slave driving companies that don't have our best interest at heart and don't care about God?

I myself work in healthcare and I don't even feel good about what I do sometimes. It's a corrupt system and I feel like I assist the drug companies in ripping people off for a paycheck because I work for pharmacy. All the drugs people take, some are needed, but some people are loaded with drugs they don't need. And for outrageous prices here in the U.S.

As a Christian will God hold us accountable for these secular careers that are damaging people? For contributing to the injustice of the secular world for a steady paycheck?

 

[dogs4thewin]

Well as you said we have to live and there are MANY more secular jobs than otherwise. If you feel that you should not work certain jobs OK, but we need people to work all jobs and you cannot say we want more people to become Christians and then say they can only work certain jobs or we would fall apart.

 

[dysert]

I can't think of anything biblically wrong with working at a secular job (as long as something about it isn't prohibited in the Bible, obviously). Paul made tents for a living. That was secular. Joseph (OT) eventually was 2nd to Pharaoh, which was secular. In fact, as I think about it, most of the people in the Bible had secular jobs. So again, I see nothing wrong with it.

 

[Angeleyes7715]

It doesn't seem the same. Making tents is more like entrepreneurship. It's not what we have today. And Joseph was also soled into slavery by his brothers. He wasn't putting in applications to work for Pharaoh -__-. The amount of dedication and commitment company jobs require from people in our day and age require way more. People's jobs in our world take over their whole lives. People work 40+ hours a week some people work 80. If they have a family they barely have time for their kids let alone God. Doesn't seem natural. And, the policies and rules secular companies have don't exactly line up with God's plan for a believer. All I'm saying is I don't see how it's possible to serve two masters. You can't serve God and a secular company at the same time. Plus, I don't think wage slavery is what God intended for his people or any people. He brought people out of slavery now we are enslaved to a Capitalist system full of corrupt corporations.

 

[dysert]

It doesn't seem the same. Making tents is more like entrepreneurship. It's not what we have today. And Joseph was also soled into slavery by his brothers. He wasn't putting in applications to work for Pharaoh -__-. The amount of dedication and commitment company jobs require from people in our day and age require way more. People's jobs in our world take over their whole lives. People work 40+ hours a week some people work 80. If they have a family they barely have time for their kids let alone God. Doesn't seem natural. And, the policies and rules secular companies have don't exactly line up with God's plan for a believer. All I'm saying is I don't see how it's possible to serve two masters. You can't serve God and a secular company at the same time. Plus, I don't think wage slavery is what God intended for his people or any people. He brought people out of slavery now we are enslaved to a Capitalist system full of corrupt corporations.

> "You can't serve God and a secular company at the same time."
I guess you could argue with me, but I seem to be doing it ok.

"Enslaved to a Capitalist system"? Is there an economic system that you think is better?

 

[Angeleyes7715]

The economic system that has yet to be created is better lol.

But yeah I guess it's an individual thing. If a person feels like they can serve God working for their employer and aren't distracted then that's right for them. Come to think of it I think Paul said something about this situation for grey area issues, if it causes one to sin then he shouldn't do it, if it doesn't cause him to sin then it's not a problem... Paraphrasing lol.

 

[Shempster]

I think we should ONLY work secular jobs!
People always say that the people are the church and not the institution. So being in church with church people is great but nobody is sharing the love of God with the world that way.
So working with a bunch of Christians aids in the isolation of yourself from the world and from sharing. Its the same effect as going to church. Its nice to get treated nicely all the time though I will agree.
Anyway, we should be out there working in the trenches.....all of us. A Christian book store owner should hire non-Christians so that they can experience God's love by the owner and the patrons. Maybe a Christian should go to work for a known sheister to try and show him another way.

Just a thought.

 

[TaiKamiya720]

It doesn't seem the same. Making tents is more like entrepreneurship. It's not what we have today. And Joseph was also soled into slavery by his brothers. He wasn't putting in applications to work for Pharaoh -__-. The amount of dedication and commitment company jobs require from people in our day and age require way more. People's jobs in our world take over their whole lives. People work 40+ hours a week some people work 80. If they have a family they barely have time for their kids let alone God. Doesn't seem natural. And, the policies and rules secular companies have don't exactly line up with God's plan for a believer. All I'm saying is I don't see how it's possible to serve two masters. You can't serve God and a secular company at the same time. Plus, I don't think wage slavery is what God intended for his people or any people. He brought people out of slavery now we are enslaved to a Capitalist system full of corrupt corporations.

