Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Piper: ‘Work Is a Glorious Thing’
Piper: ‘Work Is a Glorious Thing’
Mar 17, 2025 10:48 PM

At Desiring God, John Piper explains how both the act and product of work are blessings, and that the God-designed essence of work is creativity — “not aimless, random doing, but creative, productive doing.”

In addition to avoiding the hump of idleness, this means being ever diligent, discerning, obedient, and energetic in the work of our hands:

When the book of Proverbs tells us to go to the ant and learn how to work hard and work smart (Proverbs 6:6–11), and when Paul tells us to “work heartily, as for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23), they are not cursing us. They are pointing to our glory and our joy…

…Work is a glorious thing. If you are starting to grow lazy, I summon you back to joy. God made us to work. He formed our minds to think and our hands to make. He gave us strength — little or great — to be about the business of altering the way things are.

That is what work is: seeing the world, thinking of how it could be better, and doing something — from the writing of a note to the building of a boat; from the sewing of what you wear to the praying of a prayer.

Come, leave off sloth and idleness. e what you were made to be. Work.

Read more here.

To join theOn Call in munity, like us onFacebookor follow us onTwitter.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
One Campaign Remix
I can’t offer a wholesale endorsement, but it’s a critique worth a hearing…give it a watch. See here for Acton’s answer to the One Campaign. HT: eucharism ...
Creepy Libertarianism, Creepy Statism
Rick Ritchie responds to this New Atlantis article by Peter Lawler, “Is the Body Property?” in a recent post on Daylight. Lawler discusses the increasingly broad push modify the human body, especially in the context of organ sales. Lawler writes of “the creeping libertarianism that characterizes our society as a whole. As we understand ourselves with ever greater consistency as free individuals and nothing more, it es less clear why an individual’s kidneys aren’t his property to dispose of as...
Would You Change the Sign?
Seth Godin wants to know. ...
Check out this Energy Debate
A debate about the future of energy policy is being held over at sp!ked, sponsored by Research Councils UK. From their notice: THE FUTURE OF ENERGY Expanding supply or managing demand? In the opening articles, mentators address the question from different viewpoints. ADAM VAUGHAN, online editor, New Consumer magazine argues that saving energy is the way forward: ‘By taking a number of simple steps, consumers can save energy and money – and help save the planet.’ JOE KAPLINSKY, science writer,...
‘Reforming Natural Law’
The January 2007 issue of First Things features a lengthy review of Stephen Grabill’s new book on Protestant natural law thinking (no link to the review, unfortunately). J. Daryl Charles, an assistant professor at Union University, has this to say about Grabill’s Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics (Eerdmans, 2006): Grabill’s examination of theological ethics in the Protestant Reformed mainstream is pelling, and it represents a shot across the bow of theological ethics, as it were. Protestants for...
Christian Ecology vs Dominionism
In December of last year I had a great back and forth on the topic of Christian dominionism with fellow green blogger Elsa at Greener Side. A friend wrote recently asking about those posts and my take on dominionism specifically. After letting him know we were safely in the anti-dominionism camp, I said I thought there were more folks in progressive/secular circles that saw Christians as dominionists than Christians who actually bought into this trash. I liked his response: It...
Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics
Stephen Grabill delivers his address at today’s Lord Acton Lecture Series Event Stephen J. Grabill, Acton’s Research Scholar in Theology, delivered an address today based upon his new book which explores plex and often-overlooked relationship between Protestantism and natural law. In Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics, Grabill calls upon Christian ethicists, theologians, and laypersons to take another look at this vital element in the history of Christian ethical thought. He appeals to Reformation and post-Reformation era theologians...
Christianity is Big Business in America
“Christian consumption has gone far beyond the book as millions use their buying power to reinforce their faith and mitment to the munity,” reads an article in the current edition of USAToday (HT: Zondervan>To the Point) According to the piece, “Nearly 12% of Americans spend more than $50 a month on religious products, and another 11% spend $25 to $29, according to a national survey of 1,721 adults by Baylor University, out in September.” There has been a great deal...
Politicians and Pigskin
Geoffrey Norman at NRO offers a delightfully sarcastic discussion of the move by a couple of Michigan state senators to use the BCS title game controversy as an opportunity for political grandstanding. “Keep your hands off our football,” is Norman’s message to government. In point of fact, however, there is a long history of government intervention in American sports. An early and famous example is the Supreme Court’s 1922 decision granting Major League Baseball an exemption from antitrust laws. The...
‘Give Us Your Hearts’
In a recent open letter to immigrants to the United States, Jennifer Roback Morse expands on the words of Emma Lazarus engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Lazarus wrote: “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” Morse goes one step further, asking immigrants to give their hearts as well. What Morse explains is that America values immigrants. In fact, almost all Americans are descended from immigrants. But a trend that Morse...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved