A Soul Thread
Working in Love
Being Loved, Loving Others, and Being Formed Through Our Work
Faith & Work · Soul Thread
“Do everything in love.”—
Work matters.
Good work matters. Competence matters. Results matter. Stewardship matters. Other people may genuinely depend on us doing our work well.
And yet Scripture asks a deeper question than whether the work is impressive, meaningful, productive, or even sacrificial.
What is animating the work?
Paul writes that we can speak remarkably, understand deeply, exercise extraordinary faith, give generously, and make extraordinary sacrifices — and still somehow .
Paul is writing to the church about life together and the exercise of spiritual gifts, not giving us a modern theology of work.
But his warning reaches uncomfortably into our working lives.
It is possible for the outward value of what we do and the spiritual character with which we do it to be different things.
- We can build something worthwhile while being driven by fear.
- Serve others while needing to be needed.
- Pursue excellence while trying to prove our worth.
- Lead courageously while quietly protecting our ego.
- Sacrifice greatly while becoming resentful that nobody noticed.
Even work explicitly “for God” can become another place to perform.
This does not make the work meaningless.
It invites us deeper.
Before we begin
Work is not love
Work itself is not love.
And not every task needs to be turned into a conscious spiritual achievement.
Ordinary competent work has genuine value.
- A spreadsheet may simply need to be accurate.
- A customer needs an answer.
- A project needs to be completed.
- A difficult decision sometimes needs to be made.
Yet our work can become an expression of love.
Love can shape why we work, how we work, how we treat people, what we create, whose good we consider, how we exercise authority, how we respond under pressure — and how tightly we hold the results.
And perhaps something more is happening too.
Our work can become one of the ordinary places where God continues forming us.
Not only through what we accomplish.
But through what the work reveals in us.
Grace
Be loved by Christ
Before asking,
How can I love through my work?
there is a prior movement:
Receive love.
“We love because he first loved us.”—
Christian work does not begin with proving our devotion to God through usefulness.
We are not loved because we are productive.
We are not more beloved when the project succeeds.
We do not become more worthy because our leadership bears fruit.
Grace precedes contribution.
The question changes from:
How much do I need to accomplish to become enough?
to:
Because I am already loved, how might I faithfully steward what He has entrusted to me?
Sit with
Where has work quietly become a place where you seek worth, approval, security, identity, or the reassurance that you matter?
Can you let Christ meet you there before trying to work harder?
You are already loved here. There is no hurry to move on.
Communion
Be with Christ
Jesus did not merely send His disciples out to accomplish things.
He invited them to remain in Him.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”—
Before work becomes service, it can remain relationship.
Christ is present in the meeting.
- In the difficult conversation.
- In the ordinary task.
- In the deadline.
- In the uncertainty.
- In the success we enjoy and the disappointment we would rather avoid.
Faith and work is not merely asking God to bless what we are doing.
It is learning to work in communion with Him.
Sit with
Where in your work are you most tempted to rush ahead of presence?
What might change if you entered that part of your work remembering:
Christ is already here.
Participation
Work with Christ in love
Jesus gathers the law around .
That makes love more than a pleasant motivation somewhere behind our work.
Love begins to shape the work itself.
Love may look like:
- Listening carefully.
- Doing excellent work because someone else will depend on it.
- Telling the truth when concealment would be easier.
- Giving someone clear expectations rather than leaving them anxious and guessing.
- Challenging behaviour that is harming others.
- Creating something genuinely useful.
- Paying fairly.
- Keeping a promise.
- Giving credit.
- Holding someone accountable.
- Saying no when yes would enable something unhealthy.
- Making an unpopular decision for the good of the whole.
Love is not always soft.
It is patient and kind, but it also .
Sometimes love comforts. Sometimes love confronts. Sometimes love serves. Sometimes love establishes a boundary.
The question is not simply:
Was I nice?
It is:
What would love require here — for God, for this person, for the wider community, and for what has been entrusted to me?
Sit with
Who is actually in front of you through the work you are carrying right now?
What might loving them faithfully look like?
Formation
Become more like Christ in the work
God may be at work not only through what we do.
He may also be forming something within us through the work.
- A difficult colleague may expose impatience.
- Success may reveal how much we hunger for recognition.
- Failure may expose where identity has attached itself to achievement.
- Responsibility may uncover our desire to control.
- A courageous conversation may become a place where love and truth learn to live together.
- An exhausting season may reveal that what we called sacrificial love has slowly become fear, compulsion, or an inability to disappoint people.
The work does not automatically form us well.
Pressure can harden us as easily as it can mature us.
But brought honestly into the presence of God, ordinary working life can become material for the Spirit’s formation.
Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as:
“love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”—
These are not merely private spiritual qualities.
They become visible in how we work:
- how we respond under pressure,
- exercise authority,
- handle disagreement,
- treat people,
- make decisions,
- pursue results,
- and respond when things do not go our way.
And importantly, Paul calls this fruit.
It is not another performance target to achieve.
