What does the Bible say about work?

Done rightly, work is purposeful activity that generates useful goods or services. The creator God is the original worker. The six days of creation represent God's great work, and the seventh day of rest signals God's enjoyment of that work. Jesus also describes God, and himself, as workers in the creation and redemption of the cosmos. Throughout Scripture, we find many passages on work and vocation for use in preaching and in liturgy.

• Genesis 1:28, be fruitful and multiply, have dominion. . . 
• Genesis 2:15, God took the man and put him in the garden
• 2 Chronicles 15:7, "But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded"
• Psalm 90:17, "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands — O prosper the work of our hands!"
• Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain."
• John 5:17, God is always working
• 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Paul also advises that "anyone unwilling to work should not eat"

After the fall of humanity, work remains an essential human task, but it is shadowed by pain, difficulty, and setbacks (Genesis 3:17-19).

The wisdom literature

In the wisdom literature, the Bible frequently points to the works of God in creation and redemption, but also to the work of humans to sustain and bless human life. In Proverbs, "wisdom" is pictured as God's companion in the work of creation. "And I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race" (Proverbs 8:30, 31).

For the glory of God

For the Christian, work is done for the glory of God and not just for selfish gain.

• Proverbs 6:10-11, "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior"
• Colossians 3:17, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
• Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
• Ephesians 6:7, "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people."

John's vision of the kingdom

In John's vision of the kingdom, the work of humanity is not overlooked. The glory of the nations and the splendor of the kings will be brought into the city of God.

• Proverbs 13:4, "The appetite of the lazy craves, and gets nothing, while the appetite of the diligent is richly supplied."
• Proverbs 14:23, "In all toil there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."
• Ecclesiastes 3:13, "It is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in their toil."
• Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."
• John 4:34, "Jesus said to them, `My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.'"
• Acts 20:34-35, work to support each other
• Galatians 6:9, do not grow weary in doing what is right
• Ephesians 4:28, theives must give up stealing and work honestly
• Colossians 3:17, "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
• 2 Thessalonians 3:10-13, do not weary in doing what is right
• Revelation 21:24-26, the nations will walk in its light

Sermon ideas about work

Sin's curse on human work persists in many ways peculiar to modern life. From the meaningless and repetitive grind of industrial manufacturing to the soul-shrinking noise of mass marketing, humans manage to continually invent new ways to melt the nobility out of work. Work is an important topic in Scripture. The word (or its surrogates such as "labor" and "toil") appears 480 times in the Bible. Right at the front edge of the Bible, after blessing the initial human beings, God tells them to go to work: Fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. Work is purposeful activity. Even children do it. They walk the dog to keep him serene. They pick up their room to keep it tidy. They do their homework to get educated.

"Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it." (Madeleine L'Engle, quoted in Bogunovic, Dragan P. Heavenly Wisdom. Author House, 2013, p. 203.)

To Christians, their main calling is to become a prime citizen of the kingdom of God. Various forms of work fit into their vocation. What we call "getting a job" or "going to work" is only one way of participating in the various interests of the kingdom. Volunteering to teach Sunday School is another. So is stepping into a voting booth and making conscientious choices there. So is deciding whether to marry or to remain single, and, if married, whether to conceive or adopt children, or do both. These are all vocational decisions for a citizen of the kingdom, and some of them are large.

God is a working God, not a leisurely deity. Creative work is God's joy and delight. To be made in God's image is to be made for work. The question is whether human work will participate in God's joy and delight or be drudgery by the sweat of the brow. No one fully realizes that divine joy, but we can experience it more and more as we join in doing God's work, wherever, in the whole breadth of culture, that might be.

How about occupations? 

To "strive first for the kingdom" in choosing a career, a Christian will ask himself particular questions. Where in the kingdom does God want me to work? Where are the needs great? Where are the workers few? Where are the temptations manageable? With whom would I work? How honest is the work I'm thinking of doing? How necessary and how healthy are the goods or services I would help provide? How smoothly could I combine my proposed career with being a spouse, if that's also my calling, or a parent, or a faithful child of aging parents? How close would I be to a church in which I could give and take nourishment? Is my proposed career inside a system so corrupt that, even with the best intentions, I would end up absorbing a lot more evil than I conquer?

What would my career do for "the least of these"?

Placing emphasis where Jesus placed it, a prime citizen will add another question: What would my career do for "the least of these"?

