“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:6-11).

There is nothing so characteristic of contemporary life as the intense importance people place on work. Modern people often spend more time at work than with family, friends, children, or spouses. Based on time alone, our work is an area in which we human beings most need wisdom and have many opportunities to demonstrate wisdom or foolishness. [1]

For a lot of people, work has become more than a way to make a living and provide for a family. It has become a source ultimate of meaning and purpose in life. Many people primarily find their self-identity in their work. The first question many people ask in a conversation is, “What do you do?” A few people find not only self-identity in work, but also the meaning and purpose for their lives. For these people, work has become an idol, a part of created existence through which they try to give their lives meaning and purpose. We have a technical name for such people: we call them “workaholics.” The problem with the workaholic is that work has taken on a meaning it was never meant to have.

On the other hand, there are people in our and almost all other societies, who spend a great deal of time and energy avoiding work. Years ago, for a couple of years, our church was bedeviled by a person who was constantly asking for money and hotel rooms. This person was smart, attractive, convincing, and dishonest. She called every six months or so with another story about needing money. On one occasion, she accidentally made a mistake that let us know she was a fraud. Otherwise, we would never have caught on. This person would have been a fabulous honest sales person or manager. She spent more energy avoiding work than she would have spent working!

Proverbs and Work

Proverbs and wisdom literature has a lot to say about work. In my office, I have a workbook I made listing all the sayings in Proverbs that deal with work, finances, and the like. It takes up ten single-spaced pages. This does not count the wisdom sayings about work that appear in other books of the Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about work and about wisdom and foolishness in working.

Just as family life in the ancient world differed from ours, economic life was very different as well. The culture of ancient Israel was both agrarian and family-based. Just as the family was the fundamental social unit of society, the family was also the fundamental economic unit of society. Today, most people do not live on farms and work and family are separated. Nevertheless, the Bible has a lot to say about our modern work lives.

What is Work?

One thing I quickly realized as I thought about work is that we need to be clear what we are talking about when we talk about work. In Genesis in the story of the Garden of Eden, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to tend the garden, to be his stewards of the garden, and to enjoy the fruits of the garden (Genesis 1-2). Unfortunately, Adam and Eve sinned, with the result that Adam was judged and his relationship with his work tending the Garden changed. Here is what God says in Genesis:

Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:17-19).

Too often, we focus on this quote when thinking about work and fail to remember that we were created to tend God’s garden—and anyone who has ever gardened knows that gardening is often hard work. Work is not a curse. It is part of God’s intention for human life. Work is not just about making money: there was no money when God put Adam and Eve in the Garden. Work is about adding value to God’s creation.

So, what is work? Here is my definition: “Work is that which we do that expands the Kingdom of God in the world while providing for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of ourselves, our families, and others.” The spouse who cooks for children, the spouse who works in an office, the farmer planting a crop, the poet writing a book that will never sell, the engineer writing a manual for a new computer program, the man fixing his neighbors fence, all are working. We work to meet the needs of ourselves, our family and others, not just for money. In fact a lot of work does not involve making money at all.

Not All Work is Work

This definition, “Work is that which we do that expands the Kingdom of God in the world while providing for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of ourselves, our families, and others” reveals to us a fact: not everything we call work is really work. It is something else. It is more like “anti-work”. It is work that does not bring God’s kingdom into the world, but instead brings chaos, suffering, evil, and darkness into the world. Just doing something and getting paid does not mean you are working by God’s definition of work.

First, real work is honest; dishonest gain is not work—it is crime. Real work brings more beauty, truth, order, goodness, and peace into the world. Anti-work brings ugliness, lies, disorder, immorality and violence into the world. This is where we come face to face with a big problem in our society. If I make $100.00 selling legal pornography to teenagers and if I make $100.00 inventing a cure for cancer, the people who calculate our Gross Domestic Product count those two $100.00 as equal. Unfortunately, experience teaches us that the $100.00 earned the first way will bring suffering, a need for counseling, marital problems, and a host of evils, which will cost our society much more than the original $100.00. As a society and as individuals, we need to see that work, to be real work, for the Garden of Earth God has put into our care to be a better, richer, more pleasing place to be, we have to do honest, legal, life enhancing, wealth-creating work.

