The Other 6 Days

When God created the heavens and the earth, the flora and the fauna, He declares, “It is good.” And on the 6th day, after He had made man and looked at everything that He had made, He declares, “It was very good.”

In God’s eyes there are no sacred and secular divide.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1 NIV).

“This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne,a and the earth is my footstool” (Isa 66:1 NIV).

The other six days are equally holy to God. For all the things that we do, whether small or big, the right attitude is to work at it with all our hearts, as working for the Lord, not for men. It is the Lord Christ we are serving (Col 3:23-24).

Dr Paul Stevens writes, “According to the first three chapters of Genesis, every person has three full-time jobs:

  1. communion with God (Gen 1:26-31; 3:9; 3:13),
  2. community building with neighbour and family (Gen 1:26; 2:18),
  3. co-creating with God (Gen 1:26-28; 2:15).

“Both male and female are called to all aspects of human work: the spiritual (enriching fellowship with God); the relational (enriching our cohumanity); the corporate (engaging in community building with family, church and society); and giving leadership to the created order under the leadership of God Himself.” 1

So whether a person is employed or unemployed, whether it is the first day of the week of the other six days, a person matures through engagement with God, people and nature.

Jesus has given us two Commissions:

  1. The Great Commission of Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20). We are commanded to be “going about” in the world so as to make disciples of peoples from different nations and ethnic groups. We have a special role as ambassadors of Christ to reconcile men to God (2 Corinthians 5:20) and be stewards of the groaning creation (Romans 8:22-23) until Christ returns.
  2. The Great Commandments of Jesus (Matthew 22:37-40). The first great commandment is to love God and have no other gods. The other is to love our neighbours as ourselves. Jesus declares on these two commandments hang the Law and the Prophets.

The local assembly is part of the universal Body of Christ.

Typically, on the Sundays and a few weekday evenings, the people (laos) of God assemble to worship, to Break Bread, to study and listen to the Word of God and to pray (Acts 2:42). There is the edification or the building up of the local assembly to equip them for the works of service in the church and in the world.

For the other six days, the people of God are dispersed in the world as students, workers, employers and employees, homemakers, volunteers, and so on. They are engaged in all kinds of works of service.

Through their engagement in the everyday life they are dispersed like “a letter (epistle) from Christ” to be known and read by everybody who does not have the Word of God (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). The ordinary things in everyday life can be sacred. A dirty basin cleaned up properly is as sacred as a word of prayer for a sick person, if these acts were done as to the Lord.

In the dispersion or scattering of God’s people in society, we are to be “the light of the world” pointing to Jesus who is the LIGHT of the world (John 3:19; 8:12; 9:5). We are also to be scattered like salt of the earth and to preserve the moral fabric of family, friends, firms, organizations, society and nation. If we lose our “saltiness,” we will be ineffective and be trampled by men. However if we go forth in the power, strength and wisdom of Christ, we can be effective and our testimony or witness at work and in schools will shine before men os that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven. (Mat 5:13-16). In the daily and natural course of lives, evangelization of the people around takes place. We face real issues of life and death, and taste successes and failures in the other six days.