The Biblical Doctrine of Work: Being Industrious in an Entitlement Culture

The Biblical Doctrine of Work  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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In a culture that increasingly “expects” the nanny state to take care of them, what should Christians think about work?

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Text: Genesis 2:1-2; 3:15, Exodus 23:12; Colossians 3:23-24; 1 Corinthians 10:31
Theme: In a culture that increasingly “expects” the nanny state to take care of them, what should Christians think about work?
Date: 09/01/2019 File Name: Docrtine_of_Work_01.wpd Sermon ID: 27
For most Americans, Labor Day is little more than a three-day weekend that is considered the “unofficial end of summer,” but more importantly as a “super-sales weekend” where retailers attempt to clear their summer merchandise. That’s what Labor Day has become.
It is meant as a holiday to honor the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the development, growth, and well-being of the country. That’s every American who has ever earned a paycheck. Somewhat in honor of the holiday, I want to preach a three-Sunday sermon series on what the bible has to say about work, and how Christians are to view it. Dorothy Sayers, an British essayist, novelist, and playwright who lived in the first half of the 20th century, had some important things to say about work. In an essay entitled “Why Work?” she lamented that so many Christians have abandoned, (or sadly, never been taught) the doctrine of a biblical work ethic. She wrote, "The modern doctrine of work, which has replaced the old biblical doctrine of work, is that labor is that which you do for a living. Work is that through which you make money so you can do what you really want to do. ... The habit of thinking about work as something one does to [only] make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of the work done." Now I ask you, isn’t that how most American think of work? Work is something we do in between weekends, and we do it so we can afford to do the things on the weekends that we would like to do all the time. Sayers tells us that, from a biblical perspective, work is something far different. Work, she writes, “ ... is the gracious expression of creative energy in the service of others.”
With that definition to guide us I’d like to 1) walk you through some of the biblical texts about work, 2) lay out the biblical principles of work, and finally 3) talk about the cultural challenge we face of being industrious in an entitlement culture.

I. THE BIBLICAL TEXT

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:1–2, NIV)
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15, NIV)
“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.” (Exodus 23:12, NIV)
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23–24, NIV)
1. from these texts and others, Christians understand labor as a responsibility
a. we discover in Genesis 2:15 that God put Adam in the Garden to work it and take care of it
b. in Exodus 23:12 we’re told that our labor is for six days, and after that comes a day of leisure and rest and restoration
2. what we sometimes forget is that labor is also a gift from which we reap blessings
a. God created us able to work ... to manipulate things, to cultivate the ground, to manage herds, and to invent microprocessors
b. furthermore, labor is a gift in that we can often find satisfaction in our labors ...
1) the farmer sees the result of his labors in the harvest at the end of the season
2) the carpenter sees the result of his labors in the beauty of his cabinet
3) the teacher sees the result of her labors in the education of students
4) the doctor is fulfilled in the recovering patient
5) the pastor is satisfied in the changed lives of his parishioners
3. still, many people have difficulty seeing labor — especially their own labor — as a gift

A. GOD AT WORK SETS THE EXAMPLE FOR US

1. Genesis 2:2 tells us that God had finished the work he had been doing
a. God is a worker
1) most of us don’t think of God this way, but that is how He initially reveals Himself in the Scriptures
b. God is not idle — He is active in the universe He creates
1) and even though we’re told that God rested on the seventh day, it means that God rested from His creative work, but not His sustaining work
2. God is not sitting on His throne merely admiring the handiwork of His cosmos
a. this was the Deist view of God—that He is like some great supernatural watchmaker who created the universe, wound it up and now simply watches it tick by
b. the Biblical view is that God Created and continues to actively Sustain the created order
c. this is the truth behind one of the great Christological passages of the New Testament
"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:15–17, NIV)
1) Jesus holds the material universe together — not only did Jesus create the universe, He also sustains it — He maintains the delicate balance necessary to life's existence
4. the point? the Godhead is still at work in the universe He created
a. this leaves mankind an example to follow

B. MAN WAS CREATED TO WORK AND EMULATE GOD IN SO DOING

1. work is forever rooted in God's design for human life because we are God’s co-workers
a. our vocations are an avenue that allow us to contribute to the common good and as a means of providing for ourselves, our families, and those we can bless with our productivity and generosity
2. God, therefore, invests work with intrinsic value and honor
a. the Church errors — and we error — when we divide life into two disconnected parts — the “sacred” and the “secular”
1) we have been fooled into thinking that there is “God” and the “spiritual dimension of our life”
a) this is what we do on Sunday and, perhaps if there is time, on Wednesday evenings
2) then there is “Us” and the “secular dimension of our lives”, including work and everything else and the two have nothing to do with each other
a) God stays in His corner of the universe while I go to work and live my life, and God is invited into “my” universe only when He is needed
b. this is not how God intended for us to live
1) from the Biblical point of view there is no such area of life as the “secular” because everything in the Christian’s life is about the “sacred”
ILLUS. About this, Dorothy Sayers writes, “In nothing has the Church so lost Her hold on reality as in Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, ... How can any one remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life? The Church’s approach to a carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.”
3. one problem with this secular/sacred dichotomy of life is that it sets us up for disappointment
a. if you leave God out of the picture, or if you sideline Him you'll have to get your sense of importance, fulfillment and reward from someplace else
1) for most Americans, that someplace else is our work or vocation
ILLUS. Think about it. One of the first things you find out about a person when you meet them is what they do. Our identity as human beings is closely tied to the job that employs us.
b. in this secular/sacred dichotomy, work becomes the answer to the question, "Who am I, and why am I important?"
1) that is a very shaky foundation — because what happens if you lose your job, or you’re just not very good at it?
2) you're suddenly a "nobody," you lose your identity, and you’re unimportant
4. a second problem is that a purely secular view of work can make an idol of career — career becomes the number one priority in your life, and God gets left out
a. this is particularly unacceptable for Christians, because God calls us to make Him the center of our life
b. God wants us to have a biblical worldview that weaves Him into every aspect of our lives, including work
c. He wants to be invited into our work; He wants to be Lord of our work

C. SIN DISTORTED OUR WORKING PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD

1. Adam and Eve became self-centered, and desired to take charge of their own lives
a. the result of the Fall is seen in Genesis 3:17 — work would now involve painful toil
b. toiling for God and with God was always part of the plan, but sin would now complicate the effort
2. our work would no longer be completely efficient but would involve thorns and thistles
ILLUS. These thorns and thistles can be real — as any farmer, or landscaper, or gardener could tell you. Thorns and thistles also come disguised in people. Ever have a co-worker who was the proverbial “burr under your saddle” or “a thorn in you your side”?
a. the challenge for us is to recognize that even though labor can be hard and challenging, we’ve been designed to work in tandem with God, not just for ourselves

II. THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

1. the doctrine of work teaches us that every Christian has a vocational calling to serve God in the world in every sphere of human existence, lending a new dignity and meaning to ordinary work
2. and of course, from our biblical texts, we discover the there are five principles about work that we need to learn

A. 1st, THROUGH WORK WE SERVE PEOPLE

1. most vocations are part of a huge network of interconnected jobs, industries, goods and services that work together to meet people's physical needs
a. most of us work in jobs where we are a cog in that interconnectedness of a larger economy
b. if we fail to do our job and do it well, we affect the whole
ILLUS. [Play Honda “The Cog” commercial]. If any one of these parts don’t work, the whole enterprise screeches to a halt.
2. through work we serve other people and Christians ought to be the very best servants in whatever their vocation might be

B. 2nd, THROUGH WORK WE MEET OUR OWN NEEDS

1. work allows us to exercise the gifts and abilities God gives each person
2. God expects us to provide for themselves and not mooch off others
a. the Apostle Paul was pretty blunt with the Thessalonian believers
b. he tells them "If one will not work, neither let him eat!" (2 Thess. 3:10)
“For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:7–10, ESV)
3. in this passage we see a number of “work principles” that Christians are to “flesh out” in their daily lives
a. idleness should not be part of the Christian’s lifestyle
b. mooching off of other’s should not be part of the Christian’s lifestyle
c. toil and labor should characterize the life of the believer
d. our toil and labor becomes a witness and an example to those around us
4. when we toil and labor our own needs are meet
a. not only is their compensation for our work, but there will be satisfaction that we are fulfilling our God-assigned role in His creation, and that brings glory and honor to the Father

C. 3rd, THROUGH WORK WE MEET OUR FAMILY'S NEEDS

1. God expects the heads of households to provide for their families
“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8, ESV)
ILLUS. One of my mother’s favorite phrase was, “Charity begins at home.”
a. in it’s proper balance there is a lot of wisdom in that statement
b. Christians work to provide for the needs of their family
2. in this verse, the Apostle Paul ties our faith and our labor together
a. Christians work to provide for their families
b. those who don’t reveal that their faith is not real!

D. 4th, THROUGH WORK WE EARN MONEY TO GIVE TO OTHERS

1. in both the Old and New Testaments, God tells us to be generous in meeting the needs of the poor and those who minister to us spiritually
“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Ephesians 4:28, ESV)
a. do you understand how revolutionary that concept is?
ILLUS. In the pagan culture of that day, benevolence was steeped in a quid-pro-quo attitude. You were benevolent for what you might get out of it. Christianity came along and taught that we are to be benevolent with no thought of reward or payback.
2. working “only to have” is an American ideal, but it’s not the biblical ideal
a. the most radical thing about this text is that we’re commanded to work with a view toward meeting the needs of others
b. in Christ, God calls us to have a new attitude toward work, and a new attitude toward benevolence
c. this is counter-cultural and radically revolutionary

