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Living the Bible at work brings joy, meaning, and purpose to what we do.
At Bible at Work, we study things related to work, such as innovative thinking, conflict resolution, and more, and learn what the Bible says about work and everything we face at work. Subscribe to our Bible at Work emails, podcasts, and social media channels, and we will learn together!
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You Have Infinite Creative Power
In Genesis 1, we come across the Hebrew word asa. This means to make, fashion, or produce something from something else. It’s used to describe God's creation of animals, trees, and stars—and, elsewhere in the Bible, it reflects our capacity to create.
This word points to our unique role as humans made in God's image. We are meant to be makers. Creators. But we create by working with what already exists—mixing, matching, refining, building. We are born with an infinite capacity to discover and innovate. Our creative capacity shines in solving problems, innovating processes, and inventing new things that improve the world around us. >> Continue Reading
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When Success Should Lead to Reward… But Doesn't
God made David more successful than all the other commanders. Naturally, we expect success to be rewarded. Yet Saul, the king—Israel’s top leader—sees David’s growing victories and responds with an order to kill him.
Saul’s reaction is driven by fear: fear of David’s rise, fear of David’s popularity, and fear that David is a threat to his power.
David had done nothing but serve Saul faithfully. He fought Saul’s battles, obeyed Saul’s commands, and strengthened Saul’s kingdom. But Saul, consumed by insecurity and fueled by jealousy, chose destruction instead of gratitude. >> Continue Reading
God’s Blueprint for Servant Leadership in Genesis 2
Genesis 2 reveals that servant leadership originated not in modern organizations but in God’s own actions toward Adam. After creating the vast universe, God planted a fertile garden in Eden, ensuring Adam had everything he needed for his work. God then brought each animal to Adam, an astonishing picture of the Creator sacrificially serving His creation. Scripture shows that God’s servant leadership flows from love, a model later seen in Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. Modern research echoes these truths, demonstrating that servant leadership increases performance, retention, and satisfaction, affirming that leaders best reflect God when they use their authority to care for and empower others. >> Continue Reading
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You Have Infinite Creative Power
In the first chapter of the Bible, we’re introduced not only to the beginning of the world, but to the foundation of who God is and who we are. The chapter contains five key elements: The need for a beginning, God’s creative power, our creative capacity, our identity and purpose, and finally, our power and authority.
Here, let’s explore the first three elements and how they apply to our daily work.
1. The Need for a Beginning
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
This verse marks the start of everything, the beginning of time itself. It was the moment God chose to create something entirely new, something distinct from all that had existed before (even the angels). Creating something begins with a decision; the moment you choose to start something new, whether it's a business, a campaign, a layout, a process, or a product.
2. God’s Creative Power: From Nothing to Everything
The word “created” in Genesis 1:1 comes from the Hebrew word bara, which means to bring something into existence out of nothing. This word is only used in the Bible for God’s creative acts.
This concept, known as ex nihilo, shows the unique power of God: He doesn’t need raw materials; He creates the raw materials! While we can’t create from nothing, we can create from what God has already created. All the resources, ideas, and raw materials we can use to create in our work, God has already given to us.
3. Our Creative Power: Made to Make
Later in Genesis 1, another Hebrew word shows up: asa. This means to make, fashion, or produce something from something else. It’s used to describe God's creation of animals, trees, and stars, and elsewhere in the Bible, it reflects our capacity to create.
This word points to our unique role as humans made in God's image. We are meant to be makers. Creators. But we create by working with what already exists—mixing, matching, refining, building. We are born with an infinite capacity to discover and innovate. Our creative capacity shines in solving problems, innovating processes, and inventing new things that improve the world around us.
So, What Does This Mean for Our Work?
Here are four powerful lessons from Genesis 1 that can guide how we approach our jobs, leadership, and creative projects:
A. Decide Within Yourself to Create
Read Genesis 1 and be encouraged and motivated to create. Whether you’re a founder launching a new business, a manager planning strategically, or a team member producing content daily, it all begins with your choice to step into creativity.
B. Choose to Create What is Good
“Good” in Genesis isn’t just about usefulness—it’s about the beauty and joy it brings to us and people around us. Ask yourself: Will what I create bring beauty or joy to me, my team, or customers? That’s a high bar, and a worthy one. It is also an achievable one, as Steve Jobs showed us when he led Apple.
C. Persevere in the Creative Process
Persevere in your creative effort. God is God and does not need a retake. We do. But we can reflect God and persevere to create something beautiful and joyful for us and others.
D. Build from What’s Already Created
We’re not starting from scratch. We’re building with the resources, ideas, people, and opportunities already in front of us. The best way to be creative and to build your creative capacity is to mix, match, and make from what already exists.
