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Your Work Today Matters: It Reveals God’s Kingdom
Issue #422, May 6, 2026
Your daily work matters because it reveals God’s Kingdom to the world! We have seen in previous issues that our work is an expression of God’s original commission and that our work is a calling from Him. Now consider these verses and their implications for your daily work:
But thanks be to God, who ... uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere (2 Corinthians 2:14, NIV).
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20).
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough (Matthew 13:33).
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11).
These verses together show that Jesus came to establish and demonstrate His Kingdom, a new way of living and serving in the world. His Kingdom is a place where everything is being restored to the way things ought to be. It is a Kingdom of restored relationships, justice, beauty, and order. It is a place of safety and security, and where work is meaningful and rewarding. He chooses to spread His Kingdom through ordinary people doing their work for His glory! If this is true, how do we do this?
Our work reveals God’s Kingdom as we represent the King.
God uses us to spread the “aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.” Does ‘everywhere’ include the place we work on a daily basis? Certainly! You are “Christ’s ambassadors” where you live and where you work. You represent Him in your “ordinary” leadership decisions—keeping your word, treating people respectfully, finishing the job with excellence, and caring for the people with whom you work.
Some leaders work to promote their own kingdom and agenda. But serving leaders see their work as visible revelation of the Kingdom of Jesus.
Our work reveals God’s Kingdom as we weed out what does not belong.
Our work can be a way to “expose the fruitless deeds of darkness” and root out what does not belong in the territory of the Kingdom. Your daily work may call out injustice, expose corruption or abuse, reveal inequality, refuse dishonest practices, or simply pick up the trash in a messy environment. You may confront unethical reporting or correct a misleading metric. Each action removes what does not belong and is a step towards revealing God’s Kingdom.
Some leaders weed out only what does not increase profit with little thought to integrity. But serving leaders are willing to pay the price of exposing and removing anything that does not belong to the Kingdom of God.
Our work reveals God’s Kingdom as we plant what belongs.
God’s Kingdom is revealed as we do what is right in every context. It is revealed as we treat workers as significant people, as we pay people fair wages, as we show concern for the physical and mental wellbeing of our team, and as we take care of the environment. Writers and musicians bring beauty to the world through art and songs; civic leaders promote laws and policies that promote justice and peace. These actions may seem small, but like yeast, they gradually influence everything around them. First one person, then another, then the community and beyond.
Some leaders plant what will produce profit. But serving leaders plant what belongs. Every serving leadership act is a revelation of a new Kingdom and reveals a bit of heaven’s glory on earth.
For further reflection and discussion:
- How does the reality that God entrusts me to be an ambassador for Him and to represent His Kingdom in my workplace impact my leadership? Are there ways I have demonstrated that in the past week? What will I do in the next week to better live out my calling to be His ambassador?
- In what way does my work root out what does not belong in the world? Are there additional ways I might be called to root out or expose injustice, discrimination, disorder, or disunity?
- Reflect on ways that your work reveals the world as it should be by answering the following questions:
- How does the way I treat people in my work reflect the Kingdom?
- How does our service or product make the world a better place?
- How do we show respect for our environment?
- How does our work promote peace and justice?
Until next time, yours on the journey,
Jon Byler
In the next issue, we’ll look at how our work impacts eternity.
*Many of the thoughts in this series come from Jordan Raynor’s book “The Sacredness of Secular Work,” which I highly recommend. |
