A few weekends ago, I had the privilege of speaking at a men’s retreat in Ft. Bragg—a beautiful coastal town about 150 miles north of the San Francisco Bay. The topic was work. Over four teaching sessions and one Q&A, I sought to provide these men with a biblical vision of work and then to help them apply that vision to their present job and issues such as discipleship, retirement, career choice, job changes, the economy, and much more. Below is a summary of all that I taught over those teaching sessions, outlined in fifteen brief points.
1. Work is a good gift from God. God, the original worker, created mankind in his image to work (Gen 1:26-31), and assigned man to work prior to the fall (Gen 2:15). Work is a gift from God through which we can be useful to others, reflect God, and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.
2. When we are saved apart from our works, we are motivated by grace and empowered by the Spirit to be zealous for good works. God saves us entirely apart from our work or works (Eph 2:8-9). Yet, he did not save us for a life of ease but to be rich in good works (Eph 2:10). Indeed, Christ died for the very purpose of making us passionate for good works (Titus 2:14). J. C. Ryle draws the connection between spiritual productivity and the gospel when he writes, “None, generally speaking, do so much for Christ on earth as those who enjoy the fullest confidence of a free entrance into heaven, and trust not in their own works, but in the finished work of Christ.”1
3. Any legitimate work done in faith is pleasing to God. Luther and Calvin championed this truth in the sixteenth century when they confronted the Roman Catholic Church’s view of so-called “sacred” and “secular” work. Both men drew a direct line from justification by faith to their theology of work, arguing that all legitimate, lawful work, when conducted in faith pleases God (Rom 14:23). The priest is in no better place to please God than the faithful cobbler, for both are saved by faith alone through grace alone.
4. Vocational ministry is not more pleasing to God than being a faithful accountant, teacher, contractor, doctor, car repairman, etc. Accordingly, one should not view vocational church ministry as a profession that pleases God more than other professions. To think this way is to fall back into the medieval sacred-secular divide that the Catholic Church had perpetuated. A man is not more pleasing to God by the nature of his office, but by the nature of his faith in Christ and his obedience to him.
5. Work is one of the primary ways we love our neighbors in this world. Once people were freed by the gospel and the truth that all are justified freely by God’s grace apart from works (even “religious” works), people of the sixteenth century saw that their work became the chief place in which they served their neighbor. They didn’t need to look high and low for how they might bless others with good works, nor did they need to retreat into the monastery or the church in order to fulfill the calling to be rich in good works. As Daniel Doriani wisely comments, “Many people have trouble seeing the value of their work. In truth, work is the chief place where we love our neighbor as ourselves. At work we have the greatest skill and training, we spend the most time, and we can bring the most time, and we can bring the greatest resources to bear.”2 Paul affirms this connection when he classifies our faithful service to our employer as doing the will of God and promises reward for any “good” we might accomplish in in our work (Eph 6:5-9).
6. Work enables us to provide for ourselves and provide for those with genuine needs. It is God’s design that we not only pray for our daily bread (Matt 6:11) but work for it as well (2 Thess 3:6-12). Yet work is not only intended to provide for our own needs but also for the needs of others. Paul instructs the newly-converted thief to “no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Eph 4:26). We are to work hard in a legitimate profession so that we can build up a surplus in order to provide for those who have genuine needs. Importantly, this verse also undermines the idea of subsistence living, where a person or family only raises enough food and income to support themselves. Paul says that the Christian is not only to provide for himself and his family, but for those who need financial help.
7. By God’s design, excellent work usually leads to earthly reward, recognition, and blessing. God has so constructed the world that good work will often be rewarded with financial blessings and recognition (Prov 12:24; 13:4; 22:29). While a Christian must not desire to be rich (1 Tim 6:9), it is nevertheless the case that those who work well and wisely will often find their wealth increasing (Prov 21:5). Why? Because God, the original worker (see #1) values hard work.
8. God exalts diligence and chides laziness. Accordingly, God praises the diligent man and rebukes the sluggard. We find this pattern throughout the whole Bible, but it is concentrated in the Proverbs. In the Proverbs, a wise person is characterized by steady diligence, growing skillfulness, and timely work (Prov 10:4; 22:9). The fool, however, is known for his laziness, incompetence, and unwillingness to work when he is supposed to (Prov 10:26; 20:4). Thus, the diligent man enjoys the fruit of his labors and the blessing of a well-ordered life (Prov 12:27; 21:5; 24:4). The sluggard reaps for himself poverty, needless friction, and an unsavory reputation (Prov 6:9-11; 15:19; 24:30-34).