Remember
You were made to create. And God is never fazed by what we create. Rather, whether it’s a strategy, a product, a story, or a system, your creative work reflects the One who made you. So step into it and decide to create—whether it is to live on Mars or find a cure for Ebola. Create what is good for humanity, and continue to build your creative
capacity.
When Success Should Lead to Reward… But Doesn't
The last verse of 1 Samuel 18 sets the stage for the next verse, 19:1: “Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war. And so it was, whenever they went out, that David was more successful than the rest of Saul’s officers. So David’s name became very famous.” Immediately after this, the story takes a sharp turn. “Saul told his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David.”
By placing these two verses side by side—David’s rising success and Saul’s command to kill him—Scripture shines a light on the character of three men: Saul, Jonathan, and David.
Harvard professor Joseph Badaracco Jr. once noted that leadership reveals character. In his book Questions of Character, he explored the moral fiber of key literary figures. Scripture does the same. It never hides sin, and it never minimizes exemplary actions. Instead, it lets the character speak for itself.
In these verses, we see that God made David more successful than all the other commanders. Naturally, we expect success to be rewarded. Yet Saul, the king—Israel’s top leader—sees David’s growing victories and responds with an order to kill him.
Saul’s reaction is driven by fear:
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fear of David’s rise,
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fear of David’s popularity,
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fear that David is a threat to Saul’s power.
David had done nothing but serve Saul faithfully. He fought Saul’s battles, obeyed Saul’s commands, and strengthened Saul’s kingdom. But Saul, consumed by insecurity and fueled by jealousy, chose destruction instead of gratitude.
Unfortunately, Saul’s pattern still appears in leadership today. And what was true then is still true now. Many leaders develop personal vendettas against those who refuse to feed their egos. We see this in the book of Esther, where Haman despises Mordecai simply because Mordecai would not bow.
In other cases, leaders feel threatened when gifted team members rise quickly through talent and hard work. Sometimes ambition and fear of losing position drive leaders to push others down. Saul’s insecurity and ambition show up in modern workplaces in different forms:
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putting roadblocks in someone’s path,
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derailing a promising career,
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curbing the growth of talented employees,
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or with a psychopathic leader, simply stepping on others without a second thought.
Saul was already at the top—no one could rise higher than a king. Yet his inner life had shriveled. His moral and spiritual values had grown dull.
Leaders, if you are riding the wave of success, beware of its numbing effect on character. Saul shows us how success can become a psychological and emotional anesthetic—deadening spiritual depth, dulling moral judgment, and fueling insecurity.
Scripture gives us two clear safeguards from the numbing effects of success
1. Meditate on God’s Word (Psalm 1:2–3)
During seasons of success, intentionally take time to chew on the Word of God. Study it. Relish it. Meditate on it. The Psalmist, from his lived experience, tells us that meditating on God’s word will help us to be like a well-watered tree, bearing fruit in season. In times of success, you will be a blessing to others.
2. Surround Yourself with Godly Believers and People of Character
Paul warned the Corinthians that “bad company corrupts good character.”
When we surround ourselves with people whose words and actions are contrary to how God wants us to live, our conscience can grow dull over time. The best way to know someone’s character is by observing how they treat people who have less power than they have.
In Conclusion
With Scripture shaping our mindset and friends with character sharpening us, we will not become morally, spiritually, or emotionally numb like Saul. Instead, as the next section of 1 Samuel shows, we can grow into leaders like Jonathan—using our influence for the good of others.
God’s Blueprint for Servant Leadership in Genesis 2
In 1977, Robert Greenleaf, a top management leader at AT&T, published a landmark paper on servant leadership. Greenleaf wrote, “Caring for people, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which good society is built.” Since then, many companies, universities, and organizations, such as Jason’s Deli, Dallas Baptist University, and the Ritz Carlton, have embraced servant leadership as their philosophy or credo.
But the idea of servant leadership did not begin when companies adopted it. It appears much earlier in Scripture, in the second chapter of Genesis. Here, we will look closely at Genesis 2, especially verses 8, 19, and 20.
The world became widely aware of servant leadership when Robert Greenleaf introduced the concept of the leader serving others. Many followers of Jesus point to Jesus washing the disciples’ feet as the biblical model of servant leadership. But Scripture gives us an even earlier picture: Genesis 2.
In the verses I am sharing from Genesis 2, God Himself models servant leadership:
Genesis 2:1: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in their vast array.”
Genesis 2:8: “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden…”
Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
Genesis 2:19 and 2:20: “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals.”
