Work as Evil
Work is traditionally perceived as a necessary evil – a means to the end of income, and ultimately consumption, without any (positive) intrinsic value of its own. This is, incidentally, also the characterisation adopted by mainstream economics, which treats work as merely ‘disutility’ – a welfare cost to be weighed against its extrinsic benefits of income and consumption in the allocation of time and the exertion of effort, which involve trade-offs with leisure. In short, neither mainstream society nor mainstream economics have much ‘time’ for work, given their shared preoccupation with the consumption side of the economy. It is clear, however, that work is something more – something intrinsically valuable. After all, unemployed people are rarely happy – not only due to their lack of income, but more fundamentally, due to their lack of purpose, self-actualisation, or motivation.
Work is traditionally perceived as a necessary evil – a means to the end of income, and ultimately consumption, without any (positive) intrinsic value of its own. This is, incidentally, also the characterisation adopted by mainstream economics, which treats work as merely ‘disutility’ – a welfare cost to be weighed against its extrinsic benefits of income and consumption in the allocation of time and the exertion of effort, which involve trade-offs with leisure. In short, neither mainstream society nor mainstream economics have much ‘time’ for work, given their shared preoccupation with the consumption side of the economy. It is clear, however, that work is something more – something intrinsically valuable. After all, unemployed people are rarely happy – not only due to their lack of income, but more fundamentally, due to their lack of purpose, self-actualisation, or motivation.
In the Beginning Was Work
What is the Christian conception of work? It should be noted that work is intrinsic to creation and the Creator. On the seventh day of creation, God rested, thus implying that some form of work – some exertion of effort – had occurred on the previous six days. This creative work could not have been evil, for sin had not yet arrived. Indeed, God said of His creation that ‘it was good’. Of course, just because the product of the work was good does not imply that the process of work was also good. However, creation is a unique form of labour in that the product and the process are inextricable, which is why creation is able to continually recreate itself.
Furthermore, the product and process are in turn inextricable from the producer – a work of art, and its creation, are inextricable from the artist. This stands in stark contrast to, say, assembly-line work, in which no single worker is able to identify her unique contribution to the production process, given that each worker is exposed to only a small part of that process, and given that each worker’s job can be easily replaced by another worker, or even a machine. Therefore, if God is good (which He is), then the process and product of His creation must also have been good. Indeed, this is why creation bears the ‘fingerprints’ of God – “the heavens declare the glories of God” (Psalm 19:1).
Creation does not only bear the signature of the Creator; it is also, in part, a self-portrait, because God created man “in His own image”. Part and parcel of being created in His image is that man has a unique, God-given ability to create, and to participate in the continual recreation of the earth. Indeed, the ability to work is also a responsibility: as products of God's work, we are also charged with producing. As Ephesians 2:10 tells us, "...we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Indeed, Adam and Eve were not meant to merely sit on their laurels, idly watching eternity pass by, but were charged with the task of maintaining the garden (to "work" it, in the words of Genesis 2:15), and multiplying the human species. However, this obligation to work was a far cry from the masochistic, Presbyterian sense of arduous labour as a moral duty. On the contrary, as an intrinsically creative process, gardening is one of those rare forms of labour that, even in post-fall, modern society, is widely considered to be enjoyable and therapeutic, rather than tedious and wearisome. (This is even truer of the commandment to “go forth and multiply”).
So before sin, there was work, but no ‘labour’ in the sense of ‘laborious work’. After sin, however, the relationship of man with God, the earth, and each other became less harmonious: although the producer (God) should be inseparable from the product (man), sin separates the two, as symbolised by Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden. This separation leads to a corruption of the process (work), resulting a conception of work that more closely resembles the one that is prevalent today: man is now obligated to till the soil through arduous labour in order to consume and survive, while 'going forth and multiplying' now involves painful ‘labour’ during childbirth.
What is the Christian conception of work? It should be noted that work is intrinsic to creation and the Creator. On the seventh day of creation, God rested, thus implying that some form of work – some exertion of effort – had occurred on the previous six days. This creative work could not have been evil, for sin had not yet arrived. Indeed, God said of His creation that ‘it was good’. Of course, just because the product of the work was good does not imply that the process of work was also good. However, creation is a unique form of labour in that the product and the process are inextricable, which is why creation is able to continually recreate itself.
Furthermore, the product and process are in turn inextricable from the producer – a work of art, and its creation, are inextricable from the artist. This stands in stark contrast to, say, assembly-line work, in which no single worker is able to identify her unique contribution to the production process, given that each worker is exposed to only a small part of that process, and given that each worker’s job can be easily replaced by another worker, or even a machine. Therefore, if God is good (which He is), then the process and product of His creation must also have been good. Indeed, this is why creation bears the ‘fingerprints’ of God – “the heavens declare the glories of God” (Psalm 19:1).