One of the Apostles, Matthew was a tax collector. Peter was a Fisherman. It's not wrong for a Christian to go to a secular college and get a secular job. Even some Fundamentalist Christians have secular jobs. Serving two masters would be serving both your own desires and God, which is impossible. What is wrong is making the job take over your whole life that you can't balance out to get enough time to learn God's Word. I'm studying at a secular college to get a degree in Marine Biology. Every morning, I take the time to read God's Word and Study it and I also go to the Intravarsity program. I just got a job working at my college bookstore. The Christian believers are called by God to many different positions.Furthermore,

 

[Strong in Him]

I realize we need money to survive in this world, however is working a secular job how we as Christians are supposed to go about it?

How do you define "secular"?

If the Lord has given you gifts in a certain area and leads you to a particular job, if you have his Holy Spirit in you and are working at your job as though working for the Lord, Colossians 3:17, 23, if you pray before you start work, and while you are working; does the presence of God with and IN you, not make the work holy?

Jesus didn't call priests, scribes and Pharisees to follow him, he called fishermen, and even a hated tax collector. It wasn't their jobs that made them holy; it was Christ's call. Jesus himself, the Son of God, was a carpenter.
In the OT, Daniel worked for a pagan king. His job didn't defile him, instead, his devotion to God set him apart.

Practically speaking, if Christians weren't doctors, teachers, plumbers, authors, judges, even pop stars, then God would have no one within those professions to witness to him, speak/write about his love or be a Christian role model and good influence on others.

 

[ViaCrucis]

All jobs are secular jobs, because every job happens in the seculum, the present age/world. The only possible exception would be if one's vocation is specifically in the Church either as an ordained member of the clergy or taking on a monastic vow and living in a cloister or as a hermit; but even monastics perform "secular" work--farming, brewing, academia, etc.

One of the hallmarks of Lutheran--and Reformation broadly--teaching is that there is no difference between the "religious life" and the "secular life", no vocation is more holy or superior than the other; all vocation is ministry. The shoe cobbler and the bishop are both servants of God and minister to others through their vocation; that the cobbler ministers by making and repairing shoes and the bishop ministers by preaching the Word doesn't make the bishop's vocation more godly or Christian. This is the actual meaning behind the oft-mentioned Reformation teaching of "priesthood of all believers"; every Christian is a "priest" or "sacerdos" serving God and our neighbor however and whenever we happen to be in life--as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, husbands, wives, grandparents, grandchildren, shoe cobblers, pastors, ditch diggers, physicians, librarians, morticians, lawyers, friends, neighbors, students, teachers, citizens, governors, mayors, judges, athletes, or monk.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Kman009]

I realize we need money to survive in this world, however is working a secular job how we as Christians are supposed to go about it?

I completely agree with everything you have said, I know it has been a while since this was posted but I have only recently discovered it, I have been wrestling with this issue as well for some time, the matter of Paul making tents is more like entrepreneurship as you said and it does show in various Bible Passages where Paul says things like.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you,while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

1 Thessalonians 2:9 and

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.

2 THESSALONIANS 3:7-9

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you: that if any would not work, neither should
he eat.

2 THESSALONIANS 3:10

I used to follow a YouTube channel from a guy called A voice in the desert who would routinely teach that we all needed to quit our jobs and go out preaching full time because that is what Jesus told the apostles to do ...Peter give up catching fish and I will make you a fisher of men etc. This guy had me convinced this is what we had to do, plus I had and still do have every one of the exact same views and feeling you expressed in your comment.

I think it is pretty clear now at least for me that we are required to do earn a living, lets face it we need to, and still bear fruit,studying the word, being salt and light wherever we are, and sharing the gospel when we can.

