Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4)

Before sin entered the world, before the fall, work was a way mankind glorified God. God created us to work, and the garden needed cultivating. And now, under the curse brought on by sin, we are still called to a life of work.

But what happens when your work goes sideways? What comes of our lives when work takes God's place? What danger lurks in our work?

In Genesis 11, the citizens of Babel said, "Come, let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). They worked, but without God and for self-glory. They labored to make themselves a name.

When you go to work to make a name for God, what you do has significance. Perhaps it's your character on the job site that builds God's reputation. Perhaps your company creates products which make human life better. Perhaps you are offering services the community needs. If you do these things for your own name, for your own vanity, you've ruined work. But when you work as worship, thanking God for what he has given you and the ability to thrive on his good earth, then you are doing it as a way to glorify his name.

Ancient Babel ruined work. Let's allow Jesus to redeem it. Let's work as worship.