The Book of Daniel provides a hopeful picture of how God’s people can survive and even thrive in a hostile environment by remaining faithful to God. God, according to the Book of Daniel, cares deeply about the everyday lives of individuals and societies in a broken world. God intervenes directly in daily life, and also gives Daniel miraculous gifts that make it possible to thrive under an oppressive regime. Yet by no means does the Book of Daniel promise worldly success as a reward for faithfulness. Rather, it promises both suffering and reward in mortal life, and thereby demonstrates that faithfulness and integrity are the keys to living well in this life as well as in the coming kingdom of God.

Daniel and his friends model many practical applications for workplace Christians: engaging with culture, adopting lifelong habits that build faithfulness and virtue, sharing in fellowship with Christian co-workers, adopting a modest life style, forming friendships with non-believers, showing genuine humility, taking a principled stand in workplace situations, embracing challenges we know we cannot meet without God’s help, bringing salt and light to our workplaces, working with excellence and diligence in whatever our jobs are, anticipating suffering as a result of Christian faithfulness in the workplace, and persevering until God brings his kingdom — and our faithful labor — to fruition. We cannot know in advance whether our faithfulness to God’s ways will result in worldly success or failure, any more than Daniel’s friends could know whether they would be saved from the fiery furnace or burned up. But, like them, we can acknowledge that serving God in our work is what truly matters.