V. Living Out Our Mission
In the Family and the Workplace
Following Christ encompasses the whole of a believer’s life. Our relationships at home, our choices at work, and our use of money and time all need careful consideration before the Lord.
Paul urges believers to do everything, whether in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:17). This helps us recognise that every area of life needs His guidance. Worship, reading Scripture, and prayer help us know the Lord. The truth we receive also needs to shape how we treat others and carry our responsibilities each day.
This section explores how those who have received grace put entrusted responsibilities into practice in everyday circumstances. Responsibilities in the family and at work have specific demands and also provide real settings for bearing witness to Christ. Working honestly, caring for family members, and treating people fairly are responsibilities believers should take seriously. Explaining Christ’s salvation when appropriate opportunities arise also needs to be consistent with the way we live.
Thinking about mission therefore requires attention to the relationships and responsibilities we already have. We can seek new opportunities to participate while also beginning with the things we need to do well today, the people who need our care, and the habits we need to change, allowing the truth we believe to shape our actual lives.
1. Ordinary Life Is an Important Setting for Responding to God
When we think about mission, we may readily think of travelling far, preaching publicly, establishing an organisation, or accomplishing something with widespread influence. These may form part of a specific responsibility entrusted to us, yet believers still spend much of their time in ordinary life.
Caring for children, accompanying older people, doing household tasks, working diligently, keeping promises, and treating colleagues and those we serve with kindness can all be concrete acts of faithfulness to God. They meet real needs and help us learn to love, act honestly, and take responsibility.
Everyday responsibilities are more than exercises preparing us for greater work in the future. A child receiving patient care, an older person having companionship, and a task being completed carefully have value in themselves. These things do not lose their meaning simply because they do not lead to a larger platform.
We do not have to find a name for our “unique mission” before we begin to respond. We can start carrying the responsibilities we already understand today. Directions that remain unclear can be discerned further through prayer, learning, and practice.
At the same time, human dignity cannot be measured by the number of tasks a person carries out. Some can do many things, while others can carry only a few responsibilities because of illness, age, or other limitations. They deserve the same respect and care. Receiving help can also be a way of trusting God amid limitations and sharing a life of mutual belonging with other members of Christ’s body.
2. The Family Is One of the Most Immediate Starting Points for Mission
Family relationships provide an ongoing, concrete setting in which to learn to love others. Faithfulness and love in marriage, parents’ care and upbringing of children, children’s respect for parents, and family members’ care for one another and sharing of responsibilities all need to be guided by Christ’s truth.
Ephesians 5:21–6:4 connects reverence for Christ with family relationships, giving specific instruction on how spouses, parents, and children are to fulfil their responsibilities. For example, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Children are to obey their parents in the Lord. Fathers are not to provoke their children to anger, but to bring them up in the Lord’s instruction and discipline.
Faithfulness in the family often takes shape in small things that recur: being willing to listen to family members, sharing tasks as agreed, taking one another’s tiredness into account, restraining our words in conflict, and earnestly admitting wrong, apologising, and changing when harm has been done.
Public ministry cannot make up for neglecting responsibilities at home. We need to examine carefully whether, while investing in work outside the home, we are still attentive to the needs of those closest to us. Care for family members also needs to be reflected in how we allocate time and resources.
Self-giving and forgiveness within the family need to remain connected with truth, justice, and protection. Love does not require concealing harm, and forgiveness does not remove accountability. When harm is ongoing, appropriate help needs to be sought, with careful attention to family members’ safety and dignity.
Believers who are single, widowed, without children, or separated from family have the same full dignity as people created by God and the same belonging in Christ. The family is an important setting in life, but responding faithfully to God does not require everyone to experience the same circumstances of marriage and family. The church also needs to build genuine care and support among believers in different situations.
3. The Workplace Is an Important Setting for Responding to God
Work enables people to use their abilities, provide for daily needs, serve others, and share in the responsibilities of society. Believers need to learn diligently and develop their abilities, while also examining whether the aims, methods, and effects of their work accord with the truth.
