An Unofficial History of the Sacred-Secular Divide

The Lunch Tray That Changed Everything

Picture a school lunch tray. You know the one: rigid compartments keeping the mashed potatoes far away from the fruit cup, the main course separated from the dessert. For many of us, this tray has become an unintentional blueprint for how we organize our entire lives.

Church goes in one compartment. Career goes in another. Volunteer ministry over here, day job over there. Sacred work separated from secular work. We didn’t consciously choose this arrangement. We absorbed it, breathed it in like oxygen. It became our assumed theology.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: it’s also really bad theology. And if we’re going to participate fully with God and his work in the world, we can’t keep treating the place where we spend half our waking hours as if it sits outside of our faith. The sacred secular split didn’t come from scripture, it didn’t come from Jesus, and it certainly didn’t come from the early church. So where did we get it?

Work Wasn’t a Curse, It Was a Calling

Before we trace where things went sideways, we need to understand where they started. Most of us assume work is a result of the fall, a punishment for sin. Your Monday morning alarm certainly feels like punishment for something, right?

But look at the opening pages of Genesis. Before sin ever shows up, before the fall, before thorns and thistles, God gives Adam a job. He places him in the garden to work it and take care of it. Work wasn’t the curse. Work was the calling. Working and keeping God’s creation was the original human vocation, part of God’s very good design.

When sin entered the world in Genesis 3, it did change our relationship to work. We call it the thorns and thistles reality of our post fall world. Work becomes harder, frustrated, resistant. But here’s the key distinction: while everyday human work was impacted by the fall, it was not created by the fall. For thousands of years, God’s people at their best embraced everyday work of all kinds as a unified part of God’s calling on their lives.

The Historical Seeds of the Split

Gnosticism: The First Crack in the Foundation

One of the earliest seeds of division came from Gnosticism. At its core, Gnosticism taught a split between the spiritual and the physical. Spiritual things were good, physical things were bad. God cares about your soul but not your body. Heaven matters, but everyday life here in this world doesn’t.

The early church pushed back hard against this heresy. After all, many of them had literally met and walked with Jesus. The Word had become flesh. That’s not subtle, that’s intentional. Consider this: Jesus himself spent about 20 years working with his hands as a tecton, a craftsman, builder, or artisan, and only about three years in what we’d call formal ministry. If everyday work didn’t matter, if the physical world was just a distraction, that’s a very strange career choice for the Son of God.

The resurrection of the body is anti-gnostic. The promise of a renewed heaven and earth is anti-gnostic. The early church definitely didn’t divide life into sacred and secular compartments the way we tend to today.

The Constantinian Shift: When Christianity Became Professional

When Christianity became the official religion of Rome and the church became an institution, suddenly there was this professional class of Christians. While Gnosticism may have lost the theological argument, its instincts stuck around.

By the medieval period, a subtle hierarchy had crept in and was even baked into the language. The word vocation, from the Latin vocare meaning to call, was reserved for only the priests or the monks. The monk had a calling. The blacksmith just had a job. If you worked for the church, your life was sacred. If you worked out there in the world, it was just normal, necessary, but spiritually second tier.

This imagery was even codified into the liturgy. The priest stood at the altar as a mediator between God and the world, and the secular worker stood further and further back, physically distant and symbolically lesser. No one said it out loud, but the tray compartments were definitely forming.

The Reformation: A Glimpse of Something Better

The Reformation brought hope. Leaders like Martin Luther pushed back hard. Luther preached the priesthood of all believers and insisted that God is just as present in the field and in the workshop as he is in the pulpit. Sweeping floors, milking cows, and making shoes could all be done to the glory of God. In other words, the tray was never supposed to exist in the first place.

Modern Reinforcements of the Divide

Even with the tectonic shift of the Reformation, the sacred secular divide didn’t stay buried for long. The Enlightenment trained us to privatize our faith. Facts go public, faith goes private. Then in the 19th century, certain end times teaching gained influence that, at least in popular imagination, made creation seem temporary, almost disposable. If it’s all going to burn, why bother doing good work now anyway? Why polish brass on a sinking ship?

By the time we get to modern church culture, the divide isn’t taught, it’s absorbed. Sunday school made Eden sound like a permanent vacation free of daily work. Saturday morning cartoons imagined heaven as an eternal work-free weekend where we float on clouds and play harps all day. If God’s original intent was no work and God’s plan for eternity is no work, then work must be some kind of temporary glitch in the system, right?

Many of us grew up going to youth group and church camp, hearing the infamous question: are you called? Which usually meant called to full-time ministry. The question was sincere, but it left the vast majority of Christians thinking they had no calling at all. Suddenly, the tray is back. Some people do sacred work, the rest of us just work. No one says your job doesn’t matter, but quietly, it can feel like it matters less.

Ditching the Compartments and Embracing Your Calling

If we’re going to participate fully with God, we have to ditch the compartments. The gospel doesn’t just give us a ticket to heaven someday when we die. It resurrects everything, the spiritual and the physical. It restores all of creation to our original design and sends us back into the world God loves, into offices, classrooms, construction sites, kitchens, boardrooms, with a calling to make Jesus known in every sphere of this life.

Not all of us are called to full-time vocational ministry, but in Christ, all of us are doing sacred ministry work. Your job isn’t a distraction from God’s purposes. It’s one of the primary places those purposes are meant to show up.

Final Thoughts

Let’s redeem the tray. Let’s flatten the barriers and let the goodness of the gospel saturate and repurpose every compartment of our lives. Let’s invite the gospel to resurrect our everyday work and tear down this sacred secular divide together.

Your marketplace calling matters. It always has.

