How to Decide About Your Next Job
7. Will the activities and environment of this job tend to shape you, or will you be able to shape it for the Christ-magnifying purposes of God?
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).
Know yourself. We are all more or less vulnerable to different temptations. Christians are to be shapers of the world rather than being shaped by the world. Yes, it is true that we are all shaped by our culture (language, dress, etc.). But God means for this to be reciprocal. We share the culture of this world in order to communicate that we live for a treasure beyond this world. Does this job hold out hope for that? Or, realistically, is it too resistant?
8. Will this job provide an occasion for you to be radically Christian so as to let your light shine for your Father’s sake, or will your participation in the vision of the business tend by definition to snuff your wick?
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
There are companies—increasingly so—whose policies and procedures would muzzle your voice so seriously, you would not be able to speak with truth and love without being fired. Is the acceptance of this job the acceptance of that muzzle? If so, is that God’s will for you?
9. Does the aim of this job cohere with a growing intensity in your life to be radically, publicly, fruitfully devoted to Christ at any cost?
“If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
If you are in a season of serious spiritual growth, ask how a new job will affect that. There are kinds of tasks, kinds of people, kinds of pressures, kinds of schedules, that may bring that growth to a screeching halt. Is this new level of love to Christ precious enough that you will prioritize it, if necessary, above the new job?
10. Will the job feel like a good investment of your life when these “two seconds” of preparation for eternity are over?
“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).
God says that there is a wisdom that comes when we consider the number of our days (Psalm 90:12). Therefore, it will serve your wise choice of a new job to ask how it relates to the brevity of life. When the Lord calls for us or comes for us, we want to be found doing what pleases Him. And we want to feel good that we made a wise choice in view of how short and vulnerable life is.
11. Does this job fit with why you believe you were created and purchased by Christ?
“Everyone who is called by my name … I have created for my glory” (Is. 43:6–7). “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).
You are unique. That is amazing and true. I often marvel in a crowded airport that the thousands of people all look human, and they all look different. How can there be so many differences in this one kind of being? But there are. And none of them is an accident. God designed them all like unique prisms that refract his glory as only this prism can. The question is: Will this job conceal the uniquenesses of your prism? Or will it give you space to shine?
12. Does this job fit together with the ultimate truth that all things exist for Christ?
“For by him all … have been created by [Christ] and for him” (Col. 1:16).
If all things exist for Christ, can there be any wrong jobs? Yes. Because humans try to use things for purposes other than the glory of Christ. Everything God made is good. It exists to communicate something of His greatness and beauty. Will this job free you to take what He has made and turn it for uses that honor Him?
I hope you can tell from this that there are few easy answers when asking about what job to pursue. The aim here is not to make it easy but to make it Christ-centered, Christ-exalting, and Christ-empowered. If your heart is right on these kinds of questions, God will guide you. Seek Him supremely in these ways, and let your heart be your guide.
John Piper is founder and teacher of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than 50 books.
