The Unbearable Tension of Living Between Faith and Work

I was speaking at a conference about ambition and how, as Christians, we can navigate the tension between selfish ambition and passion as we work. After the talk, during a Q&A time, a woman who owned a construction company put up her hand. She had a comment rather than a question: “I’ve enjoyed what you have shared, but you must realise that there are times when being Christian just doesn’t work in this world.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Give me an example.”

“At the moment, we are in dispute with a client on a major project involving multiple companies. They are overdue in paying us, so we have locked up the site. No one can access the site until they pay our bill. That’s what it takes to run a business. In the end, it’s just business.”

Unfortunately, the time for our session had run out, so I was unable to respond to her comment, but I was really concerned about what she had said. “In the end, it’s just business” is a slippery slope to all sorts of compromises.

Her actions to get her bill paid did not just punish the client; they also punished numerous small businesses that were collaborators on the project by preventing them from accessing the site. In fact, her client was the least impacted and could hold out for a long time. I found out the client had already held out for two weeks. However, small businesses often have tight cash flows and are much more vulnerable. Regardless, such provocative action was unlikely to commend this woman’s organization as a “Christian business.”

On the other hand, I do not want to minimize the contradictions and tensions we feel living between two worlds, two stories. There is the story of the kingdom, which has themes of creativity, holiness, relationship, shalom, justice, truth, wisdom, love, and redemption.[1] Then there is this broken, sin-impacted world with its alternative values of destruction, evil, rupture, conflict, injustice, falsehood, foolishness, hate, and irreconciliation.

Of course, the difference is often much more subtle and nuanced.

The term “unbearable tension” originates with British missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigin. This “unbearable tension” arises from being a member of two communities anchored in “two different and incompatible stories.”[2] While some think that Western society used to be Christian but has now become secular, the reality is that there has never been a truly Christian society, shaped like Jesus. In every human culture, there always are and have always been underlying assumptions and ultimate ends that differed from Christianity.

Given this, we must chart our way carefully, as faithful Christians seeking to live out our faith in the workplace.

In response to this tension, many misquote Jesus, saying: “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:14–16). He says that he is “not of the world” and his disciples are “not of the world”, but that the Father has sent Jesus “into the world” and he is now sending his disciples “into the world.”

There is a subtle but important difference here. Jesus is not saying, “You are now spiritual beings freed from this sin-filled material world that will one day be destroyed, but in the meantime you must endure in it.”

I think a closer message would be:

I am the son of God sent into the world to save it, to reconcile people and God, people and people, people and creation. And now you are adopted as children of God, and you too are being sent into the world sharing the good news, being salt and light, and building for my kingdom.

Jesus was surrounded by men and women who had chosen different options to respond to the unbearable tension of trying to live faithfully in a broken world. In Living at the Crossroads, Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew contrast these different responses:

• Withdrawal – Like the Essenes, we could withdraw from this world into a Christian commune, separating ourselves.
• Accommodation – Like the Sadducees, we could compromise with the Empire, seeking access to power and influence.
• Dualism – Like the Pharisees, we could retreat into organized religion on Sunday, while uncritically fitting into the culture around us at other times.
• Like the Zealots, we could prepare to use violence to usher in the kingdom.[3]

Jesus did not endorse any of these responses. Instead, Goheen and Bartholomew argue, Jesus chose the way of faithful witness. “The kingdom comes by the Word of God: embodied in life, demonstrated in deed, and announced in word.”[4] They also point out that the way of Jesus often involves suffering.

So, what does faithful witness for Christians today look like? And how can we even imagine what God would desire for our work, and workplace? If you struggle to answer those questions, then it is the fault of a rift that runs through history and shows up in our churches and theological colleges.

I believe that the biggest threat to Christians living as faithful witnesses is dualism, or the sacred–secular divide. It is expressed in a series of false dichotomies that we unthinkingly accept:

Sacred vs. secular. But what is secular? There surely is no place where God is absent from his creation or cosmos. We accept this language, and we accept the world’s insistence that faith has no place in public spaces, including the workplace.

Church vs. world. This assumes that God is present in the church but has abandoned the world to Satan. Yet, it is clear that Jesus’ dying and rising defeated the devil; and that, as Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”[5] As Paul says in Acts 17:24, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

Ministry vs work/business. This assumes a hierarchy of church work over other work, which often makes ordinary workers feel like second-class Christians. Martin Luther demolished this when he said: “…the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic labourer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks… all works are measured before God by faith alone.”[6]

Soul vs body. This elevates the soul over the body, yet Jesus’ incarnation refutes this concept, as does his bodily resurrection. Further, Paul frequently refers to the church as Christ’s body, further integrating soul and body.

Sunday vs Monday. This has two elements worth considering. The Bible does not consider worship as something that ends within the temple/church. Sunday worship is an orientation that continues into Monday work. In Isaiah 58 God rejects worship that is accompanied by oppression of workers or neglection of the poor. The second element is a reflection on the Sabbath. Sunday is different from Monday in that we are meant to cease work for a day; but just as we rested with God on the seventh day of creation, and then went to work (Genesis 2:2–3, 15), so Sunday has both discontinuity and continuity with Monday, as we rest to work with God and for God.