Second, we must remember that because I am at the office does not mean that I am working. One aspect of workaholism is that people who consistently overwork eventually lose their edge. They may be in the office all the time, but they are not necessarily working. Years ago, I had a good friend in a major law firm. He was famous for the hours he billed and spent at the office. However, it was also true that years of over-work had taken a toll on his mental, physical, and emotional acuity with the result that he had to work really long hours to accomplish tasks. Unfortunately for my friend, the toll it took on his health was very traumatic. There is a lot of wisdom in the old phrase, “Don’t just work hard. Work smart.”

Things to Avoid in our Work and Economic Life

Proverbs is filled with behaviors we are to avoid in our economic life. There are many, many proverbs about work. Some of them have to do with working hard and avoiding laziness (Proverbs 6:6-11; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15; 19:24; 20:4; 20:13-17). Just on numbers of proverbs along, God must think we need to know about the danger of laziness. It is in our human nature to be lazy. Someone this week pointed out that even those of us who do not think of ourselves as lazy at the office may be lazy in our chores at home, in relating to family members, in taking care of elderly parents, in raising our children, etc. Therefore, all of us need to ask the question, “Is there some place in my life in which I am lazy?” Working hard and avoiding laziness are important virtues (Proverbs 12:24, 27; 13:4)

The Bible also constantly warns against borrowing too much money and guaranteeing the debt of others (Proverbs 6:1-5). There are many proverbs that speak of the dangers of partnering in business with unscrupulous people, criminal enterprises, and the like (Proverbs 10:2-5; 15:27). Basically, any business strategy or practice that involves taking advantage of other people by dishonest means is condemned in Scripture (Proverbs 10:2-5; 11:1).

One of the most unfortunate aspects of contemporary American business life is the degree to which people have come to accept taking advantage of others as a reasonable business practice. In Path of Life I tell a story about the financial crisis in the U.S. during which a particular investment bank was approached by a valued hedge fund customer to create a pool of high-risk mortgages it intended to short. The investment bank did that very thing and itself shorted the portfolio without fully disclosing that neither it nor one of its best customers believed in the product and in fact were shorting it. I was amazed at the number of business people who thought nothing wrong with this. It so happened that I was in Scotland when the mortgage crisis began—and retirement plans in places like Norway were impacted by their purchase of similar investments. [2] Honesty counts and dishonest practices are to be avoided.

The Blessing of Work

Mike Rowe, the television personality, was host of “Dirty Jobs” on the discovery channel. [3] In this capacity, he milked camels, worked on road crews picking up road kill, castrated sheep, slithered through sewers, and held a variety of other really bad jobs. He discovered that those who worked in such jobs were frequently the happiest, most balanced people he ever met. Unfortunately, our culture too often demeans manual labor. [4] All honest labor is a blessing to the person who labors and to everyone else. We have made work about success, money, and security. We have made our economy about making money. This is not a good way for us to think. Our national economy needs to be organized to provide opportunities for everyone to earn a living, provide for their family, and save for old age. It should not be a giant lottery to see who can get the richest. In fact, that sentiment is a distortion of what God intends.

The blessing of work is first and foremost the contribution we can make to the health, security, happiness, and welfare of other people. The blessing of work is in the way in which it allows us to use our time and our talents and our energies to make the world a better place for ourselves, those we love, our fellow citizens—everyone. True work is a blessing because it is part of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into the world.

The Bible and Christian faith do not think that the only professions that are sacred are those practiced by religious professionals. Every honest profession, every honest job, and every craft that makes the world a better place involves a calling from God to make the world a better place. It is as much a calling to run a restaurant as to be a priest. It is as much a calling to build houses as to be a pastor. I could go on and on.

This is an especially important point in our culture. In many ways, people have come to distrust the church and pastors. In many ways, the church has been shoved out of the public square. Many people are hesitant to enter the doors of a church. However, we can minister to co-workers, clients, customers, employers, and employees as we incarnate the character of Christ, becoming more like Jesus, and slowly ever so slowly bringing the Kingdom of God into our working relationships.