E. 5th, THROUGH WORK WE LOVE GOD

1. here is the center of the Biblical Work Ethic — work is a spiritual activity!
a. we thoroughly misunderstand the Scriptures if we think that personal industry as an end in itself
b. the biblical doctrine of vocation seeks to integrate life in the world with one’s spiritual life
2. to work is to serve God by serving others
3. through work, therefore, we
We Serve People
We Meet Our Own Needs
We Meet Our Family’s Needs
We Meet Other’s Needs
We Express Our Love for God

III. THE CULTURAL CHALLENGE

The cultural challenge we face is a society where many of its citizens have developed an entitlement mentality. Society will always have that segment of its population who do not want to work, and, if you pay them not to, won’t. Given the choice between working and freeloading they would choose the latter. There are those in our society who like living off the largess of others — as if they were entitled.
ILLUS. Shortly before his death, Mark Twain specified that his autobiography not be released until he had been dead for 100 years. He wanted to make sure that everyone he insulted in his final work would also be dead, along with close relatives. The autobiography was released in 2010, and there are plenty of the dead and buried insulted in it. The group he reserved his most vociferous venom for consists of those who look to others for their sustenance. In his autobiography Twain writes that “Any man who is satisfied to be fed by another man rather than by the honest sweat of his own brow should be shot.” Twain might have over stated his solution to this problem, but he recognized a perennial problem in human society — there will always be those who will live off the largess of others.
A government that feeds an entitlement mentality in its citizens, is not doing those citizens any favor. To encourage a man to live off the earnings of others is to rob that man of his dignity, ambition, and self-worth, not to mention robbing the giver of his hard-earned income. In America today, there are 80-plus federal welfare programs that spend over trillion dollars annually. This excludes entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).
The entitlement mentality is more addictive than cocaine and it can spread faster than a virus. Allow a man to get used to being idle and he will want to be idle forever. Reward idleness with government entitlements and people will make a living from being idle.

IV. THE BELIEVER'S RESPONSE

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23–24, NIV)

A. CHRISTIANS ARE TO BE INDUSTRIOUS IN WHATEVER THEIR VOCATION

1. regardless of your vocation—whatever you do—Paul says, work at it with all your heart
a. the attitude that guides your industriousness is that you are working for the Lord and not for human masters
b. ultimately it is the Lord Christ you are serving
2. God created us to be industrious as a reflection of His image in us
ILLUS. In his book Disciplines of a Godly Man, Kent Hughes writes: The way we work will reveal how much we have allowed the image of God to develop in us. There is immense dignity in work and in being workers.”

B. CHRISTIANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE TEMPTATIONS OF WORK

1. we live in a post-Genesis-three world ... meaning we live in a world where all things have been corrupted by sin
a. this includes vocation and work
b. here are three common temptations you’ll face in your work
2. 1st, You Can be Tempted Worship Work
a. work becomes your idol when it becomes the primary source of your identity
1) everyone, sooner or later, asks the question, “Who am I?”
2) for many, the answer becomes, “I am what I do.”
b. this is a dangerous assumption for the Christian
ILLUS. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor turned minister. In his book The Fight of Faith, he tells the story of being invited to speak at a convention of British physicians. He told them this story, “Somewhere in Pembrokeshire a tombstone is said to bear the inscription ‘John Jones, born a man, died a grocer.’ There are many whom I have had the privilege of meeting, whose tombstone might well bear the grim epitaph: ‘…born a man, died a doctor’! The greatest danger which confronts the medical man is that he may become lost in his profession… “
1) this is true for any vocation
2) when you make work your identity you’re worshiping your work, and that’s idolatry
c. the Christian’s identity is found in our relationship with God through Christ, and his indwelling Spirit
1) the words we hear God say to Jesus at his baptism, are the words we hear God speak to us — “You are my son, you are my daughter, in you I am well pleased”
2) God loves you for who you are in Christ, not for what you do for your vocation
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — ” (John 1:12, NIV84)
ILLUS. Our heart’s desire should be that our tombstone reads, Born a man, died a ‘new creation’ in Christ.
3. 2nd, You Can be Tempted to Reject Work
a. let’s face it; working is difficult
ILLUS. I tell folks that in almost 45 years of being a rural or small-town pastor, I’ve done just enough farmwork to be glad God didn’t call me to be a farmer. It’s hard work!
b. some people — even Christians — can struggle with laziness
1) it’s why the early church came to regard sloth as one of the deadly sins
c. sometimes pride takes over
1) I’ve known a few people over the years who would not work certain jobs because they felt those jobs were beneath them
4. 3rd, You Can be Tempted to Twist Work
a. have you every been tempted to accept money under the table or have you ever been asked by your boss to do some creative accounting, or have you ever fudged numbers on your sales quota, or claimed some expenses you really didn’t have, or taken credit for someone else’s work?
1) these, and a myriad other ways, are ways we can twist work
Con. Believers are to be examples in all things including our work ethic. God's people are to be industrious and honest when it comes to our secular work. The reason is that even our “secular” work is not really secular at all, but has a spiritual purpose behind it. ILLUS. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian of the early 20th century, once wrote; The first hour of the day belongs to God in worship, the other hours of the day belong to God in work.
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