Work to Honor God

“Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” –Ecclesiastes 9:10a (NKJV)

“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: ‘If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.’ ” -1 Thessalonians 3:10 (NKJV).

Recently I read an article by T. R. McNeal on the theology of work. He stated that God is a working God who worked to create the universe and all that is in it. He works likewise to sustain it. Mankind, created in God’s image, was place on the earth to work. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15). Labor did not come about due to man’s fall. Man was already working to cultivate the earth and make it produce. After man became rebellious and sinned by partaking of what God told him to leave alone, Adam and Eve were expelled from the beautiful Garden of Eden, and work became complicated. Because of the fall, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life…In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.” (Genesis 3:17b, 19a. NKJV). The commission made to Adam ages ago to work and subdue the earth still remains in force. Today, agriculture is not the main mode of work. Mankind is engaged in work that is physical, social, cultural and spiritual in nature. But whatever we do to make a living, God’s people are to practice integrity in work. We are to work to honor God and to help mankind.

My mother and father were strong proponents of the words from Ecclesiastes 9:10a: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” No shoddiness in work habits and products from labor were allowed. Another adage they practiced, akin to the lesson from “the preacher” in Ecclesiastes: “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right.” On the farm, we saw living proof of what Paul wrote about in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Our theology of work also practiced “Give an honest day’s work for a day’s wage.” With these teachings learned early in life given orally and practiced by both precept and example, I gratefully learned the value and necessity for work and that Christians should strive to be honest, conscientious and productive in their work.

Another important aspect of work—whatever we do to make a living—is to view our labor first and foremost as serving God. For a Christian, the primary aim of any type of work is ministry to and for others. Christians may work on a farm, in an office, teach, administer, labor. Jesus taught that we are salt and light, His representatives in the workplace. Think of the difference we can make if we apply a sound theology of work in whatever we do. Spend time thinking about the sacredness of your work and what God expects you to do and to be through your work. Pray that whatever your hands find to do in the work-a-day world that God will be honored and that you and others will be blessed by your labor. At this Labor Day weekend (and every day), thank God for the privilege of work.

–Ethelene Dyer Jones 09.06.2015