Creation does not only bear the signature of the Creator; it is also, in part, a self-portrait, because God created man “in His own image”. Part and parcel of being created in His image is that man has a unique, God-given ability to create, and to participate in the continual recreation of the earth. Indeed, the ability to work is also a responsibility: as products of God's work, we are also charged with producing. As Ephesians 2:10 tells us, "...we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Indeed, Adam and Eve were not meant to merely sit on their laurels, idly watching eternity pass by, but were charged with the task of maintaining the garden (to "work" it, in the words of Genesis 2:15), and multiplying the human species. However, this obligation to work was a far cry from the masochistic, Presbyterian sense of arduous labour as a moral duty. On the contrary, as an intrinsically creative process, gardening is one of those rare forms of labour that, even in post-fall, modern society, is widely considered to be enjoyable and therapeutic, rather than tedious and wearisome. (This is even truer of the commandment to “go forth and multiply”).
So before sin, there was work, but no ‘labour’ in the sense of ‘laborious work’. After sin, however, the relationship of man with God, the earth, and each other became less harmonious: although the producer (God) should be inseparable from the product (man), sin separates the two, as symbolised by Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden. This separation leads to a corruption of the process (work), resulting a conception of work that more closely resembles the one that is prevalent today: man is now obligated to till the soil through arduous labour in order to consume and survive, while 'going forth and multiplying' now involves painful ‘labour’ during childbirth.
The Labour of Love
Along with everything else, the redemption of work’s original design – a return to the Garden – comes through Christ. Salvation is a process of recreation: it involves the resurrection of the dead, crucified self (2 Corinthians 5:17), a process that must occur on a daily basis (Luke 9:23). Indeed, the cross (or tree) on which Christ died mirrors the Tree of Life. Through the love of Jesus, work can (again) become not just a means (for good works are not the means of salvation), but rather an end in itself – the fruit of our faith and the overflowing of our love, rather than the punishment for our sin and the compulsion of the Law.
Not that work is necessarily easy, or even meaningful. In Ecclesiastes 2:22-3 (see also 3:9), Solomon bemoaned the inescapably arduous and futile nature of work: “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labours under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous…” He particularly mourned the futility of working for the sake of rivalry (4:4) and mammon (4:7-8; 5:13-6), which would never bring satisfaction. These instrumental, extrinsic motivations for work are precisely those that predominate in modern society. No wonder, then, that Solomon saw these forms of work in essentially the same light as modern economics - as a trade-off with leisure: "Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain man...there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, 'And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?' This too is vanity and it is a grievous task" (Ecclesiastes 4:7-8).
However, the 'good works' that we are to carry out are a different sort of work. Although they are bound to provoke persecution (Matthew 10:16-23), they are never meaningless, because they are not the result of a fallen world, but of the redemption of that world. In this regard, we can take lesson from Paul, who, despite being shipwrecked, imprisoned, and even stoned, continued to rejoice in his work. As he exhorts in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Part and parcel of this form of work is working with, and for, each other, rather than only for the self and against others - cooperationg and serving, rather than competing and enslaving. Indeed, the meaningful nature of 'holy work' is reflected in the juxtaposition in Ecclesiastes between working in competition with fellow man (4:4) and working in cooperation with him (5:9-12) - the former, as an inherently destructive form of labour, yielding only strife, the latter, as an inherently creative form of labour, yielding a multiplication in production.
Moreover, the work that we carry out on Christ’s behalf is not the outcome of our own exertion. Rather, as new creations in Christ, we enter into the work that has already been accomplished on the cross, which represents a return to the creation of the pre-sin garden; equivalently, the "good works" for which we created reprsent the same "goodness" that God declared about his creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10). Thus, Jesus declares on the cross, “it is finished” (John 19:30); but at the same time, Hebrews 4:3 tells us that “…His works were finished from the foundation of the world"; or, as Solomon expresses it, "I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by" (Ecclesiastes 3:14-5).
The upshot is that, although we must carry our cross daily, we are participating in a finished work (that is just as well, because the work of salvation would be too much for us to bear!). We are able to do this by the help of the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who carries out a work in us so that, thanks to Christ's work for us, God can work through us. The goodness of God's work in which we participate, deriving from His timeless, pre-, peri-, and post-sin plan, is succinctly expresed in Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
The Rest of Grace
In Ecclesiastes 2:23, Solomon laments not only the arduous and meaningless nature of work, but also the lack of rest that accompanies it: "...even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.". However, just as we participate in the work of
God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer, and the Spirit the Helper, so we participate in Their rest.
