Labor of Love: What the Bible Says about Labor

TAKE A SEAT
LABOR OF LOVE: WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT LABOR
DR. JIM DIXON
SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
GENESIS 3:16-19

In the current issue of Psychology Today, there is an article that deals with superstitions and the history of those superstitions. For instance, it explains that the use of a rabbit’s foot is tied to the ancient belief that has been held throughout much of history of the legendary view of the fertility of rabbits. This belief developed over time that your dollars would grow if you just carry a rabbit’s foot from this fertile animal. That was the basis of that superstition and the belief that you can be blessed by having a rabbit’s foot. It explains that the superstition about knocking on wood comes from tribal animism, the ancient view of many peoples around the world that spirits inhabit objects, gods inhabit objects such as trees, and that by knocking on a tree or by knocking on wood, you can access the spirit or the god and invoke blessings from that god.

Crossing the fingers, according to Psychology Today, is most assuredly tied to the crucifixion, to the cross. Crossing the fingers is kind of like crossing yourself, and it’s an evocation of the blessings of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We live in a world which throughout its history has had people wanting to be blessed and afraid of being cursed. Today on this Labor Day weekend, we look at the subject of labor, and we’re going to look at it biblically. We’re going to look at labor as cursed, and then we’re going to look at labor as blessed.

So we begin with labor as cursed. I think many of you might identify with this. Some of you might have a little bit of this attitude, at least sometimes, where you feel like labor is kind of cursed. Maybe you’re out of a job right now, and for that reason, in this tough economy, you feel like labor’s kind of cursed. Maybe you don’t like the job you have. Maybe it’s not the career you dreamed of. Maybe it’s not the kind of job you enjoy, and maybe you just feel like it’s drudgery and you just feel like it’s cursed. Or maybe things aren’t going well for you at work. Maybe you don’t like your boss. Maybe you don’t like being a boss. You feel labor is cursed.

Now, you’ve heard of Chuck Swindoll. Chuck Swindoll is a renowned pastor, a great communicator, and the one-time president of Dallas Theological Seminary. He has many times told a story (and I’m sure you’ve all heard it) about a man who had a bad day at work. He wrote a letter to his boss explaining the bad day at work. This man was a construction worker. Let me read this to you: “When I got to the building, I found that the hurricane had knocked off some of the bricks around the top. So I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple of barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the damaged area, there were a lot of bricks left over. Then I went to the bottom and began releasing the line. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was much heavier than I was, and before I knew what was happening, the barrel started coming down and jerking me up. I decided to hang on since I was too far off the ground by then to jump. Halfway up, I met the barrel of bricks coming down fast. I received a hard blow on my shoulder and then continued to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my fingers pinched and jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground hard, it burst its bottom, allowing the bricks to spill out. I was now heavier than the barrel, so I started down again at a high speed. Halfway down, I met what remained of the barrel coming up fast and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground, I landed on the pile of spilled bricks, getting several painful cuts and very deep bruises. At this point, I must have lost my presence of mind because I let go of my grip on the line and the barrel came down fast, giving me another blow on my head and putting me in the hospital. I respectfully request sick leave.” It’s a bad day at work.

We all have bad days at work. We have bad days not just on the job, but even at home, doing jobs around the house—repairing the plumbing, putting in new carpeting, maybe doing some painting or working on an electrical problem or cleaning the basement or the garage. Things can just go wrong, and sometimes it does feel like labor is cursed. I think this is deeply ingrained in the American psyche that labor is kind of cursed. You see this with a history of Labor Day. As Gene said, Labor Day officially became a national holiday on the first Monday in September, declared by Grover Cleveland in 1884. But Labor Day is traced back a little further and most people trace Labor Day back to the first Labor Day parade on the first Monday in September, 1882. That first Labor Day parade in the city of New York was launched by two guys named Matthew Maguire and Peter McGuire. They were not related. They did not spell McGuire the same. Matthew Maguire was a machinist, and Peter McGuire was a carpenter. They felt this desire to honor all who labor, whether it’s in carpentry or any other area of work. So they had the Labor Day parade, and people honor laborers on Labor Day. They do that by not working and heading to the mountains or something like that.

