A biblical Work Ethic
Though sin has impacted all creation,
we are to be diligent and industrious,
meeting our personal needs,
providing for our families,
and supporting God's work.
Work is really one of God's greatest gifts.
Right from the beginning
God considered this a great gift.
And you see this when you go
to Genesis chapter 2, verse 15:
The LORD God took the man and
placed him in the garden of Eden
to work it and [to] watch over it.
And I've tried to envision what that
garden must have looked like before
Adam had to work it, to take care of it.
It had to be beautiful.
And the fact of the matter is
he was to work it.
He was to watch over it.
So right from the very beginning
along with the creation of Adam and Eve,
mankind, God said:
I'm going to give you the gift of work.
Now you know the story.
Adam and Eve sinned.
And when they did, we see the impact
of sin actually in nature on this
beautiful garden that God had created.
And the whole world that He had created.
And really the universe.
We see the impact of sin.
Now in terms of the garden, as it were,
or the fields, and of course it's
an agricultural setting here.
This is what we read:
[And God] said to Adam...
Now this is after sin entered the world:
...And He said to Adam,
"Because you listened to your
wife's voice and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you,
'Do not eat from it':
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of
painful labor all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles...
Now immediately I think we have a clue
there that the garden didn't have
thorns and thistles.
It was a beautiful garden
but no thorns, no thistles.
So God said after sin:
...It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust, and you will return to dust."
Which obviously was an impact of sin
as well in Adam's life
and all mankind thereafter.
So here we have a statement of what
happened to nature.
But God didn't remove His grace totally.
Aren't you glad?
Because He's still given us a
beautiful world in which to live.
But the fact is that mingled into
that are serious problems.
We see them in floods, and storms,
and earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions,
and all the things that can happen.
We see it in droughts.
We see it in things that destroy the
work of our hands or make it even more difficult.
But the fact is we still have God's grace--
common grace--to be able to do some
wonderful things with which God's created.
I was thinking about some of the
beautiful garden areas.
For example, if you ever have a chance to see
Butchart Gardens in British Columbia.
That acreage of trees, and flowers, and bushes,
and they take care of it by the
sweat of their brow.
And it's beautiful.
In fact, God's work is still a gift
even though we have to work by the
sweat of our brow.
I think some of the greatest feelings I've had
is after a hard day's work
and the sweat of my brow.
To feel good that we were able to do
something that was fulfilling
and to create something that was beautiful.
So God's common grace is still present.
But not only did sin impact nature,
it impacted man.
And here you have a
powerful metaphor in the Proverbs.
Proverbs 6:6 to 8:
Go to the ant, you slacker! ...
He's talking to man here when he says:
...Go to the ant, you slacker!
Observe its ways and become wise.
Without leader, administrator, or ruler,
it prepares its provisions in summer;
it gathers its food during harvest.
And then he makes this application to man.
When he says in Proverbs 6:9 to 11:
How long will you stay in bed, you slacker?
When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the arms to rest,
and your poverty will come like a robber,
your need, like a bandit.
One of the impacts of sin on mankind is laziness.
Not to work.
Not to put forth our best effort
to do what God wants us to do
to meet our obligations.
Even though it's a gift of God,
we don't practice that gift
with what God has given us.
And then he uses an illustration
a little later on in verses 30-34:
I went by the field of a slacker...
And in essence he's saying:
What did I see?
...I went by the field of a slacker and
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense.
Thistles had come up everywhere...
Now the fact of the matter is,
God's given us the ability to remove
the thistles but it could be painful.
But this man didn't remove the thistles.
...weeds covered the ground...
Again with the gift that God had given
the man to work, he could have
taken care of those weeds.
But he allowed them to cover the ground.
...and the stone wall was ruined. ...
And you can get the picture.
It's just a horrible situation.
Everything is deteriorated.
Now what he's dealing with here is laziness,
which in essence the Bible says is sin.
There are people that
will take advantage.
And this was a problem that Paul had to
deal with in the New Testament world,
even among Christians.
If you go to 2nd Thessalonians for example,
here's Paul's admonition.
Now the Thessalonian believers--
they came to Christ on Paul's
second missionary journey.
They were converted out of raw paganism.
And they accepted Christ.
Their lives began to change.
But there were some problems
among some of those converts.
And he's addressing this.
In fact, [he says] when we were with you,
this is what we commanded you:
"If anyone isn't willing to work,
he should not eat." ...
Now that's a pretty strong statement.
Now keep in mind, Paul is dealing here
with people who could work who won't work.
We have to make that clear.
Paul recognized there were people in need
and they would work if they could.
But here he's dealing with people
who are lazy.
And he goes on to define that. He says:
...For we hear that there are some
among you who walk irresponsibly,
not working at all, but interfering
with the work of others.
Not only are they not busy
about meeting their own needs,
they get involved in interfering
with other people that are
trying to meet their needs.
And Paul calls it what it is.
Sin. A sin.
And so he goes on to explain
in chapter 3, verses 14 and 15.
He deals with the fact that, in these cases,
these people need discipline
from the body of Christ.
He says this:
[And] if anyone does not obey our
instruction in this letter,
take note of that person;
don't associate with him,
so that he may be ashamed.
Yet don't treat him as an enemy,
[but] warn him as a brother.
In other words, all discipline should be
for the benefit of the person
who's being disciplined.
And he's simply saying: If this person
continues to live in sin,
to take advantage, to be lazy,
then you're going to have to separate
from that individual. To get their attention
so that they'll change and take seriously
this very, very important principle to work.
To do what God wants us to do.
Now here's a Reflection
and Response question and that is:
How do we help Christians develop
a strong work ethic that is in harmony
with God's will for their lives?
By the way I think there's another side to this
and that is that we need to deal with
some people who overwork.
We need to deal with people that
are almost addicted to work.
It becomes a substitute to meet needs
in their lives they're not dealing with
in an appropriate way.
That's the other side of that.
But the more significant side of it
in application to what we see here in Proverbs
is that Christians need to understand
God's will in all aspects of their life.
In other words, if we're going to live
for the Lord Jesus. If we're going to do His will
in all aspects of our life,
we need teaching about morality.
We need teaching about ethics.
We need teaching about working.
We need teaching about being
responsible individuals.
So consequently, what we're
saying right here--the teaching that
comes from Proverbs: we need that.
As believers we need that.
Secondly, we need accountability.
And that's what Paul was dealing with
when he wrote to the Thessalonians.
He said: This person who is lazy,
who's taking advantage--
and by the way, in all the years of my ministry,
I've found that these people
are very much in the minority.
Very much in the minority.
But there are some who will take advantage.
And so they need accountability.
They need help.
They need to think through financial planning.
They need to think through not getting
themselves in over their head.
They need somebody who can give
them wisdom on how to live their lives
in this world and be responsible human beings.
We need that.
And then finally, here is a challenging one,
and that is that we have to be cautions
that we don't enable people.
That we don't allow people
to take advantage of us.
And that's difficult sometimes.
Because we're to be people of love,
people who care.
So we have to ferret out people
who are really in need. Who really need help
from those who--if we help them overly so--
we're enabling them in their behavior
That is not accountable.
And it doesn't measure up to
the principles God has given us.
So here's that Principle to Live By
I think that comes out of this
passage here in Proverbs.
Though sin has impacted all creation,
we are to be diligent and industrious,
meeting our personal needs,
providing for our families,
and supporting God's work.