Firstly, as we are created in God's image, we are to take time to reflect on and enjoy the fruit of our labour, just as God rested from His labour on the seventh day after declaring that His work was good (Hebrews 4). Thus, immediately after lamenting the futility of work, Solomon states that “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labour is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24; see also 3:12-3 and 5:18-20). Note that this rest is not mere idleness, but is rather inseparable from the work preceding it.
Furthermore, as new creations, thanks to the finished work of Christ and the work of the Spirit within us, we also participate in Christ’s rest. This is a unique form of rest, in that it results from His work, not our own; it is a rest of grace (note, however, that it is still the result of work). As Romans 4:4-5 tells us, "Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." In other words, we receive the income, consumption, or leisure resulting from a work that was performed by Christ, not by us. As Jesus tells us in Mathew 11:28-30,“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” In a sense, the cross reverses the work-rest sequence: we receive His rest before we perform any works on our own account, and, in reponse to this love and grace, we are motivated to carry out the good works for which we were created - we become "slaves to righteousness", to use the parlance of Romans.
This is represented symbolically by the six hours for which Jesus was on the cross, corresponding to the six days of creation - a juxtaposition of death and life. Furthermore, if Jesus died on a passover, it is as if He is performing His work at the same time as everyone else is resting! This is further illustrated if we consider that Jesus was resurrected at the same time as His death, three days later - so whereas the Father rested on the seventh day, Jesus' first hour of resurrection (or 'being risen') was the seventh after being crucified three days earlier. The new life of Christ, which we also live, involves a paradoxical simultaneity of rest in work, of life in death. This is well worth remembering on those wearisome Monday mornings!
Firstly, as we are created in God's image, we are to take time to reflect on and enjoy the fruit of our labour, just as God rested from His labour on the seventh day after declaring that His work was good (Hebrews 4). Thus, immediately after lamenting the futility of work, Solomon states that “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labour is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24; see also 3:12-3 and 5:18-20). Note that this rest is not mere idleness, but is rather inseparable from the work preceding it.
Furthermore, as new creations, thanks to the finished work of Christ and the work of the Spirit within us, we also participate in Christ’s rest. This is a unique form of rest, in that it results from His work, not our own; it is a rest of grace (note, however, that it is still the result of work). As Romans 4:4-5 tells us, "Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." In other words, we receive the income, consumption, or leisure resulting from a work that was performed by Christ, not by us. As Jesus tells us in Mathew 11:28-30,“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” In a sense, the cross reverses the work-rest sequence: we receive His rest before we perform any works on our own account, and, in reponse to this love and grace, we are motivated to carry out the good works for which we were created - we become "slaves to righteousness", to use the parlance of Romans.
This is represented symbolically by the six hours for which Jesus was on the cross, corresponding to the six days of creation - a juxtaposition of death and life. Furthermore, if Jesus died on a passover, it is as if He is performing His work at the same time as everyone else is resting! This is further illustrated if we consider that Jesus was resurrected at the same time as His death, three days later - so whereas the Father rested on the seventh day, Jesus' first hour of resurrection (or 'being risen') was the seventh after being crucified three days earlier. The new life of Christ, which we also live, involves a paradoxical simultaneity of rest in work, of life in death. This is well worth remembering on those wearisome Monday mornings!
Concluding Remarks
Through Christ, the original design of work as a life-giving interaction with creation, the created, and the Creator, can be redeemed. The laboriousness of work that we currently experience on a daily basis is therefore a temporary ‘hangover’ of the fall, which will eventually subside when He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). Until then, creation will continue to “groan” and “suffer the pains of childbirth”, eagerly and anxiously awaiting its restoration (Romans 8:22). In the meantime, however, through the finished work of Christ, we can participate in the work and rest of creation and redemption. I therefore leave you with Jesus' exhortation to his disciples (Matthew 9:37-8; Luke 10:2): “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Through Christ, the original design of work as a life-giving interaction with creation, the created, and the Creator, can be redeemed. The laboriousness of work that we currently experience on a daily basis is therefore a temporary ‘hangover’ of the fall, which will eventually subside when He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). Until then, creation will continue to “groan” and “suffer the pains of childbirth”, eagerly and anxiously awaiting its restoration (Romans 8:22). In the meantime, however, through the finished work of Christ, we can participate in the work and rest of creation and redemption. I therefore leave you with Jesus' exhortation to his disciples (Matthew 9:37-8; Luke 10:2): “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
