The Supremacy of Christ in all things has been a clear and encouraging theme in the book of Colossians. Christ having made all things and being in authority over all things has established himself as the perfect image of God and the purpose of all creation. How does this apply to our labor?

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

First, work is a good thing. God commanded Adam to work before the Fall (Genesis 2:15), and we continue this work even today. We work to provide for our families. Work can give us a sense of purpose and accomplishment. And, work helps to build our communities. But how we work and why we work is a reflection of our souls, which too belong to God. For this reason, we cannot consider our work to be “secular,” having no relation to religious or spiritual activity. Ironically, those who take pride in building a Godless society may make this point more clear to us, because they have actually elevated their work to a religious or spiritual activity. They have elevated the created thing over the Creator and have fallen into idolatry.

To be clear, our work can certainly be sinful. There are whole industries, both legal and illegal, devoted to indulging our sinful nature and working in these industries would certainly put us at odds with Gods Word. A bigger temptation for us is that we elevate the good work that God has given us above God himself. We can be motivated to work from our hunger for more: more pay, more status, more accomplishment, or even more ministry success. When we work, whether we recognize it or not, we turn the good labor that God has given us into our redeemer instead of God himself.

We are tempted to look to our work to provide for our needs instead of looking God who uses work as means to provides for us according to his riches  (Philippians 4:19).

We are tempted look to our work to affirm and validate us instead of looking to God who affirms us as his children with great love (Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1).

We are tempted to identify with our work instead of God and his people (Colossians 3:3).

We are tempted to work to please man instead of God (Colossians 3:23).

Christ has redeemed us by completing a work we could not perform

Ultimately no work can be separated from God since all work belongs to God and reveals what our soul truly desires. And, Christ, by his work, has paved the way for us to put our work in its proper place. Christ has redeemed us by completing a work we could not perform. By living a sinless life and going to the cross, he frees us from the curse of death that we earned from the work of sin that we did perform. Only because of Christ can we put work in its proper place and, thereby, labor out of our satisfaction in God instead of laboring out of our hunger for his creation. When we do this, we begin to model Christ, the perfect image of God, who has supremacy over all things.