But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. - 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
This post is written with high school seniors in mind. I am thinking of students who are at inflection points, a time in their lives when they make decisions that set the trajectory for the rest of their lives. Where they go and what they do following high school will largely determine whom they meet and marry (if they choose to do that), what friends they will have, what church they join (again, if they choose to do that), what kind(s) of job they work, where they live, and how much money they make. My point is not that the end of high school represents all the important decisions that a person makes. Plans can alter. Minds can change. Nevertheless, the time at the end of high school tends to play a determinative role in shaping the rest of a person’s life.
What does the passage above have to do with work and vocation? I should point out that the word “vocation” has its roots in the idea of calling. By calling, I mean an appointment, a summons, even a divine choice for a person to do a particular kind of work or service. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was called to be a prophet. So was Isaiah. David was called to be King. In the New Testament, the one-time persecutor of the church, Saul, was called to be an apostle. There are many more examples in the Bible. The basic idea is that God called these individuals to do certain kinds of work or service. They had callings, or vocations.
Are all Christians called? In a certain sense, yes. This is why I include the passage above. In Peter's letter, he is reminding believers of the life they have been given, the life to which they have been called. They are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And why? It is so that they can proclaim the excellencies of the God who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Here is my main point: all Christians are called to a particular kind of life in general, but not all are called to particular jobs or ministries. This may come as surprising to some. There is a kind of Disney-fied version of people’s work that is analogous to the idea of a “soulmate,” or the idea that there is a specific person for each person to marry. In many stories, individuals are restless and unfulfilled until they find their soulmate, and then they are happy and contented. The idea is that there is “the one” out there, and it is only a question of waiting for that person to come along. The way that some believers talk about their calling sounds like something similar to me. They wait for the perfect job, the perfect situation. As a result, the number of disappointed people appears far higher to me than the number of people who have found “the job,” or “their calling.”
Some who read this will be aware that the issue of vocation is an important part of the history of the Reformation of the 16th Century. Martin Luther in particular is often credited with helping to recover the biblical idea of the priesthood of all believers, as the passage above indicates. Luther’s recovery was important because of the historical loss that occurred over the centuries that the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church took on more and more importance. As becoming a priest in the church became more prized as a holy work, other work became less and less valued, to the point that only the work of priests in the church came to be seen as spiritual work for God, while everything else was of a lesser category; it was worldly, fleshly. In contrast, Luther wrote that “an injustice is committed when the words priest, cleric, spiritual, and ecclesiastic, are transferred from all Christians to those few who have those titles in the church.”[1] Luther is commenting on the very same passage from Peter in the context. His point is that all believers are called into the marvelous light of God. All Christians are holy; all believers are saints, all believers are priests.
What, then, does the universal priesthood of believers have to do with how we should think about calling? I will share a few implications here.
All Believers Are Called
It is not that some believers have a calling and others do not. All believers are called to God’s marvelous light, which means that every believer is given the same importance and status. There is no inherent difference between believers other than gifting.
Christians Sanctify the Work They Do
By this, I mean that a Christian plumber, or doctor, or programmer, makes something different of the plumbing, doctoring, or programming than an unbeliever does. A Christian does the work as a saint to God’s glory, which makes the work an expression and outworking of the believer’s calling to holiness. As the believer’s whole life and self are devoted to God, so their work is too. The same cannot be said about an unbeliever. Whatever work a Christian does is part of their vocation. The only exception would be work that is explicitly sinful or wicked, or work that the Christian does with no thought or attempt to please the Lord in it.
Christians Do Not Have to Worry about Finding or Missing Their Calling
This may come as a relief to some and disappointment to others. Some may be excited to find what work God has for them, and others may be nervous about picking the wrong job and missing their vocation. I hope I have shown that this thinking is wrongheaded. All believers are part of a holy nation and a royal priesthood. All have been called to God’s marvelous light, and all are therefore identified in their calling by what God has made them to be, not by the work that they choose to do. Therefore, Christians can confidently enter whatever future God has for them, seeking to walk by the Spirit and please the Lord in whatever they do, knowing that the work that they have in front of them is part of the calling that God has for them.
Conclusion
In sum, all believers are called to a life of holiness by virtue of being Christians, but believers should not expect a particular calling to a particular work as a Christian. One idea of vocation is biblical and to be expected of all believers. The other idea is not. While it is true that some people received special vocations, they are few and far between compared to the vast majority of people. This does not make individuals less than unique or unimportant. Instead, believers can be encouraged to know that their entire lives are part of their vocation, and not some special or unique work that they have to discover. For young people looking at their futures, it may be surprising to think that they are already living out their vocations as high school students. They do not need to discover a secret mission for God; they need to realize that they are already on it; it’s only a question of what’s next.
[1] Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, ed. William R. Russell and Timothy F. Lull, Third Edition (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012), 413.