Now, understand that this was a blue-collar movement. It really, historically, had more to do with blue collar workers, not white-collar workers. In fact, this is true of the entire labor movement. When Grover Cleveland established Labor Day in 1884, that same year, the first year of his first term in the presidency, he established a labor department. It was primarily a blue-collar movement. The word labor comes from the middle English, and it means “the toil.” The root word literally means pain—pain and exhaustion. Hardship, drudgery, toil, labor. So for those who do such things, for those who are daily involved in pain and exhaustion and drudgery and hardship and toil, we want to give them a break. Let’s call it Labor Day.

This concept of labor as kind of a drudgery is deep in the American psyche, and it’s even in the Bible and the New Testament. There are three different Greek words for labor. And the first is “ergas,” which is the normal Greek word for work or labor in your New Testament. It generally is translated by the English word work, but ergas is a labor word, and it’s a positive word. Ergas refers to work as noble, and it’s a very positive word. It’s actually the word used even of the miracles of Jesus Christ—His healings, His mastery over nature. These are the works of Christ.

Ergas a noble word, but two other Greek words in the New Testament for labor are “kopos” and “ponos,” and kopos and ponos literally mean “painful work,” or “drudgery.” These terms, kopos and ponos, connote exhaustion and toil and hardship. This concept of labor is even in the Bible. And of course, in a sense, it goes back to Genesis chapter three and the curse that’s on labor. That’s why I shared that portion of scripture in my scripture reading for today, because we see in that portion of scripture how God has placed a curse, in a sense, upon labor.

This is quite literally true. Upon the labor of women, the labor of moms as they’re giving birth, there is a curse. “In pain shall you bring forth children. I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.” All moms have experienced this. My wife, Barb, in her first delivery, when Heather was born, was in 20 hours of labor. We had tried to prepare. We’d gone to Lamaze. Barb wanted to do Lamaze and I didn’t want to do Lamaze, but Barb talked me into it. It was of no help at all. “Deep breathing exercises.” She had 20 hours of labor! And then an emergency C-section, which by the grace of God saved Heather’s life and Barb’s as well. But that is Genesis three. “In pain shall you bring forth children.”

Of course, to Adam, to the man, it was said, “Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil and hardship shall you eat of the ground. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat of the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow. By the sweat of your head shall you eat bread.” This is the curse upon labor. I think, again, many can identify with that. Many of you come home at the end of the day and you feel like your labor was cursed. You feel exhausted. It’s not what you really want to do. You maybe feel unfulfilled and you feel like it’s been a real drudgery.

Now, therefore, a lot of people look forward to retirement. That’s when the curse ends and you can retire. There’s a whole segment of people, millions of people, trying to set aside nickels wherever they can in order to get enough money that someday they might be set free from this curse and enter into retirement. I think my father felt a little bit like that. My dad was very hardworking, and he had a very strong work ethic and a belief in the importance of work. The sin of sloth, to him, was to be condemned. So my dad had a very strong work ethic, but not a lot of love for work. My dad was a smart guy. He graduated from UCLA and had been accepted at Caltech. He was a pretty smart guy, and he was an accountant, a certified public accountant. He worked for the state board of equalization in the state of California. But I couldn remember so often my dad coming home tired and exhausted and things not going well at work and dad talking about the boss and the stupid thing that the boss did or said.

Then later my dad was the boss, and he didn’t like that either. It’s hard being the boss. There was not a lot of love for my dad. He looked forward with longing for retirement. At the age of 62, my dad retired. I think it was the happiest day of my dad’s life, other than marrying my mom. I mean, he just loved retirement. For 20 years, by the grace of God, my dad enjoyed retirement and he was free of the curse and he was able to travel with my mom, and sometimes with us kids, and he was able to bike and hike and climb mountains and play racquetball and handball and serve voluntarily at the church. My dad loved retirement.

Maybe you’re like that. Maybe you’re just kind of looking forward to the day that you’ll be able to be retired and set free of the curse. Now, my dad wanted my brothers and me to avoid the sin of sloth. He wanted us to be hardworking. Every Saturday was set aside for work around the house. During the week, we were expected to work hard at school, but every Saturday was set aside for pulling weeds around the house. I remember we’d get up Saturday mornings, my mom would cook waffles with wonderful maple syrup, and I think we came to understand that it was like fattening the calf for the slaughter. But sometimes we’d go out and pull weeds first, and then later in the morning we’d come back in for the waffles that we were looking forward to, the carrot dangled before us before so that we would come back in with something to look forward to. But I remember how much we just hated pulling weeds every Saturday and how it just seemed relentless and never ending.

