Is Work a Dirty word to You?

 

1 Timothy 6:1-2

Is work a dirty word to you?   Do you wish you could just do what you wanted, and never have to get your hands on a mop, wash dishes, or go to your daily job in order to put bread on the table for your family?  Have you ever daydreamed about finding millions of dollars of gold in your backyard, or inheriting millions of dollars, and you no longer need to work?  Would that be a good thing?  Fantasies like these come into our minds more often when the task at hand is not going well, or we are feeling unappreciated, but the question that needs to be asked is, what is the source of these desires?

If you have a mind-set of “I hate work,” or I’m unappreciated by my family, wife/husband, and the people I work for and with, and how good a life it would be if I was wealthy and did not have to do anything but enjoy life?  If you are having these thoughts, you would do well to read about a very wise man that did what he wanted, and he called it meaningless.  King Solomon said; “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.  And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?  Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This also is meaningless.”  (Ecclesiastes 2: 18-19)  Solomon not only was the wisest of men, he had wealth like few have known, and he understood that hope and peace were not found in great wisdom, or great wealth.  In a few more verses he has this to say; “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up to hand it over to the one who pleases God.”  (Ecclesiastes 2: 24-26a)

Why does much of our culture seem to work at not working?  Could it be that the enemy of our soul has got us to tune into the wrong channel, the channel that always implies “Did God really say?”  The answer is found at the book of beginnings, in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”  Now this was a good gig that God had given man, but Adam chose to sin and that brought with it labor, and yet God never said labor was anything but good for man.  Proverbs 6:6 tells us to model the ant in our work and Proverbs 6: 9-11 gives us an understanding of the person who has tuned into channel 1, and that channel is controlled by the enemy of our soul.  Channel 2 is telling us to gather our crops in summer and be a wise son, but channel 1 says, sleep late, do little, look to others for your income, and Channel 2 says, that is a disgraceful son.  My thoughts, but very close to Proverbs 10:5 and Proverbs 12:11, He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.”  And one that I personally applied along with enjoying work was Proverbs 13:11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” 

So what does all of that stuff have to do with being a Christian employee?  This is the bottom line, anyone Christian or not who hate what they are doing, or who feels they deserve better, has opened themselves up to Channel 1, and Channel 1, will never consider their employer worthy of respect, and God is requiring more than just respect from a follower of Christ, and if your employer or boss is a believer in Christ, then you are to serve them even better; so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will not be slandered. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice