For many years whenever I read Ephesians 2:10 I immediately connected the idea of good works with those ‘spiritual’ activities that were done in connection with the church and its program. They obviously included feeding the hungry, healing the sick, visiting prisoners and so on. While there is no question that these are very definitely good works, are they the only works God prepared for us to walk in?
Paul describes these works as ‘good’, that is to say they are morally or physically benevolent. In Colossians 1:10 he tells us that we are to bear fruit in every good work. Assuming that the activities we involve ourselves in are not, by their nature, evil or else intended to bring some disadvantage to somebody or offence to God, they are good works. The question that remains is whether these activities are those that God, before the foundation of the world, prepared for us to walk in.
To walk in something suggests that we are engaged in a particular activity over a reasonable period of time, there is a sense of continuity and purpose in our actions. It does not give the impression of infrequent, casual activity but rather a long-term, determined course of action or behaviour. So whatever the works are that God has prepared, they are something that should occupy a significant part of our time and energy. Obviously these works are significant, because God prepared them even before we were saved, they are not trivial or valueless. Most importantly God prepared them and he intends that we walk in them.
The activities that occupy most of the time for those in business or the workplace are of course their employment. Most of our life leads us to the job we have, whether it be our schooling, training, natural inclination or abilities. As we look back on our lives, quite often we can see the various things that have prepared us for things we are doing now. Of course this is not always so and some of us can be found in jobs that are just fill-ins, or a means of providing money so that we can do the things we want to. But if we are involved in meaningful employment it is usually because of the circumstances of our life and the choices we make. God has not only prepared good works for you to walk in, but he has also moulded and enabled you so that you can do so adequately.
There sometimes seems an implication that work is, if not actually evil, merely a necessity to meet the needs of life that occupies our time before the more meaningful activity of church affairs. Spiritual work is done at church; our jobs and places of employment are secular. This is nowhere taught in Scripture, while mankind was forced to live a life of work and toil because of his disobedience to God, work itself was never considered to be evil. In fact we see that on the 6 days of creation God worked, and then he rested. He insisted that his people should work 6 days and then rest on the seventh. Work is God’s idea; he planned it and intended that his sons and daughters should engage in it. Even before Adam and Eve sinned they were given the privilege of working! (Genesis 2:5 and 15).
What then are the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in? Do you believe that the job you are now doing is the one God prepared for you? Is it the one that all of your training, education and circumstances has shaped you for? Or are you just filling in time until something more spiritual comes along? Unless you are sure that the job you are doing is not the one God wants you to do, in which case you shouldn’t be there anyway, assume that it is God’s choice and commit yourself to bearing fruit in these good works.
Richard W.Foster 