Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Empowering People for Freedom, Wholeness, and Justice (continued)

• The workplace should operate as a caring community. Whileanimpersonalatmospherecharacterizesmanybusinessenvironments, Christian development strives to create a relational framework for trainees and employees. Development workers and those participating in the development project must develop habit patterns of caring for each other beyond the constraints of the project at hand. 6.2 Development should empower people to take full responsibility for their own lives and to care for the needs of others. Explanation Development emerges from the conviction that all work is honorable. God has mandated that human beings earn their living with integrity and excellence. This mandate for individual work is grounded in God’s initial command given to humankind at creation, and continues on and is reaffirmed in the teachings of the apostles. While God demands that his people be generous and hospitable to the needy and the stranger (2 Cor. 9), God likewise commands all to work honestly with their own hands (1 Thess. 4), and further charges that those who refuse to work ought to correspondingly be denied benevolent aid, that is, “if anyone will not work, neither let him eat,” (cf. 2 Thess. 3.10). Development rejects the notion that the creation of wealth is intrinsically evil. Such a view is simplistic and fails to grapple with the biblical notion of Christian stewardship. Development aims to create abundance, but never for the sake of selfish gain or lustful greed. Rather, development takes seriously the biblical requirement that we work, not merely to meet our own needs, but so that from the abundance God has provided we may use our goods and resources to meet the needs of others, especially those who are our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ (cf. Eph. 4; 2 Cor. 8; Gal. 6). The biblical standard is that those who stole before they entered the Kingdom are to steal no more, but to work honorably in quietness and integrity, in order that they may have sufficient resources to meet their own needs, and have sufficient wealth to care for others. Development not only seeks to honor the needy by ensuring they can participate in the basic human right to work, it also challenges them to trust God to supply their needs through honorable labor that allows them to be providers for themselves and others.