9. If you are able-bodied, it is God’s will for you to work hard, earn your own living, and help financially those in need. There are cases where a man may be entirely unable to work due to physical injury. These cases, however, are relatively rare. If a man is able-bodied, then he must make it his aim in life to work hard to meet his needs and the needs of his family (1 Thess 4:11-12). For an able-bodied Christian man to neglect this basic duty is to make himself worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8), for even an unbeliever knows that it his responsibility to provide for his household. Indeed, so serious is this calling to work that Paul charges the church to exercise church discipline on able-bodied men who are unwilling to fulfill this basic human calling (2 Thess 3:6-14).
10. Although the fall has made work difficult, it is still good and intended by God to bring some satisfaction and pleasure in this life. During the week that God created the universe, he stepped back from his work nearly every day and took pleasure in what he had created. God then placed this capacity to enjoy one’s work into man’s heart as a gift. Work was always intended to be a means of satisfaction in this life. The fall, however, has made work difficult and sometimes futile (Gen 3:17-19). Even so, God still intends for his people to derive some amount of legitimate pleasure from their work (see Eccl 2:24-25; 3:12; 3:22; 5:18; 8:15; 9:7-10). Those who resist their calling to work will find little satisfaction in life. Richard Steele wisely states: “I dare appeal to everyone’s experience, whether they find not more inward peace and satisfaction when the day has been diligently employed in their proper callings, than when it has been trifled away in sloth and folly.”3 We all know by experience that diligence is always more fulfilling than slothfulness.
11. Diligence is the mark of faith, spiritual maturity, and humble obedience to God’s will. We see throughout the Proverbs that the wise person who walks in fear of the Lord is known for their diligence. In other words, diligence is a crucial sign of one’s spiritual maturity and humble obedience. Amazingly, the godliness of the woman in Proverbs 31 is expressed chiefly through her diligence (see Prov 31:10-31).
12. Laziness is a mark of unbelief, immaturity, and prideful resistance to God’s will. Laziness is not an insignificant blotch on one’s life—it is actually a sign of one’s immaturity and unwillingness to do God’s will. No matter how many excuses the sluggard may use (Prov 26:13, 16), they are in rebellion against God and his design for his people (2 Thess 3:12-14).
13. Diligence is holistic—it encompasses all of life: job, family, spiritual disciplines, and ministry. When talking about work, we must be careful that we don’t limit this topic to mere “work ethic.” It is possible for a man to be a hard worker at his job yet still be a sluggard because he hasn’t applied diligence his whole life. The wise man who walks in the fear of the Lord is diligent in every area, not just one or two (see Prov 13:4). These areas include work, family, relationships, ministry, biblical study, prayer, evangelism, and so on. Some of the most accomplished people in the world have been miserable husbands, wives, parents, and friends. The Christian must be diligent in every aspect of his life.
14. We are to labor from a posture of contentment and trust in the Lord and not toil after wealth or desire to be rich. Scripture tells us plainly that diligence is often rewarded financially. While it is not always the case that assiduous effort in our work responsibilities will be met with monetary reward, it often is, and believers must thank God for these fiscal blessings. Nevertheless, Scripture cautions against the desire to be rich (Prov 23:4; 1 Tim 6:6-10). It may be the case that in the course of faithful work a Christian may become wealthy. But this wealth is not to become a source of pride or an object of reliance and trust. Rather, wealthy Christians must continue to trust God and look to him for satisfaction, and pour out their lives and riches to bless others (1 Tim 6:17-19). We will work best when we labor from a heart of contentment (Phil 4:11; 1 Tim 6:8), trust in God’s provision (Prov 3:5-6), and faith in his power (not our own) to bless the work of our hands (Prov 16:3; Ps 127:1).
15. We should rest in order to work, not work in order to rest. Many in our society view work as a means to leisure. They work hard all week in order to get to the weekend and splurge on recreation. But this pattern is not what God intends for his people. Consistent rest is essential for a joyful, fruitful, God-honoring life, but rest is not the goal of life. Rather, rest is meant to provide us with physical and spiritual refreshment so that we might go back to work with renewed joy and vigor. In other words, for Christians, rest is a means to work; work is not a means to rest. We know that God intends rest to be a means to work rather than vice-versa because of how God created us in his image (#1), how he rewards diligence (#7-8), and how he structured Israel’s work week with a six-to-one work to rest ratio (Ex 20:8-11).
NOTES
1J. C. Ryle, Holiness (1877; repr., Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan, 2001), 135.
2Daniel Doriani, Work: It’s Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R. 2019) 107.
3Richard Steele, The Religious Tradesman (1667; repr., Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1989), 79.
