Are Vocation and Occupation the Same Thing?
Defining Terms
In our ordinary conversation, vocation and occupation can be the same thing, but in the history of language and in the Bible’s expression of what we're doing, they actually have very special distinctions. Our occupation is what occupies us, and that's good and that's important, but vocation actually comes from a word that means calling.
And we have a vocation as well, which means we recognize that in our occupation we are fulfilling God's calling upon our lives. And for that reason, our vocation—fulfilling God's purpose, answering his call—is seeing ourselves as magnifying and multiplying the glory of God in what we do.
Grace at Work
Bryan Chapell
Author and pastor Bryan Chapell shares what the Bible teaches about work and how the gospel makes our jobs instruments of his grace.
So when we resist temptation, when we do a job well, when we are reflecting God in practices as well as in integrity, what we're doing is we're actually fulfilling a calling of expressing God's name, purposes, and his mission in the world.
Occupation as Christians
I have a friend who's a marathon runner and he was on a particularly difficult race—or knew that he would be. And so knowing how the end goes—an uphill climb at the end—he put on his jersey, not his own name, but the name Christian, because he knew that as he approached the finish line and he was wearing out, people would say, Go get 'em Christian! You can do it, Christian! Take the hill, Christian!
We recognize that in our occupation we are fulfilling God's calling upon our lives.
And there's a sense in which we are Christian in our occupation, where we are fulfilling the calling of being Christian, of being named by what we do, and therefore naming Christ in how we do it. We are fulfilling our calling, which means, in another sense, we are fulfilling our profession.
We have a profession like doctor, lawyer, or construction worker. That's my profession, but I'm also professing Christ by saying who he is, reflecting his character and care in how I fulfill my vocation, my calling in doing my occupation or what occupies me.
Bryan Chapell is the author of Grace at Work: Redeeming the Grind and the Glory of Your Job.
Related Articles
It’s by Design That We’ve Never Lived without the Sabbath
In the creation account, God makes the world and everything in it in six days. A seventh day follows that is set apart from the previous six in some important ways.
The Value of Your Work Isn't Attached to a Dollar Sign
I don’t want to diminish the need to pay people a fair wage for the work they do. But it is important for us to see work as a contribution, and not always with a dollar sign attached to it.
Podcast: Why Your Job Has Meaning and Purpose . . . Even If You Don't Like It (Bryan Chapell)
Bryan Chapell talks about why the work you do day in and day out matters to God—probably more than you realize.
Podcast: Is the Sabbath Still Relevant for Christians? (Guy Waters)
Guy Waters discusses God's original purpose for the Sabbath, how the idea of Sabbath rest recurs throughout the Old and New Testaments, and whether the Sabbath is relevant for Christians today.
