“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23–24, ESV)
Work As A Gift
I don’t think many people see work as a gift. As I talk to people regularly, they typically speak as though work is a necessary evil that allows them to do the things they really want to do. If they want to provide for their families, they need to work. In order to buy a new car, they need to work. If they want to go on vacations and travel the world, they need to work. Most people don’t see work as a gift, but as a tool to get a different gift.
Yet, God created us to work. When God created Adam it says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). This happened while things were still “very good.” Man was working in the garden before sin every entered the world. That means work is very good and is a gift of God.
Work After the Fall
Yet, after Adam and Eve’s sin, something happened to the nature of work. When God pronounced the curse on Adam, He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19, ESV). After the Fall, work is going to be much harder and painful than it was before, but work is still a good gift of God.
Sin Corrupting Work
However, like I have mentioned in previous posts, sin takes hold of God’s good gifts and uses them for death and destruction. After The Fall, sin took hold of the gift of work and made it painful and difficult. Not only has sin made work painful and difficult, but sin has also corrupted our own hearts. Now, we are tempted to work for our own benefit, our own prestige, and our own glory. We will bite, scratch, and claw to make our way to the top. We will work to make a name for ourselves, rather than a name for God.
Or we will not work. Over the years, I have encountered some people who notice the dangers of “overworking” and “selfish working” and have chosen not to work—at least not work much. They even speak as if their withdrawal from the working world is a righteous thing. Yet, God doesn’t have much good to say about those who refuse to work—“If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10, ESV).
Redeeming Work
So, how do we redeem work? The basic principle is to go to work everyday understanding that you work for the Lord, not men. With this principle in mind, it will affect the way you work and the amount you work. You will not put in ridiculous amounts of hours each week trying to impress your boss/co-workers, and you will not try to avoid work. You will keep your eyes on Jesus and seek to please Him by the way you work. You will not bite, scratch, and claw your way to the top because that will not honor your true boss—the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Him, you will take the form of a servant, but you will also take opportunities to get away, rest, and pray.
There’s balance in working to please the Lord. When we are enslaved to the opinions and expectations of the people around us, it almost impossible to have a proper balance. The world and people are not good masters. Yet, when we are enslaved to Jesus as our only master, we find true freedom and rest. He has said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29–30, ESV).