Private vs public. Faith is often defined as something private and personal, which should not impinge on the public square, including the workplace. However, this is not the view of the Bible, where faith is a new identity in Christ, one we carry into every context. The fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control — spills out of us into all the contexts where we live out our vocation.

How do we overcome this divide, this “unbearable tension?” I think we do it through imagination. In his book, Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks, Walter Brueggemann writes: “The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” He adds: “The task of the church is to imagine the world as God intends it to be… then find ways to anticipate it and breathe it into life.”[7]

While we may see this as the work of the church gathered, it can be profoundly expressed in the church scattered, faithful Christians living out their vocations in diverse contexts.

Judith Wolfe, in The Theological Imagination, give us a glimpse of what this might look like:

Christian faith is… a mode of seeing the world which beholds in that world an unseen depth of goodness, significance and love which we do not make, but in which we can participate. For the Christian faith, in other words, the human imagination is in important ways adequate to the nature of reality because our world is poetic, both in the sense that it is God’s work or craft and in the sense that we do not merely apprehend but also make the world.[8]

Wolfe echoes Ephesians 2:10, where humans are described as God’s poemia, his workmanship, created to do good works, and Genesis 1:26, where God commands humans made in his image to: “rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26).

I do not want to pretend that faithful witness in our everyday vocations is an easy option. It takes creativity and integrity, prayer and accountability, support and courage. There are some different ways we can begin to exercise our imaginations for this task.

Firstly, through story. What is the story by which we live our lives; how do we inhabit God’s story where we are? Seeing our lives as stories helps us to remember that there is an author of our story, and that God knows the ending. We can also try and work out the story that our business or work colleagues are living in, looking for that which we can affirm, and that which we must reject.

Secondly through theology. What is our theology of work? What is good, what is broken, what can be restored, what might it look like in the new creation? What is our theology of organization? How can we apply the Bible to what we do and the way we do it? The Theology of Work Project has a commentary on the whole Bible through the lens of work, and some helpful resources for application to our vocations.

Thirdly, through a sense of calling. Many people feel called to their work, whether it be as doctors, teachers, parents, politicians, or pastors. Feeling called can give us a sense of dynamism, a commitment to our work. A sense of ‘calling’ presupposes a ‘caller,’ and as Christians, we know that it is God who grants us the gifts and passions related to our work. As we seek to work with God, we can have his imagination for the way we do that work.

Fourthly, through a desire to worship God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” And in Colossians 3:23 he tells slaves to “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Worship does not have to be confined to a church on Sunday, it can be expressed through our work on Monday.

Fifthly, through a desire to be formed like Jesus. Theologian Eugene Peterson once said: “I’m prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is in the workplace.”[9] We need imagination to realize that the impossible deadline, the difficult work colleague, or the redundancy could be God’s way of shaping us more like Jesus.

Sixthly, through culture making. In an interview about his book Culture-Making, Andy Crouch said the following:

The antidote to being a mere consumer is to become a creator. Life is not about waiting for the market to offer you thrilling experiences, but to actually be someone who jumps into the work of making something beautiful and true and good for the world.[10]

To make new and better cultural products, we need imagination, creativity, and a willingness to take risks.

So, how would I respond to that woman at that seminar?

As Christians, we are called to follow the way of Jesus, and I cannot imagine Jesus locking the doors to the building project and holding your client to ransom. By saying “business is business,” you are reinforcing a story of business that is competitive, about profit maximization, and that is willing to take ethically suspect actions.

However, you could live by a different story: one of sacrifice and abundant generosity.

You could point out to the client what is broken in the system and what could be restored, applying a theology of work in practical terms.

You could pray about what is happening, asking God for insight about how you could overcome this problem, which is stopping you from flourishing in your calling.

You could ask God how this ‘problem’ could be an opportunity to worship him, or whether it is providing an opportunity to develop the fruit of the Spirit: love, patience, and self-control, as you are shaped more like Jesus.

You could ask God to help you imagine a different way of structuring this work and being paid to avoid potential conflict. You could also ensure that, in the running of your own business, contractors are paid promptly for their work.

Being a faithful witness through the integration of faith at work is not simple, can be costly, takes a strong sense of calling, and a deep relationship with both God and a community of supporters.

[1] See Michael Cafferky, Biblical Ethics, for how this values framework can translate into ethical decision-making.

[2] The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 15–16.

[3] Goheen & Bartholomew, Living at the Crossroads, 145.

[4] Goheen & Bartholomew, 142–143.

[5] Theologian Abraham Kuyper first spoke these words in Amsterdam at the inauguration of the Free University on October 20, 1880.

[6] See Luther’s essay, Babylonian Captivity of the Church.

[7] Bruegemann, Reality, Grief Hope, 2014; The Practice of Prophetic Imagination, 2012.

[8] Wolfe, The Theological Imagination, 2024, 19.

[9] Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, 2010, 127.

[10] Crouch, as quoted in an interview, https://andy-crouch.com/articles/being_culture_makers