Full Transcript

Erik: So this lunch tray has become a bit of a Stone Table mascot for us because instinctively, this is how most of us learn to think about our lives. We had one compartment for church, we had one for work, we had one for volunteer ministry, we had another for our day job, had sacred over here, secular over there. You see, most of us, we weren’t taught to think this way. We just kind of absorbed it.

It’s an assumed theology. It’s kind of in the air we’ve been breathing. But here’s the problem. It’s also bad theology, like really bad theology. Because if we’re gonna live with kingdom purpose, if we’re gonna participate fully with God and his work in the world, we can’t keep treating the place where we spend half our waking hours as if it sits outside of our faith. And here’s the kicker.

The sacred secular split, it didn’t come from scripture, it didn’t come from Jesus, and it certainly didn’t come from the early church. So where did we get it? Well, this certainly isn’t an exhaustive history, but let’s kind of take a high flyover here. Before we talk about where things went sideways, we have to talk about where they started. Did God ever have purpose for human work to begin with?

So we often assume work as a result of the fall, a punishment for sin. And some of you are like, yeah, my job certainly feels like punishment for something, right? But in the opening pages of Genesis, before sin ever shows up, God gives Adam a job. See, he puts him in the garden to work it and take care of it. See, work wasn’t a curse, it was a calling. Working and keeping God’s creation was the human vocation. It was part of God’s original, very good design. So how did we lose that?

Well, when sin came into the world in Genesis 3, it did change our relationship to work. We call it the thorns and thistles reality of this post fall world. Work becomes harder. It becomes frustrated. It becomes resistant. But while everyday human work was impacted by the fall, it was not created by the fall.

So for thousands of years, God’s people at their best, they embraced everyday work of all kinds as a unified part of God’s calling on their lives. So where did these lunch tray compartments start coming from? One of those early seeds comes from something we call Gnosticism. So at its core, it taught a split between the spiritual and the physical. Spiritual things were good, but physical things, they were bad.

God cares about your soul, but not your body. Heaven matters, but everyday life here in this world, it doesn’t. See the early church, they push back hard against this. I mean, after all, many of them had literally met and walked with Jesus. The word had become flesh. That’s not subtle. I mean, that’s intentional. And think about this, Jesus, Jesus himself, he spent about 20 years working with his hands as a tecton or a craftsman, a builder, or an artisan in only about three years and what we’d call formal ministry. If everyday work didn’t matter, if the physical world was just a distraction, that’s a very strange career choice for the Son of God.

So the resurrection of the body, that’s anti-gnostic. The promise of a renewed heaven and earth is definitely anti-gnostic. And so the early church definitely didn’t divide life into sacred and secular compartments the way we tend to today. But then came what we call the Constantinian shift. Kind of sounds official, doesn’t it? Right? But Christianity, when it became the official religion of Rome and the church became an institution, then suddenly there was this professional class of Christians.

And so while Gnosticism may have lost the theological argument, its instincts, they kind of stuck around. So by the medieval period, then a subtle hierarchy had crept in and it even was baked into the language. The word vocation from the Latin word vocare to call, it was reserved at that point for only the priests or the monks. The monk had a calling, the blacksmith, he just had a job. If you worked for the church, your life was sacred. If you worked out there in the world, it was just normal, necessary, but spiritually it was second tier.

This imagery was even codified into the liturgy. The priest, he stood at the altar as a mediator between God and the world, and so the secular worker, he stood further and further back, physically distant and symbolically lesser. No one really said it out loud, but the tray compartments they were definitely forming.

So then the Reformation comes along and leaders like Martin Luther, pushed back hard. Luther preached the priesthood of all believers and insisted that God is just as present in the field and in the workshop as he is in the pulpit. That sweeping floors, that milking cows and making shoes, they all could be done to the glory of God. In other words, the tray was never supposed to exist in the first place.

See, even with the tectonic shift of the Reformation, the sacred secular divide, it didn’t stay buried for long. This thing called the Enlightenment comes along and it trains us to privatize our faith. Facts go public, faith goes private. And then in the 19th century, a certain end times teaching it gained influence that, at least in popular imagination, began to creation like something temporary, almost disposable. I mean, if it’s all gonna burn, why bother doing any good work now anyway? Why polish brass on a sinking ship, right?

By the time we get to the modern church culture, the divide, it really isn’t taught, it’s just absorbed. Sunday school, it made Eden sound like this permanent vacation free of any kind of daily work. And Saturday morning cartoons, right? They imagined heaven as this kind of eternal work-free weekend where we float on clouds and play harps all day. So if God’s original intent was no work and God’s plan for eternity is no work, then work must be some kind of temporary glitch in the system, right?

On top of that, many of us grew up going to youth group and church camp, hearing the infamous question, are you called? Which usually meant called to full-time ministry. You see, the question was sincere, but it left a vast majority of Christians thinking that they had no calling at all. Suddenly, the tray is back. Some people do sacred work, the rest of us, just work. No one says your job doesn’t matter, but quietly, it can feel like it matters less. And when half your life feels spiritually secondary, something’s off.

So let me bring us back to this infamous lunch tray. If we’re going to participate fully with God, we gotta ditch the compartments. Because the gospel doesn’t just give us a ticket to heaven someday when we die. It resurrects everything, the spiritual and the physical.

It restores all of creation to our original design and it sends us back into the world God loves, into offices, classrooms, construction sites, kitchens, boardrooms, with a calling to make Jesus known in every sphere of this life. Not all of us are called to full-time vocational ministry, but in Christ, all of us are doing sacred ministry work.

See, your job, it isn’t a distraction from God’s purposes. It’s one of the primary places those purposes are meant to show up. So let’s redeem the tray. Let’s flatten the barriers and let the goodness of the gospel saturate and repurpose every compartment of our lives. Let’s invite the gospel to resurrect our everyday work and tear down this sacred secular divide together.