My brother Gregw as much more responsible in his weed pulling, and he’d get down there and get the weed by the root, and he’d get all of them by the root. My brother Gary and I would use a hoe and we’d cover more territory but didn’t do as good a job. So the weeds would come back sooner where we were, but it didn’t matter, because my parents had a big lot with fruit trees and weeds were everywhere. By the time you got to one part of the lot, the weeds were coming back up where you had been. It was relentless, constant, and never ending. It was cursed. So we had this kind of understanding that work could feel kind of cursed early in life.

I think a lot of people just kind of go through life like that. If they can’t retire, then they look forward to their heavenly rest—their seventh day when they can be set free from the curse of the earth and go to be blessed in the presence of God. Some of you perhaps have that view. I hope you don’t, but you might. And I understand there are some roots of that idea in our culture, and even roots biblically because of sin. Certainly there’s a sense in which labor is cursed.

Now, I want to say one other thing. In Revelation 20 you have this glimpse of heaven. So we have the words of holy scripture: “Behold, I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heavens from God, prepared as a bride, adorn for her bridegroom. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. And they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.’ And He who set up on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new. Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true. He who conquers shall have his heritage and I will be his God, and he shall be My child.’” That is the promise of holy scripture. You look at that phrase, He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more, and neither shall there be mourning (as in weeping and grieving) nor crying nor pain anymore. The word for pain there is ponos. It’s ponos, meaning labor. That’s the literal word used in the promise of Revelation 20 verse four. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor ponos, labor, anymore.

So there’s this whole segment of Christians looking forward to be set free from the curse and go to heaven where labor shall be no more. And of course, this is drudgery, this is ponos, this is painful labor. No more. I think we all understand that view. Now, let’s take a look at labor as blessed.

This is a deeper view, and I hope you can grasp it and hold onto it and view labor as blessed. Now, I want to take you back to the Protestant work ethic. Protestant work ethic goes back to the Reformation. I think in some sense it’s associated with the early 20th century book by Max Weber, the German economist who wrote The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. That book is renowned and it’s read in most colleges and universities, even secular institutions of higher learning. They all talk about the Protestant work ethic. It goes back to the Reformation, truly—John Calvin, Martin Luther, Zwingli. It goes back to the Reformers.

Now, when you think of the Reformers, what do you think of? You maybe think of some of the tenants of the reformation leaders: Sola Gracia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura. Sola Gracia: we’re saved by grace through faith. We’re not saved by works. We’re not saved by indulgences. We’re not saved by ecclesiastical decrees, or even the sacraments. We’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is one of the key tenets of the reformation.

Sola Scriptura: only the scriptures have ultimate binding authority. God grants a certain authority to ecclesiastical leaders, but it’s under the authority of holy scripture. Any church leader who says anything contrary to holy scripture, that church leader’s wrong. Sola Scriptura.

But you understand that the Reformers also had this radical transforming view of work, which influenced the development of the Western world. The Reformers had this radical transforming view of work where they viewed work as blessed of God. They viewed human beings as crafted and designed for work. They viewed work as having beauty and dignity, and they believed in calling, and it wasn’t just pastors who were called. I received a call to the gospel ministry. I know the day that it happened to me, and I felt the call and the presence and the power of God. I felt called (I still feel called) to the ministry, but understand that the Protestant Reformers believed that call was not limited to pastors. Every person, every human being, is called to work. And they believed that every Christian has callings—various callings, work callings—in their life, and as long as the job you’re doing is honest and as long as it’s noble and offers some service to humanity, it’s a calling, at least for that season of your life. It’s a calling and it’s blessed and it’s pleasing to God.

This is a beautiful view of work. To some extent I can look back on my life… for me and my brothers, we all knew growing up we had to get a job in the summertime. You remember that old song, Get a Job? Maybe you don’t. But it really rung true for me. I had to get a job and I knew it. In the summertime, as soon as high school began, my dad expected us all to get summer jobs. “You’re old enough to go to high school, you’re old enough to work. I don’t want you sitting around the house. What are you sitting in that chair for? Get out and get a job!”

So I had a variety of jobs. I worked for California Leather Jobbing Corporation, which was a company that sold shoes by mail. I worked as a shipping clerk between Glendale and Los Angeles. So I would take orders as they came in, and I would pick the right shoe from the right bin to fulfill the order, make sure that it was the right size and style for the right gender, put it in the appropriate bag, put the appropriate address on it, and get it ready to mail. It was honest work and noble, and it offered service to people. Therefore, it was, at that season in my life, a calling and pleasing to God.

