“Only God’s Word and people last forever.” Nope! Here’s proof.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

Today, we’re starting a new four-week series looking at wisdom for our work from the book of Colossians. 

I want to begin by addressing a common lie you’ve likely heard that sounds something like this: “The only two things that last for eternity are God’s Word and people.”

Whenever I hear well-intentioned pastors utter this phrase, it’s almost always surrounded by subtext that implies that God’s plan is to evacuate the souls of his people from the earth into an eternal disembodied retirement home in the clouds—the rest of the earth and the work of your hands be damned. 

But that is not at all what Scripture says. 

In today’s passage, Paul says that Christ came “to reconcile to himself all things” broken in Genesis 3. Theologian Albert Wolters writes that “the permanent temptation of Christian thinking is to…restrict the scope of Christ’s lordship.” But Paul doesn’t give us that option. Jesus is King of “things on earth or things in heaven,” spiritual and material.

So what does “all things” include if not just “God’s Word and people”? Scripture says that at least the following things will be present on the eternal New Earth: the earth itself (see Revelation 21:1-5), wine (Isaiah 25:6), ships (Isaiah 60:9), vineyards (Isaiah 65:21), the materials we need to build houses (Isaiah 65:22), and 5,600 miles of gold, gems, and pearls (Revelation 21:15-21).

What does this mean for your work today? Everything. Theologian Miroslav Volf explains why: “The significance of secular work depends on the value of creation, and the value of creation depends on its final destiny.”

In other words, if “the only two things that last for eternity are God’s Word and people,” then matter doesn’t matter to God, and your work with matter doesn’t matter either. But because Christ has “reconciled to himself all things,” spiritual and material, you can be confident that your work with the material world—typing on an aluminum laptop, installing a roof, or writing a novel—matters deeply to God. Because Jesus’s precious blood paid to redeem it all.

There’s no question about the sacredness of your seemingly secular work, believer. The more interesting question is this: Knowing your work is sacred, what are you going to do about it? How will you reveal Jesus’s kingship over not just the people in your workplace but your products, processes, pricing, and profits? Take a second right now to ask God that question and be ready to act on the answer today.