2026-09-28
1 Kings 7:13-14 And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was a son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. And he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill for making any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.
The rest of 1 Kings 7 goes on to give the details and descriptions of everything that Hiram made for King Solomon. It was so much work to be done by one man, considering that Solomon even had to leave the “vessels unweighed, because there were so many of them. The weight of the bronze was not ascertained” (verse 47). Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” In secular spaces, Christians are sometimes charged for being incompetent and unreliable in their work. We are seen to be a people so passionate about God we forget that we live in the world, and to a degree, they really are justified in making this condemnation. Jesus Christ, too, faulted his disciples, saying: “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8).
For many of us, this incapacity for good work, and the uncommendable attitude towards it, is likely the outcome of an improper understanding of the meaning of work, and an unappreciation and lack of acknowledgement of the role that it too has to play in our sanctification. It is also the result of compartmentalizing our lives so that our work is so divorced and quite distinct from our worship when, in fact, our work too ought to be done and offered to God as worship. We really don’t honour God by being mediocre people in our fields. I believe Acts 17:26 to be so all-encompassing so that when it says God has determined allotted periods and boundaries of our dwelling place, it follows that even the jobs we find ourselves doing have been determined by him. Since it isn’t merely a mistake of chance but he who calls us into these spaces that we find ourselves in, to do the tasks and fulfill the responsibilities assigned to us, ought we then not but be very diligent workers, doing all things not as unto man, but as unto God? By being incapable of our work, we might end up forfeiting our post, and subsequently losing the opportunity that had come with it of making God known through our diligence, virtue, and integrity.
Various spaces, and especially the health care system, need Christians so anchored in their faith and rooted in God’s Word, and who are also, as it were, filled with wisdom, understanding, and skill; so that we are capable of doing our work exceptionally and exemplarily well and by it making God known. To do our jobs well is to be faithful stewards of that which God has graciously entrusted to us, and in the end we know that he will come back to settle accounts. I don’t say this as one who has done or is doing so well already , nor as one who is particularly skillful and exemplary in his work. I too regret all those times that I have dilly-dallied and given less than my best. I hate it that though I have claimed myself a Christian, yet I haven’t been known as a dependable and diligent worker. This is just the sort of thing that in the end places our professed faith in disrepute.
We, however, have a great encouragement in Daniel who so distinguished himself so that the King planned to set him over the whole kingdom (Daniel 6:3). And “then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:4-5). Let us then take our cue from Daniel, and from Hiram. Let us give ourselves gladly and diligently to the work before us, doing it as unto God, convinced that it is from him that we will receive our reward. Nor should all this effort and diligence be applied merely for our own personal glory or just for the sake of career advancement, but rather to serve God and honour him by our work. The end of our work isn’t just to stand before a king but to appear before the King of Kings and be told “well done good and faithful servant.”
Though addressed in the context of writing, C. S. Lewis captures this spirit of skillful, faithful, and diligent work when he writes: “What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects— with their Christianity latent” (God in the Dock, Christian Apologetics).
Prayer:
Dear Lord, we are grateful for the honour and privilege to do the work that you have committed to us. May we with skill and diligence apply ourselves to it, so that by it your name may be praised and glorified. In Jesus Name. Amen.