By James Thobaben, reprinted from the Oikonomia Network.
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Below is an excerpt from a chapter in Economic Wisdom for Churches. Citations have been omitted.
Productivity: What Does Love Require?
James Thobaben
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24 NASV)
In Colossians, Paul is not making a passing comment about hard work or applauding effort for its own sake. He is affirming productivity toward a proper end. After all, to do work presumes a goal. Or, put another way, work is meant to be productive. One should “produce” and that is – if not especially, then particularly – true of Christians. Paul is not commending labor performed in vain, but asserting that we serve God by being productive in word and deed.
The Christian who is productive in an appropriately Christ-like manner is serving God’s mission in this world. Consequently, a pattern of failed labor (as evaluated relative to capacity and capability, since “of those to whom much is given, much is required”) should be recognized as not only useless, but as counter-productive to final ends. For a mature Christian, since the final end is Christ, labor should satisfy proximate earthly ends to the extent they serve that final goal.
Many passages point to the importance of productivity, including the original call to work (Genesis 2:25) and its reaffirmation in subsequent commands (e.g., Exodus 20:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:10). In addition, God explicitly calls His people to “bear fruit” in both testaments (e.g., Psalms 1:3, Proverbs 12:14, Matthew 3:8, Philippians 1:22). Also, Jesus identifies both himself and his Father as workers who succeed in producing (John 5:17).
Stimulate insight and engage students by assigning one of our exciting and catalytic EWP Talks! Chris Armstrong on “Vocation? Whatever!”:
Still, these scriptural affirmations quickly lead us to a host of questions. What exactly is productivity or “fruitfulness” in this world? Why should we pursue it? How can we be more productive, and are there any limits to it? What does productivity have to do with our faith and life in the world? These questions will guide our discussion of God’s call to be a productive people….
Why Is Productivity Virtuous – Even though It Requires Perspiration?
The point of labor is not to perspire, but to actually make more of something than we had at the beginning of the effort. The process of production makes sense only if we think it will result in a better condition when the process is over. It is the destination, not the journey, that matters most in production processes.
The early Protestants and their theology of vocation can help us understand the perspiration that good productivity requires. They helped bring about an enormous revolution in the world economy, not by trying to make an economic profit independent of other values, but by arguing that the process of economic production could and should be morally good if part of a greater kind of productivity. They did not baptize the market economy, but subsumed it under the divine oikonomia.
For those early Protestants, a spoon, a steam engine or a broom was not just “a good.” It was “good.” The items of everyday life were as worthy as the instruments of religious ritual, and so was their production. Everyday production of goods that serve human needs came to be seen as a proximate end in the service of the Christian’s ultimate end: glorifying God. If everything could be used to praise God, and if all production time was, in fact, spiritual time, then all believers would have a vocation – a calling – to produce with excellence and efficiency. Continuing improvement and expansion of production capacity, such as the discovery of new resources and development of less resource-demanding production processes, were spiritual pursuits in the eyes of the early Protestants. To them, such activities were directly commanded (e.g., Genesis 1:28 and 2:15, Proverbs, II Thessalonians 3:10) and indeed replicated the character of God. After all, they thought, before the Fall, the world was a result of God’s loving creativity and was called good.
This does not mean that humans are first and foremost producers. We are imago Dei, not homo faber.But the calling to productivity is one characteristic of imago Dei.
Michael Wittmer on vocation as integral to the gospel:
The Reformers’ argument was simple. Subsistence farmers produce to generate food for the survival of their families. Some excess production may allow those farmers to buy from artisans, but only in very limited amounts. Eventually, though, as productivity is valued, more and more farmers (as well as those artisans) produced in excess of their needs or even immediate wants. This was deemed good; something could be stored for later use or sold for other goods or used in service to others. Over time, the household could use the proceeds to access other products and opportunities, and become more productive and increase service through charity and through the market itself to the broader community.
The more productive the process, the larger an excess is produced. This excess, though it creates new temptations, is a means of loving our families and larger communities. The excess creates the space for more goods and better lives – for the flourishing of the community.
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