What all of these questions express is an interest in serving the common good. God has ordered human society in such a way that we all depend on each other. Before we give thanks for our daily bread, somebody has to have baked it. In fact, before a slice of honey oatmeal appears on our plate, a number of farmers, millers, bakers, distributors, drivers, grocers, and others have had to work together in order to supply our need. This is a commercial arrangement, but not only a commercial arrangement. As Lee Hardy has written, it's also a social arrangement that expresses and reinforces our dependence on each other. God intends "that human beings should live in a society bound together by common needs and mutual service." (Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Human Design of Work, William B. Eerdmans, 1990, p. 60)

An ordinary occupation done conscientiously builds the kingdom of God. Jesus built the kingdom as a carpenter before he built it as a rabbi. Only a few of us will launch great reform movements, and even fewer of us will do it deliberately. But all of us may offer our gifts and energies to the cause of God's program in the world. When we make this offering by means of an ordinary occupation, we will sometimes feel as if our lives are very ordinary. No matter. An ordinary occupation done conscientiously builds the kingdom of God. Jesus built the kingdom as a carpenter before he built it as a rabbi. And he taught us in the parable of the talents that the question for disciples is not which callings they have, but how faithfully they pursue them.

Sermon ideas for Labor Day

In worship we can speak to God about our work, praying and singing as a way to respond to God's continual call to live lives worthy of the calling. We can preach about work, connecting the call to live for Christ from Sunday to Monday, taking Sunday into the workplace, so that all of life, in work and in play, is lived as worship. Labor Day Sunday provides a good opportunity to pause and reflect on God's calling on our lives and to rededicate ourselves to daily  living out the call on our lives.

"Our work is a calling from God. We work for more than wages and manage for more than profit so that mutual respect and the just use of goods and skills may shape the workplace. While we earn or profit, we love our neighbors by providing useful products and services. In our global economy we advocate meaningful work and fair wages for all. Out of the Lord's generosity to us, we give freely and gladly of our money and time." (Our World Belongs to God, article 48 © 2008 Christian Reformed Church in North America)

"As the offspring of an historically laboring class, we have been the purveyors of their craftsmanship, domestic skill, organizational prowess, agricultural acumen, and sheer creative cunning at making something wonderful out of nothing much. It was the very nature of this work--exploited, coerced, perilous, degraded or celebrated--that created within the African American personality a visceral need for respite from work. The soul needed a framework of meaning, a matrix to define personhood as more than the sum of their toil. For many, it was the weariness from labor that tuned the ears of our ancestors toward the invitation "…come unto me and rest." Impulse kissed inspiration. Work, and its psychological aftermath, created and swelled church meetings in brush arbors and tents, storefronts and cathedrals. Sunday morning! Here we found value in our named talents. Here our work was honored and honorable. Here in Christ and the church we found rest." (Lectionary Commentary from the African American Lectionary)

"Work. No matter what we're doing it's important simply because we give so much of our time and ourselves to it. Which brings me to a question, a hunch, and a challenge." (Sermon ideas by David Lose from Working Preacher)

"Labor Day also reminds us how many people today have no work at all. This is really, really bad, and I wish we were a lot more concerned about it than we seem to be. It is bad because a job not only allows a person to support themselves and their family, but because work really means so much more. Work often brings with it a role and an identity. Moreover, our work is a source of many of our most important relationships. That's a lot to lose." (Meditation on Psalm 90:17 from Day1)

"Our faith matters a great deal for how and why we work, and we can all grow in making this vision more specific and tangible. The liturgy not only effects how we approach our weekday work, but our weekday work also shapes how we inhabit Sunday worship. This session will explore how public congregational worship relates to faith and work, exploring tangible ideas of preaching, public prayer, and the arts." (Video presentation from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship)

Worship ideas for Labor Day

"By faith, we are called, as generations have before and generations will be to come—called to live out our faith through our work. As Hebrews 11 says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And so, like Abel and Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Moses and so many other heroes of the faith, we are called to live our lives based on the calling of God—even when we cannot see what is promised to us. Our vocations are the living out of this faith." (Prayer and Song ideas from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship)

"We are asking, where will I find money? . . . We offer our lives to be a blessing to your glory and to this world's healing, in the name of Jesus who sets an abundant table for all. Amen." (Prayer from Rachelhackenberg.com)