Introduction
Modern society has blurred the traditional (often Christian informed) distinctions between work, career and vocation.
In a most basic sense, a job is work done as toil. Career is generally identified with a path of upward mobility rewarded by financial benefits, security, personal prestige and self – fulfillment. This secular understanding of career has become the idol and disease of “careerism”. Its symptoms include drivenness, burn-out, self-interest and unrestrained personal ambition.
The Christian view of vocation however involves a life call from God to live for his glory.
Creation and Vocation
Adam and Eve were created for the glory of God (Isa 43:6). This meant allowing God to fill them with his life and to express this in all that they did. (This call will eventually be realized at the End through Christ (Hab 2:14, Eph 1:23;4:10).) Whilst Adam and Eve walked in fellowship with God they experienced his presence, power and pleasure flowing through them and in all their relationships, including the sphere of work. The totality of their lives was directional and purposeful.
Fallen Vocation
The temptation of Satan to the first couple was for them to live for their own glory and not for God’s (Gen 3:1-6). The promise of a brilliant career opened up to Adam and Eve that proved irresistible. They could advance their lives to God-like status without the need for God. All the glory and honour would be theirs.
The result of the first sin however was shame. At the core of their beings Adam and Eve knew that they had lost the presence, power and pleasure of God. They knew inwardly that they had lost the glory of God (Rom 3:23). They tried to cover their nakedness by their own ingenuity, and fallen humanity has followed this course ever since.
“Exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling…” (Rom 1:23). The glory of humanity was no longer reflected in its dependent relationship with its Creator but in its apparently self-sustained ability to advance its own interests.
Ultimately this enterprise of the world ends in a futility irresistibly signified by the unavoidability of death (Rom 1:32; Heb 2:14-15;9:27). Men and women continue to live as if they have lost the divine vocation. The truth is, that they have only rejected the call of God and that the meaning of life to live for his glory remains forever (1 Cor 11:7; James 3:9).
Christ and Vocation
Israel was called by God in a way that was meant to radiate God’s true intention for all people. They were to belong exclusively to him (Hos 11:1- 2) and to serve his purposes in the world (Ex 19:6; Isa 42:6). They were to be a nation in communion with God and a true community faithfully stewarding the land God gave them. Israel’s idolatry meant a violation of the holy bond established in covenant with the LORD. Instead of imaging the vocation of God they came under his judgement.
Jesus however is the second Adam and the faithful Israelite who is completely true to the call of God and the vocation to live for his glory (John 1:14;2:11; 2 Cor 4:4,6 etc.). He lives wholly for the glory of his Father (John 8:50, 54). This is in fact his glory and as such something he repeatedly prays for with all his heart (John 13:32; 17:1,5)
In this state of life, Jesus is a wholly fulfilled person: his personality, natural talents and spiritual gifts are all integrated and find direction within the vocation of God. None of this altered when Jesus changed jobs or his career.
The fullness of the call of God on Jesus earthly life is found in the cross. “It is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:27-28). The cross exemplifies the truth that Jesus’ vocation is the honour of his Father and not self – interest. The outcome of the death of Jesus is the resurrection, a new phase in the career of the Son of God, power and authority to rule the world (Matt 28:18; Rom 1:3; Heb 2:9). This is the glory of his Father (Phil 2:9-11).
Christian Vocation
Christians are “called into the fellowship of God’s Son.” (1 Cor 1:9). This means sharing in everything that the Father shares with the Son in the power of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:21-23). This is the glory of God and the divine vocation (Eph 1:18). In the End, all that Jesus has will be ours (1 Pet 3:9).
When Christians live consistent lives within a sense of call and vocation we may confidently expect freedom from the social diseases that are a sign of God’s displeasure upon careerism: burn – out, drivenness, frustration, envy, selfish ambition and so on.
Positively, we can anticipate a growing sense of integration in all the areas of life flowing from the life of Christ within (Col 1:27). In not doing our work for ourselves, families, businesses or even the world, but for God, we can expect a deepening sense of “I was born for this.”