God Shows Tender Care
Genesis 1 ends with the vast array of God’s creation. God formed more than 100 billion galaxies, each with more than 100,000 stars. Then God focused on planet Earth and created millions of species. According to a biology journal, more than 85% of Earth’s species are still undiscovered. The scale is impossible to grasp—the bigness of galaxies and the delicate details on our planet. And then God crowned His creation with Adam and Eve.
Once man was created, God could have let Adam wander the Earth and figure out life on his own. After all, God had already commanded man to take care of the Earth (Genesis 1). But God does not abandon man to fend for himself. Instead, in Genesis 2:8 we see God planted a garden in the east, Eden. God chose one of the most fertile regions of the world, a land filled with gold and precious stones (v.12) and watered by four rivers (vv. 10–13).
To understand the significance of God planting a garden, consider these two survival stories.
In 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke survived a plane crash in the Peruvian rainforest. Injured, with no supplies except a few pieces of candy, she walked alone through the forest for days. She survived rainstorms, cold nights, maggots infesting her arm, hunger, and exhaustion. After ten days, she found a boat and a small path to a hut. She poured kerosene on her arm while experiencing searing pain to kill more than 30 maggots. Eventually, she was rescued. Her survival was nearly impossible because she was alone in a harsh environment.
Contrast this with Mauro Morandi, whose boat engine failed in 1989 and carried him to Budelli Island. The island was beautiful and already made livable by a caretaker. Morandi eventually took over caring for the island and lived there, peacefully and alone, for decades.
Our surroundings matter.
God did not place Adam and Eve in a harsh, hostile environment where they had to fight for survival. He placed them in Eden, a fertile, manageable, beautiful home. God ensured Adam and Eve could survive with ease and experience joy in a gorgeous place. And God gave Adam a meaningful purpose: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (v. 15).
God Shows Sacrificial Care
God’s servant leadership is most clearly seen in verses 19 and 20: “God brought the animals to the man to see what he would name them…”
God did not command Adam to search the Earth for animals, identify each one, and name them. God did the work of bringing each animal to Adam.
Imagine Jeff Bezos walking through a one-million-square-foot Amazon warehouse in Phoenix, picking up tricycles, frying pans, and toys from the shelves and personally handing them to employees to package and ship. Doing this until every package was shipped.
It’s unthinkable.
But that is the picture Genesis 2 gives us. God, the Creator of galaxies, stooped down and sacrificially served Adam, bringing the animals to him one by one and patiently waiting as Adam named them.
God Shows Loving Care
Genesis 2 shows God serving Adam tenderly and intentionally. Robert Greenleaf taught that servant leaders have a natural desire to serve. But Scripture shows that God serves because He loves. God loved Adam. And God loves every person born after Adam.
The apostle John writes that Jesus loved His disciples—and then tells the story of Jesus washing their feet. The foot washing is one of Scripture’s clearest pictures of servant leadership flowing out of love. Our servant leadership must reflect this same motivation. Whether we are CEOs or frontline workers answering phones, we serve because we choose to love the people God has placed around us.
Research Confirms the Benefits of Servant Leadership
While servant leadership is rooted in Scripture, modern research also shows its impact.
At the Cleveland Clinic, servant leadership practices raised patient satisfaction. Another study of 961 employees at Jason’s Deli revealed that servant leadership increased:
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employee performance
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employee retention
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customer service
When we put the care of others first, God honors it.
Three Ways We Reflect God in Servant Leadership
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Genesis 2 reveals God’s loving care toward Adam.
God provided abundantly for him by planting a beautiful garden. In your leadership, reflect this same generosity. Provide your team with the resources, support, and conditions they need to accomplish their work, beginning with a healthy work environment and culture. -
God enabled Adam to carry out his work by bringing the animals to him.
Our Almighty Creator, who formed billions of stars, served the man He created from dust. As a leader, you hold power and authority that others may not. Use that power not to burden your team but to make their work easier, smoother, and more meaningful. -
Wherever we work and whatever role we hold, we can reflect God’s heart in how and why we serve.
We serve because we choose to love just as God has loved us. Servant leadership is not merely a strategy; it is an expression of love toward the people God has placed around us.
Robert Greenleaf may have coined the phrase servant leadership in the 1970s, but when I read Genesis 2, I am awestruck to realize that God modeled servant leadership from the very beginning.
Be your purpose.
Be fulfilled.
We spend about one-third of our adult lives at work, yet we rarely look to what God tells us of the what and how of work. However, when we take the time to understand God’s engagement in our work, we experience a deep sense of happiness, contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment, and purpose.