God first reveals Himself in Genesis as a Creator, Worker, and Entrepreneur.  He takes life, law and energy out of His own Spirit-self and puts it into the material Cosmos He creates.  The Greek word “Cosmos,” which we translate “world,” literally has as part of its meaning the inherent need to “tend or care for the thing that is created.”  It could be translated, “creation to-be-cared-for,” in terms of its conceptual meaning. Strong’s Concordance notes that the word “world” (Cosmos) derives its meaning from the Greek word, “Comizo,” which means to take care of.  The Greek word in the New Testament translated, “earth,” comes from a totally separate word, “ge,” which means soil or ground.  The Greek work used for Father’s work in John 5 is, “ergazomai,” which is to be engaged with or minister to.  The Earth is dirt and will pass away and be transformed, but the created Cosmos, which encompasses the Earth but is greater than the Earth, will eternally be tended by ALMIGHTY & SONS.  It will always engage us in the privilege of caring for it.  What began in the Garden of Eden will extend to the whole Earth.

      We see the working nature of God all the way into the next age.  In Revelation 21:10 we see the Church coming down to her earthly abode out of the heavens with Christ in her center, ruling over and from the Earth.  Remember this is after the “Millennium” of Revelation 20 and the Great White Throne judgment.  Revelation 22:1-2 is an especially intriguing verse:   "And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street.  And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

    Please take note of two facts: 1) Nations will still exist in the next age, and 2) they will still need healing.  The rest of this final chapter uses words like “serve” (vs. 3) and “reign” (vs. 5) which means to actively rule over and to administrate.  There is no mention of rocking chairs or linen hammocks.  The overcomer’s reward is the rulership of nations.  Still want to go to Heaven?  Let’s all agree that the other place has torment, which means they’re still trying to accomplish things, but with no possibility of communication or success.  Some of us feel like we’ve already worked a little in that environment and want no part of it!

    The promise of work-free Heaven is a heresy, and reveals not only a lack of Biblical scholarship and knowledge of God, but it reveals a soul unable to find expression in the material world.  Work is the incarnation of my intangible “soul” out into God’s Cosmos.  This is a very deep truth and worthy of a major effort to more fully draw it out.  Work allows what is inside me to be revealed in the outside world.  That is why God created the concept of work and loves it so much, because what is inside God is so spectacular it must be externally revealed.  It is through His work that we see who He is!  What an incredible and revealing thing work really is once we understand it from a Biblical point of view.  No wonder so many people hate work.  It is revealing externally what is inside of them, and it isn’t very pretty.

Written by Dennis Peacock.  Used by permission.  Dennis is founder and president of Strategic Christian Services, Inc., a non-profit corporation that aids leaders in discovering how to apply Biblical truth to churches, business, and culture.   Content distributed by HisChurchatWork.org > used for non-profit teaching purposes only.

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