One of my favorite topics to study, teach, and write on is work. I’ve published several articles related to the theology and practice of work on this website and elsewhere, taught a two-unit elective at a nearby seminary entitled, “A Theology of Work and Vocation,” and, most recently, published a long-form academic essay on a theology of work in our seminary’s journal.
Work is a gift from God, and our capacity to work is fundamental to our nature as God’s image-bearers. God is the original worker, and he has formed his images to be workers—men and women who actively, creatively, and joyfully exercise dominion over the plot of earth he’s assigned to us. When we avoid work and indulge in laziness, we become restless, anxious, and depressed. Why? Because God made us to work.
But with all this talk about work comes the obvious question, “What about rest?” This is a crucial inquiry that we can’t ignore, even out of a good desire to emphasize all the positive things that Scripture says about work. If we fail to talk about rest, we won’t be biblically balanced, and our theology of work will suffer (and so will we).
We know by the way God created the world, our bodies, and how he organized Israel’s workweek that we need rest (Ex 20:10). I do not personally believe, nor do we teach at our church, that Israel’s Sabbath law is still in effect. That is, we do not believe that Scripture requires us refrain from working on any specific day of the week. (For more on this topic, please listen to our podcast episodes, “Are Christians Obligated to Keep the Sabbath,” Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)
Nevertheless, the principle embedded in the Old Covenant command is a wise one. Even Jesus took his disciples away from the crowds for rest:
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves (Mark 6:30).
It is a simple reality that we need regular, consistent, predictable rest. Why? Because we are finite creatures—contingent beings who need physical and mental rest because our minds and bodies are not self-replenishing. So, it is good during the week to refrain from our regular work as best we can and find some rest, both physical and mental. That might mean a nap. That might mean a good movie. It may mean doing another kind of activity that is different from your regular, daily work.
But as we think about how to rest, we should consider these two principles:
Principle #1: Rest in Order to Work; Don’t Work in Order to Rest
First, we need to see rest as a means to work, not work as a means to rest. Much of the world, however, views labor primarily as the way to secure recreation. Thus, leisure becomes the goal of work. Actually, the word “recreation” derives etymologically from a Latin word that means to “create again, renew.” You can see that etymology in the English word itself: Re-creation. Rest from work is a gift from God that he uses to, in a temporal sense, “recreate” and renew us so that we might get back to work.
That’s why there is a six-to-one ratio of work to rest in the calendar God gave to Israel, not one-to-six. If rest was the goal, God would have given us a higher ratio of rest to work. The way God structured the original week (Gen 1:1-2:24) and Israel’s subsequent workweek (Ex 20:10) indicates that work is the priority, not the afterthought. We don’t work merely to get to rest, we rest in order to be re-energized to work.
Yes, there were also longer rest periods prescribed for Israel, so there is biblical precedent for vacations—even long vacations. But the same principle holds. We don’t work our tails off simply to get to the vacation. This wrong attitude about work and rest is probably the main reason why people are so miserable on Mondays: they’ve labored all the week to get to the weekend, and now that the weekend is over, they are in a terrible mood.
I remember several years ago while teaching this principle to a group of college students and young professionals. One of them, a traveling nurse, said to me some time after the lesson, that this simple principle—that God calls us to rest in order to work, not work in order to rest—revolutionized her entire approach toward work. She now went to work with renewed vigor, joy, and thankfulness to God for giving her the opportunity to ply her craft for the benefit of her patients. She now saw that rest is given to us by God as a gift so that we will be re-energized to get back to what he created us for: work and exercising dominion over the lot he has given us.
Principle #2: Rest in a Way that Truly Refreshes You
Therefore, principle #2: Find ways to rest that are restorative for you, both physically and spiritually. If we are honest with ourselves, we must confess that some rest doesn’t refresh us. Just the opposite: It drains us, it saps our energy, and makes us more likely to indulge our grumpiness and irritability.
But if the goal of rest is to re-energize us for work, then we need to think carefully about what really refreshes us. It may be a hike, a trip to the city, a walk to the park, a pickup soccer game, a bike ride, a swim at the grandparents, or a sitting at the beach with a good book. Whatever it is, pay attention to the activities that are truly re-creative for you and pursue them. Sometimes, it may not be a ceasing to work, but a doing a different kind of work. Some people make think we are crazy, but Amy and I find it incredibly restorative to clean up and organize the house, storage room, the shed, and the attic. Is that crazy? Maybe it is. But it refreshes us.
Some recreation appears restorative, but really isn’t. Watching a few YouTube videos here and there may be refreshing (depending on the content), but aimlessly bingeing on mental candy for hours will benefit us neither spiritually nor physically. The same can be said for scrolling endlessly through social media platforms.
These forms of entertainment appeal to our desire to disengage our minds and be passively entertained. While there is a place for wholesome entertainment, it is rarely if ever wise to “disengage the mind” or to become “passive” in our entertainment. Scripture tells us to be always watchful, alert, and on guard, for our enemy is always on the prowl (1 Pet 5:8), and our flesh is easily tempted (Matt 26:41).
Conclusion
God has made us to work, but he has also made us to need rest. This need for rest is a reminder that we are contingent beings that depend upon our Creator for all things, including physical and mental energy. Even so, God did not give us rest so that we would make it the sole pursuit of our lives. Rather, God intends our rest to be the means by which we are re-energized to get back to work, serving him and serving others as we exercise dominion over the lot he has apportioned us. Therefore, we should seek for rest that truly refreshes and prepares us for our tasks. This approach to work and rest will glorify God and provide us with rich and lasting satisfaction.
