Are there certain occupations from which Christians are prohibited?

The answer

St. Ignatius¹⁰²⁹ counsels Christians to avoid evil arts or occupations, such as: working as a pagan priest; preparing the sacrifices for pagan worship; manufacturing pagan idols; selling poisons; or engaging in magic or fortune telling, and so on. The scholar Tertullian also warns against lying and cheating in commerce and using oaths in commercial dealings.¹⁰³⁰ Some also considered the sculpture of any kind of statue as wrong, based on Exodus 20:4.¹⁰³¹

God, who bestowed all these capabilities upon Adam, did not place him in the Garden of Eden to merely eat, drink, and sleep, but also to work in the garden. Work is holy and confers upon humanity a kind of contentment and a sense of purpose and productivity. We know that the Lord Christ was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and the apostle Paul was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). Among the parables of the Lord Christ, we find a man who was unable to find work but was ashamed to beg (Luke 16:3). The apostle Paul boasted that he was able to support himself and those who were with him through his profession (Acts 20:34–35). In his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:8–13), he explains that he labored with his own hands. The Didascalia says, “in all the conduct of your life you may either be occupied in the things of the Lord or engaged upon your work, and may never be idle.”¹⁰³²

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty