Staff are an employer's finest asset or greatest liability. However, Jesus' choice of the disciples might not have seemed wise. Mostly they had little education and lacked the skills to be the leaders of a new multi-national corporation. The Corinthian church members had been worse: sexually immoral, thieves, drunkards, embezzlers and extortionists (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The church in Crete contained liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons (Titus 1:12). The apostle Paul himself was previously an arrogant, bigoted, blasphemous, cruel and violent-minded man (Acts 26:9-11). But it was people like that who God chose - not because they were good, but because He would display His glory in changing them to become like Jesus.

The 'manifold wisdom' of God is the enormous variety of glorious intents and outcomes which come from God's heart. They spread from the first creation to the new creation, focussing on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are too many to number but culminate in the church. That collection of forgiven, transformed and restored people are the evidence to angels and demons that Jesus Christ is Lord. The grip of Satan and evil over humanity was broken when Jesus Christ paid for sin on the cross (Colossians 2:15); and the church demonstrates that sin no longer has authority over God's restored people (Romans 6:9-14).

Churches are (or should be) full of such salvaged lives. Jesus said that He had not come to call people who think they are righteous but sinners, who would repent (Luke 5:32). That is why He called us; and He is still calling those in our workplace, even though they may have deaf ears now. Secularists may assume that God is twisting the minds of nice, naïve or vulnerable people. Wrong. He is forming a church out of the most streetwise, perverted, manipulative and blasphemous people you can imagine (and those who don't do it but think it). Why? So that God can be seen as the only person in the universe who has the will to forgive, the power to purify, the strength to implant His power into weakness, and the grace to replace pride with humility.

The world observes this. Satan cannot help noticing. The angels rejoice (Luke 15:10). In God's people, you see the kaleidoscope of God's powerful wisdom, achieving His purpose of transforming sin-wrecked lives into living masterpieces. This was always His plan. So there is no lifestyle so blighted that God cannot restore it. No colleague too anti-Jesus for God to call them. And there is no Christian so defeated that God cannot bring them to peace and purpose. The workplace is full of people who God loves: He is waiting to pour out His grace on you and them. The key is trusting Jesus.