It is obviously easier to say you can do both if you are someone who may have become a christian later in life when you have already achieved these things but to be honest some of us may need to really just keep it simple in terms of the types of jobs we have, we may need to give up the higher paying position that would suck up more of our time and energy, because as you say, and I do agree it does seem as though most people just give God whatever time they have leftover and I don't see how that is putting God first either, but if the apostle Paul being directly selected by Jesus, who would have know the future and that Paul would say and do and Paul says he worked day and night to support himself,and that he did so as an example for the rest of us,then we should work hard and see the work as a means to an end...that is really all we can do, plus we live in a fallen world under the control of Satan, as long as what you are personally doing is not evil or sinful, i.e, personally lying ,swindling or cheating people like as a sales person for the sole person to increase your commission etc or personally advocating for the unnecessary increase in prices of drugs etc just to satisfy greed, or you are not the creator or leader of any such schemes or efforts ,then there is not much else you can do unless you wish to change jobs and then you may face a new set of similar or worse problems, but you would have to ultimately decide.

I completely understand how you feel,like just to be able to survive you have to dedicate so much of your time, energy, mind and emotions to your job or jobs you feel like you are selling your soul,not even to get ahead but just to earn a livable income, not to mention what you have to do in some of the jobs and who you have to work with and for and you feel like you are serving two masters just to be able to keep an income,but we can't all be entrepreneurs or get by making tents, or being a carpenter or stone mason or electrician, while that may be ideal, it is not possible for everyone, but as I previously mentioned some of us may be need to keep it simple , jobs like tradesmen , stonemason, carpenter, electrician etc , service jobs like maids janitor, waiters , waitresses,cooks, taxi drivers, teachers,firemen,college professor, store clerk ,cashier, hotel staff etc are all relatively safe lines of work and many jobs like this may exist that are not necessarily tied up with sin...... but if someone who claims to be christian is working as a VP of Marketing where they sell and promote products through the lust of flesh and lust of eyes and the pride of life then they may have a problem.

So just to sum up what I'm saying I do believe Christians can and should work,as Paul advised, including Secular Jobs since we can all be entrepreneurs or tradesmen and tradeswomen, however for many of us we may need to keep those jobs fairly basic and low key and not pursue many of the worldly high level careers as we live in a world under Satan's control, and the higher we go, the more the danger we may be sucked into worldliness and sin...just my thoughts

 

[FireDragon76]

This issue was settled by Luther and Calvin in the 16th century in the West. There is nothing wrong with working a non-religious job, and alot to commend to it. It is much better to have a secular job than to have a religious job where you deceive souls and swallow widows fortunes. One potentially helps your neighbor, and the other means you have earned a nice millstone around your neck.

 

[JCFantasy23]

Working a secular job can spread more Christians in more places. It's also inevitable - if we could all work for a church, perhaps we would, but that's impossible for either the church or ourselves.

 

[Ecclesiastian]

Paul worked as a tentmaker to cover his expenses. And Christ himself was trained as and characterized as a carpenter. He had plenty of opportunity to rebuke it, but did not. Secular jobs can be used to the glory of God.

 

[SkyWriting]

I realize we need money to survive in this world, however is working a secular job how we as Christians are supposed to go about it?

I've realized some things about myself personally in relationship to a secular job, might just be my personality, but might go deeper.

1. When I was a senior in college 2 years ago, I spent my time studying like no tomorrow. Studying and school was my priority not God. I spent time with God, but school took so much out of me, STEM major, that there was no way God was first in that situation.

2. I graduated life became about money and having the best career. God has not been first in this situation either because fighting to make it to the top takes all my time and energy. I feel like Cain offering what's left to God and it's not my best.

3. When I get consecutive days off I spend my time with God. I become closer to God and I can see the difference in my attitude, how I treat people, my prayer life, how much I read. When I am focused on my job it's rush rush rush, spend time with God if there is time, need to make money, stress, I don't have time for people, always angry, frustrated, mean, not smiling.

I am working on my own business to change this because I believe being put in that secular environment for 40+ hours a week destroys my soul and it's taking my eyes off of my salvation. I don't enjoy working for someone else anyway and feel like a slave, but I'm wondering if there is something spiritually wrong with Christians in secular jobs too...

Maybe others are able to balance both, ive seen some people praising God or very happy while at work, but is balancing putting God first? I've also watched people who are regular workers on my off days and they look like slaves to me. In all honesty I feel guilty asking a worker for help at the grocery store because that person has to work for slave wages just to support themselves. It hurts me. When I see people with health problems working slave wage jobs it hurts even more.

I always think about Peter and the guys that were fishermen and Jesus told them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. They left their secular careers for God.... should we as Christians be looking for other ways to support ourselves besides working for slave driving companies that don't have our best interest at heart and don't care about God?

I myself work in healthcare and I don't even feel good about what I do sometimes. It's a corrupt system and I feel like I assist the drug companies in ripping people off for a paycheck because I work for pharmacy. All the drugs people take, some are needed, but some people are loaded with drugs they don't need. And for outrageous prices here in the U.S.

As a Christian will God hold us accountable for these secular careers that are damaging people? For contributing to the injustice of the secular world for a steady paycheck?

The outrageous prices are due to liability for damage to health. Legal problems not found in other countries. I just had my valsartan recalled for cancer causing ingredients. I imagine you'll see lawyer ads on TV any day now as I've been taking this for decades.

 

[ooQQoo]

I realize we need money to survive in this world, however is working a secular job how we as Christians are supposed to go about it?

I've realized some things about myself personally in relationship to a secular job, might just be my personality, but might go deeper.

1. When I was a senior in college 2 years ago, I spent my time studying like no tomorrow. Studying and school was my priority not God. I spent time with God, but school took so much out of me, STEM major, that there was no way God was first in that situation.

2. I graduated life became about money and having the best career. God has not been first in this situation either because fighting to make it to the top takes all my time and energy. I feel like Cain offering what's left to God and it's not my best.

3. When I get consecutive days off I spend my time with God. I become closer to God and I can see the difference in my attitude, how I treat people, my prayer life, how much I read. When I am focused on my job it's rush rush rush, spend time with God if there is time, need to make money, stress, I don't have time for people, always angry, frustrated, mean, not smiling.

I am working on my own business to change this because I believe being put in that secular environment for 40+ hours a week destroys my soul and it's taking my eyes off of my salvation. I don't enjoy working for someone else anyway and feel like a slave, but I'm wondering if there is something spiritually wrong with Christians in secular jobs too...

Maybe others are able to balance both, ive seen some people praising God or very happy while at work, but is balancing putting God first? I've also watched people who are regular workers on my off days and they look like slaves to me. In all honesty I feel guilty asking a worker for help at the grocery store because that person has to work for slave wages just to support themselves. It hurts me. When I see people with health problems working slave wage jobs it hurts even more.

I always think about Peter and the guys that were fishermen and Jesus told them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. They left their secular careers for God.... should we as Christians be looking for other ways to support ourselves besides working for slave driving companies that don't have our best interest at heart and don't care about God?

I myself work in healthcare and I don't even feel good about what I do sometimes. It's a corrupt system and I feel like I assist the drug companies in ripping people off for a paycheck because I work for pharmacy. All the drugs people take, some are needed, but some people are loaded with drugs they don't need. And for outrageous prices here in the U.S.

As a Christian will God hold us accountable for these secular careers that are damaging people? For contributing to the injustice of the secular world for a steady paycheck?

This is real easy to answer.

John 6:2
Labour not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you:
for him hath God the Father sealed.

 

[StillGods]

difficult to be in the world but not of it if you're not in the world...

 

[Tolworth John]

The bible is clear, if a man will not work he shall not eat. Work so you have something to share with those in need.
Yes we should work. It is our choice where we work and whether we chase the ladder to the top.

One friend used to work for a firm that did contract work for the defence industries. He refused to work on any weapon projects.

We work because it is part of our calling. Adam was told to work and gain his bread by the sweat of his brow. It also means we can witness to those who will not normally meet Christians.

If your work is unethical, change jobs accept the pay cut etc Work for Jesus to the highest ethical standard in every aspect of work.

 

[ooQQoo]

The bible is clear, if a man will not work he shall not eat. Work so you have something to share with those in need.
Yes we should work. It is our choice where we work and whether we chase the ladder to the top.

One friend used to work for a firm that did contract work for the defence industries. He refused to work on any weapon projects.

We work because it is part of our calling. Adam was told to work and gain his bread by the sweat of his brow. It also means we can witness to those who will not normally meet Christians.

If your work is unethical, change jobs accept the pay cut etc Work for Jesus to the highest ethical standard in every aspect of work.

You are incorrect.