The Good Work

Philippians 1:6

It’s amazing how caught up I get in the tasks of life. I have my daily to-do list that I work methodically and consistently to accomplish, usually ending my day feeling exhausted, spent, and lifeless. As a young man trying to establish my career and life’s calling, life can seem like constant toil. Yet in the in-between times, I catch myself longing deeply for goodness.

Put simply, I long for good, lasting, fulfilling work.

Don’t we all?

Reading in Philippians yesterday, I was caught by a phrase that I have casually read over a hundred times: “He who initiated a good work among you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Php 1:6). When I observed in the Greek the plural “you,” I was struck with the bigger picture. I have always assumed that the “you” was singular, speaking only about God’s work inside of each individual believer. Therefore, this verse spoke only of God’s work in individual sanctification. However, with the use of the plural “you” in a prepositional phrase that can also be translated as “among you” (Gr. ‘en humin’), I connected with the reality that Paul is describing God’s work in the entire church at Philippi. This isn’t simply a comment on each individual’s personal growth in holiness (I believe it is that partly), but it is also a comment on God’ redemptive work among all His people.

This is the Good Work.

This is the work that God has been doing since the dawn of time, and will carry out until the temporary is replaced by the eternal, on the Day of Christ Jesus. God is doing the good work of redeeming a lost and broken people, bent on our own self-destruction.

And He invites us to become partakers of that redemption and co-laborers with Him.

Astounding.

My to-do lists will still be made, and their duties will come and go. But the truth of God tells me that I can hold it loosely, because there is a greater task in which I can engage – the building of His Church.

Every relationship has potential in light of this. Every moment is another chance to notice His work of redemption all around me, and to enter in to the goodness of laboring with a God who has the strength, time, and resources to accomplish all that He desires.

Lord, teach my heart how to consistently engage in your good work all around me.