Paul said to slaves in his day, “And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). He also required masters to treat them justly, remembering that they too had a Master in heaven (Colossians 4:1).
These teachings address a specific historical setting. Slaves and masters in that setting cannot simply be equated with employees and employers today. Read alongside the principle that our whole life belongs to the Lord, these teachings help us recognise that people in different roles at work are all accountable before God.
For employees, this may mean carrying out responsibilities diligently, communicating honestly, keeping promises, and respecting colleagues and those they serve. For managers, it includes allocating responsibilities fairly, considering reasonable workloads, explaining requirements clearly, and seriously addressing injustice and failures to fulfil responsibilities.
The words “as for the Lord” must not become a reason to demand unconditional compliance or to increase people’s workloads without limit. Faithfulness to the Lord also means refusing dishonest demands and declining to take part in actions that harm others, even under pressure or for personal gain.
The value of work also needs to be understood in terms of the people and needs it actually serves. Repairing a piece of equipment, handling information accurately, caring patiently for someone, and providing a reliable service can all offer real help to others. Diligence and professional competence at work are therefore also part of a responsible life.
A career can provide an important setting for putting entrusted responsibilities into practice, yet it cannot encompass the full meaning of calling. Roles change, and employment may end. We still need to discern how to use our abilities well, attend to practical needs, and remain faithful to the Lord in new circumstances.
4. Mission Changes the Centre and Manner of Our Lives Rather Than Merely Adding Another Task
Responding to God in the family and at work first affects how we carry the responsibilities already entrusted to us.
For example, when providing a service, we can reconsider our work from the perspective of those we serve: Does it meet real needs? Are the arrangements reasonable? Have we overlooked someone else’s difficulties for our own convenience? Such reflection helps us adjust the way we work.
These changes need to shape concrete arrangements. If we say we value family, we need to make time for family members. If we say we want to treat people fairly, we need to examine our decisions carefully. If we say we value the resources entrusted to us, we need to reduce waste and manage them honestly.
Some responses do require taking on new tasks and even changing existing arrangements. We may need to enter a new area of service, care for someone in need, or go somewhere new after appropriate preparation. We need to discern carefully whether we should take on the new responsibility and how to bring it into harmony with what has already been entrusted to us.
Our time, energy, and abilities have limits. Faced with multiple needs, we need to weigh priorities, consult those concerned, and seek ways to work together. We must not assume that every opportunity has to be accepted simply because it arises. Nor should we neglect a responsibility we ought to carry simply because it involves sacrifice.
Living out our mission means arranging our participation according to real needs rather than continually adding to our schedules. Appropriate choices allow us to attend to existing responsibilities and prepare adequately for new ways of responding.
5. Everyday Life Provides an Ongoing Witness to Our Faith
Major decisions affect our lives, and everyday habits also shape us continually. The way we speak, keep our word, use money, deal with the interests at stake and with conflicts, and treat those who can offer us little in return reveals whether the truth we believe has become part of our lives.
Family members, colleagues, and neighbours often come to know us through ongoing relationships. They see both our diligence and our weaknesses. Bearing witness to Christ therefore requires us to face the realities of our own lives honestly.
When we break a promise, express anger in inappropriate words, or hurt someone in other ways, we need to acknowledge our wrongdoing, bear the consequences, and take appropriate action to make amends and repair relationships. A single apology cannot replace sustained change. Nor does explaining our faith clearly exempt us from the responsibilities we ought to fulfil.
At the same time, we can explain, when appropriate opportunities arise, why we trust Christ and why we need His forgiveness and help. Good deeds and spoken witness support one another, enabling people both to hear the gospel and to see how we are learning to respond in grace.
Everyday witness often requires patience. Family members’ responses, colleagues’ opinions, and changes in relationships are not entirely within our control. We can care sincerely and communicate clearly while respecting others and entrusting to God the outcomes we cannot control.
Whether we remain where we are or enter new circumstances, following Christ needs to shape real relationships and responsibilities. The family and the workplace help us learn faithfulness each day. Through ongoing relationships, we also bear witness in words and actions to the Lord who gives grace and renews lives.