We participate, practise, repent, obey and remain attentive — but the deeper formation is the work of the Spirit.
Sit with
Instead of only asking:
What am I accomplishing through this work?
ask:
What fruit might the Spirit be growing in me through the work before me?
And perhaps even more deeply:
Who is God forming me to become as I participate in it?
Surrender
Entrust the fruit to Christ
Love works faithfully without needing to possess the outcome.
.
watered.
God gave the growth.
We still prepare. We lead. We measure. We follow through. We repair what went wrong. We learn. We pursue excellence.
But there is a boundary between responsibility and sovereignty.
Love can release what it cannot control.
- Sometimes this means continuing with courage.
- Sometimes it means resting.
- Sometimes it means allowing another person to choose differently than we hoped.
- Sometimes it means letting go of work that once mattered deeply.
- Sometimes it means accepting that faithful work did not produce the visible fruit we expected.
Surrender does not make the work less important.
It puts the work back into God’s hands.
A quiet distinction
The Spirit grows fruit in us.
We entrust the fruit of our work to God.
Sit with
What outcome are you currently gripping most tightly?
What would faithful stewardship look like if you did not also have to control the result?
Whatever you are holding, you are not holding it alone. You may set it down here for a moment.
A needed distinction
Love is not endless self-sacrifice
For Christians, this distinction matters.
We can mistake:
- overwork for faithfulness,
- people-pleasing for kindness,
- avoiding conflict for peace,
- having no boundaries for generosity,
- and carrying everyone for sacrificial love.
Jesus loved completely.
He also .
He .
He .
He refused demands that did not belong to His Father’s purposes.
He spoke difficult truths.
He .
Love does not always mean doing more.
Sometimes love says yes. Sometimes love says no. Sometimes love stays. Sometimes love releases.
Sacrificial love is not the same thing as compulsive self-erasure.
Sit with
Where might love be asking more of you?
And where might love be giving you permission to stop carrying what is not yours?
Same work
Same work. A different centre.
Perhaps the external work does not change at all.
- The target may still be ambitious.
- The difficult conversation still needs to happen.
- The business still needs to perform.
- The ministry still needs stewardship.
- The deadline remains Friday.
But the inner movement can change.
The work can remain demanding while the soul becomes freer.
A quieter question
A quieter question
We often ask:
Lord, what do You want me to do?
Perhaps sometimes another question belongs beside it:
Lord, how are You inviting me to receive Your love, love others, and become more loving through the work before me?
Stay there for a moment.
You do not need to manufacture an answer.
- Perhaps one person comes to mind.
- One decision.
- One piece of work.
- One place where you are striving.
- One place where love may be asking something costly.
- One place where love may be inviting you to stop carrying what was never yours to carry.
A Soul Pause · about 3 minutes
Bring one piece of work before God.
Name it quietly. Then ask:
Where do I need to receive Your love rather than prove myself?
Sit with
Who are You inviting me to love through the way I do this work?
Sit with
What fruit might Your Spirit be forming in me here?
Sit with
What fruit of this work do I need to entrust back to You?
Sit with
Wait.
There is no need to force clarity.
A Prayer
Father, before I work for You, let me receive Your love. Keep me close to Jesus in the ordinary work You have given me. Purify what drives me. Teach me to work with truth, courage, excellence and love. Where work is forming me, let Your Spirit grow His fruit in me. Where I am gripping the outcome, open my hands. Let what I do flow increasingly from the love I have first received from You. And when the work is finished, let love remain. Amen.
The deeper movement
Five quiet movements
Grace
Be loved by Christ.
Receive before striving.
Communion
Be with Christ.
Remain in His presence and love.
Participation
Work with Christ in love.
Let love shape purpose, people, methods and decisions.
Formation
Become more like Christ in the work.
Let the Spirit form His fruit in you.
Surrender
Entrust the fruit to Christ.
Remain faithful without possessing the outcome.
This is not a prescribed biblical sequence. These movements overlap, return, deepen, and often happen together.
More to sit with
Called to Love Where You Lead
Salt, Light, and the People Already in Front of You — love as faithful presence where God has already placed you.
Good Neighbors at Work
Relationships, Tension & the Inner Life of Leadership — notice what workplace relationships and reactions may be revealing and forming in you.
Beyond Performance
Meeting the False Self and Coming Home to Christ — for the soul tired of proving its worth through performance.
Faithful Execution
The Four Pillars of Operational Stewardship — clear expectations, goals, measures and accountability held as stewardship and care.
When the Work You Love Grows Heavy
Remaining with Jesus When Serving Becomes Heavy — for the season when love, service and responsibility begin to feel costly.
Grace and participation
Work Out What God Is Working In →Taking our response seriously without making ourselves the source of transformation.
Pass it on
Formation isn’t meant to be walked alone.
Is there another leader in your life who is carrying a heavy load right now? You can leave a quiet door open for them — no pressure, no reply needed.
If now feels rushed, that's okay. Formation rarely happens in a hurry — sit with God later and return when you can be fully present.
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