How do you feel when the alarm clock rings on Monday morning? Do you jump out of bed eager to start another working week? Not likely! Many of us spend 40, 50, 60+ hours a week at work. I am thinking of both paid and unpaid work, work at home and away from home. That’s about half of our waking hours especially if you have travel time. Work is sometimes enjoyable and sometimes satisfying. But sometimes it’s dead boring, sometimes it’s difficult, frustrating and stressful—definitely a health hazard!—and other times it’s so mundane, so insignificant. When I left school I was employed as a ‘gofer’ (a person who ‘goes for’ things) on a building site. My main job was to test concrete. After each pour I placed a sample in a steel cylinder. I had to fill it in 3 layers and prod each layer 25 times with a steel bar. It was so boring. It seemed so mundane. I thought I was going to go crazy! I was glad it only lasted 2 months.
Do you ever ask why you work? What is your attitude to your daily work?
Is work simply an evil necessity? We have to work to put the food on the table, to put a roof over our head and to pay the bills. It’s something we have to endure to survive. “I owe. I owe. It’s off to work I go.” I don’t want to go to work but I have to. Another bumper sticker sums up a common feeling about work—“I’d rather be sailing.”
Is work part of the curse on the human race because of our rebellion against God?
Being a Christian doesn’t necessarily make it any easier. It can make it harder. This comes about because of the Sunday-Monday crunch. On Sunday our minds are filled with the work of God. As we read the Bible we see that God is doing a great eternal work. He is sending out the great news about Jesus and drawing rebels into his kingdom. He is making sinners holy. Then on Monday we change gears with an almighty crunch. We go back to prodding the concrete or the endless paperwork which seems so insignificant, so temporary, so ordinary compared to what God is doing.
We may find that the more we’re involved in Christian work the more frustrating our day-to-day work is. In Christian work we see people brought from Hell to Heaven. In comparison, prodding concrete seems so mundane. We can begin to feel second rate. It seems that the really important people in God’s economy are those who are preaching the gospel full-time. They are involved in the eternal work. Concrete test samples will pass away. Is non-gospel work second rate? More thoughts on this in a moment …
So why work? What is God’s wisdom on this activity that takes up so much of our time? What do the Scriptures have to say to us about our day- to-day work? I found five reasons in the New Testament for why the Christian works.
1. So as not to burden others
Paul worked hard in Thessalonica at both preaching and tent-making. Why? It was out of concern for the Thessalonians—so that he wouldn’t be a burden on any of them as he brought the gospel to them. (2 Thess 3:7-8). He told them to follow his example. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (v.10). Each Christian should work so as not to burden others. Note that Paul is talking about those who can work but will not, not those who want to work but who cannot find work or are not able to work. The genuinely unemployed deserve compassion and help not condemnation.
Paul had said a similar thing in 1 Thessalonians: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (4:11,12). Notice here a further reason—to win the respect of outsiders. We do not live our lives in a vacuum. The non-Christian world is watching us. If we are lazy and bludge off others then people will draw their conclusions about Christianity. If we work hard and provide for ourselves, we bring credit to Christ. We are to work to win the respect of the watching world.
I mentioned earlier the Sun-Mon crunch and how as believers our day-to-day work can seem second rate compared with gospel work. But this verse shows the fallacy in that sort of thinking. We are all involved in the spread of the gospel. The way we live our lives either hinders or helps that task. And part of that is our attitude to work. If we are lazy and sponge off others then we hinder the gospel. If we work hard and provide for ourselves then we help the spread of the gospel.
And notice the context. Verses 9 and 10 are about love for fellow believers. Verse 11 begins a new paragraph in the NIV, but in the original the thought carries on. Paul is still talking about love. We work out of love for others. As we’ve seen already, we love others by working so we won’t burden them and so win respect for Christ. We work because it’s loving to work. Love is the fruit of the gospel. And part of love for others is work.
2. To serve the community
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:9,10 (NIV)
As Christians we are called to do good to all people. We are to be like our heavenly Father who sends rain on the good and the bad. Hopefully we can find a job where we are doing good for people. Even that job I had prodding concrete was doing good. I was part of a team building the Flemington Markets in Sydney. I was helping to provide the community with an efficient way of getting their vegies! It was boring, but it was loving, too.
3. To provide for family and relatives
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.” ( 1 Tim 5:3,4). It pleases God when we care for our own families and parents and grandparents. That is another good reason for working, either to directly help our relatives by caring for them ourselves or by earning money which we can use to help them. Again it’s part of love. This is where most unpaid work fits in. Most unpaid work is in caring for your own family in some way. This is why we must banish from our language that terrible phrase—“I’m just a housewife”. What a ludicrous phrase. It’s like John Howard saying “I’m just the Prime Minister” or a preacher saying “I just preach the gospel”. In fact, caring for families is one of the few occupations I can think of that has direct biblical warrant. The fact that it is often unpaid is irrelevant.
4. So that you’ve got something to share with those in need
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Ephesians 4:28 (NIV)
Why work? Again, love. And again, love as the fruit of the gospel in our lives. This whole section of Ephesians (4:17-6:24) is about leaving behind the old way of life without Christ and living the new life in Christ, which is a life of love. That includes working so you can give, instead of stealing.
5. To support gospel workers
In Philippians 1:3-5, Paul speaks about the partnership in the gospel that he shared with the Philippian Christians. What was the Philippians’ role in this partnership? Paul mentions one aspect later in the letter:
Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. (4:15,16).
It was partly a financial partnership. The material help from the Philippians enabled Paul to continue preaching the gospel.
The same is true today. Our giving can free others from their daily work so they can preach the gospel full-time or part-time. Most congregations work this way. Many members slave away 40 or 50 hours a week to earn money and then give some away to free up others from daily work so they can preach the gospel. Overseas missionariesare supported in the same way.
This is also helpful in overcoming the Sun-Mon crunch and the feeling that non-gospel work is second rate. The gospel workers and the other workers are in a partnership. They are working together for the spread of the gospel. They have different roles but the same goal. It’s not a matter of first rate and second rate—one being secular and one holy—both are working together in the holy work of spreading the gospel. What a great reason to work! To free others for gospel work. No way is that second rate!
There are five very good reasons to go to work next Monday morning: because it’s a loving thing not to burden others (1) and so win respect for Christ; because it’s a loving thing to serve the community (2) and to provide for your family (3); because it’s a loving thing to work so you can give to the needy (4); and so you can give to gospel work (there’s 5).
None of this denies the fact that work is difficult. And work is difficult because of the curse of God on our rebellion. But that doesn’t mean that work itself is part of the curse. Adam worked in the Garden before the curse. Work is difficult and frustrating and painful because we live in a fallen world, but it is not evil. Work is good if it is done in love. It’s a good thing to spend half your waking hours doing. It should be done as part of our response to God’s amazing love for us. It’s part of the fruit of the gospel in our lives. It would be nice to be sailing seven days a week. But would it be loving?
I want a new bumper sticker: not “I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go”, but “I love, I love, it’s off to work I shove.”
Do you think it could catch on?