For two summers I worked at Safeway, a grocery store chain, and I was a box boy. They don’t call them box boys anymore. I think we have courtesy clerks or something. The labels are constantly changing. But you know what I did? I would go to Safeway early in the morning and I’d clean the parking lot—me and other workers—and sweep it and sometimes wash it. Then we’d get ready for the day and we’d come in and we’d box people’s groceries. It was honest work and it was noble, and for that time of my life, a calling and blessed of God and pleasing to God. I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed it. It was summertime, and you get to be indoors in an air conditioned building for at least part of the day and people are in a good mood, normally, when they shop for groceries. You’d bag their stuff, or for elderly people you’d bring it out to the car for them. It did feel like serving people. It’s something noble.

I worked for the YMCA for a couple of summers, both in Glendale and La Crescenta. I worked in the athletic department in the front office. It was honest and noble work. I worked for Mitchum, Jones, and Templeton, down in Los Angeles on Spring Street, as a carrier. I had one of those briefcases. You walk around major metropolitan areas and sometimes you’ll see a guy with a briefcase and sometimes it’s chained to their arm. I was one of those guys. On rare occasions, I’d have two guards following me because of what was in the briefcase. I had stocks and bonds and sometimes hard cash, and I would go from brokerage house to brokerage house. But it was honest work. In this nation and its economy, many people’s investments were tied to what I was doing, and I think the work was blessed of God.

This is the view of labor as blessed. And you see, the Reformers took a deeper look. They looked at the proverbs, and as they went through the proverbs, they saw where the Bible says that the sin of sloth is what is cursed by God. As you go through the proverbs, it says that hard work is blessed by God, unpleasing to God. They also took a deeper look in Genesis, and they acknowledged that there was this curse in Genesis three, but they said, hey, you take a deeper look and you see work prior to Genesis three. You see in Genesis one that God gives dominion to man and to mankind. Male and female were given dominion over the earth, and this labor of dominion is there from the beginning and crafted by God. And God said it was good.

It is good that we were given dominion and that we labor to be good stewards on this earth. You come to Genesis chapter two, and we’re in the garden, we’re in Eden, and we’re commanded by God to till it and keep it. There’s been no curse yet. Genesis three has not come to be yet. This is Genesis two. We’re called to till and keep the garden, so we’re called to labor right from the beginning. The Reformers understood we were crafted this way. God made us this way, designed us this way, and this is pleasing and fulfilling to God our Creator.

Sometimes people want to know, well, is retirement biblical? Have you ever heard people ask that question? Is retirement biblical? Maybe you’ve heard some teachings on that. I always marvel when people give teachings on something that’s not even mentioned in the Bible. I mean, the Bible just doesn’t deal with the subject of retirement. It’s like asking now, what does the Bible say about hamburgers and hot dogs? Nothing. That is true of retirement as well. I think biblically retirement is permissible. But I can’t give you chapter and verse. I think with regard to your career, there comes a point where it might be very appropriate and right for you to retire.

But understand that doesn’t mean you retire from work. We’re always called to work. We’re always called to labor. It’s part of how God made us. It’s part of how God crafted us, and with regard to the kingdom of Christ, the work never ends. With regard to the kingdom of Christ, we can never retire. You have this conversation in John chapter fiv, between Jesus and the Pharisees at the Pool of Bethesda—sometimes called Bethzatha or Bethsaida—near the sheep gates city of Jerusalem. Jesus performs a miracle there. And the Pharisees are really bummed out that Jesus healed a human being… they’re bummed out because He did it on the Sabbath. He did it on the Sabbath, and you’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath. So they’re just enraged. And Jesus had this happen time and again throughout His ministry, where He did some great work on the Sabbath. And of course, Jesus further enraged the religious leaders by saying to them that He is Lord of the Sabbath. What an incredible claim, that Jesus Christ, Son of God… He said to them, “I am Lord of the Sabbath.” They viewed this as blasphemy, deserving of death. They go back to the decalogue, the 10 commandments. “’Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ And You are Lord of the Sabbath?” But He is.

And He said as Lord of the Sabbath, “Remember, mankind was not created to serve the Sabbath. The Sabbath was created to serve mankind.” Now, there’s a radical thought. God actually has established laws for the blessing and the good of mankind. He didn’t establish man to serve the laws. He established laws to serve us, that He might bless us.

But sometimes you need to work on the Sabbath. Jesus did, and He said to them, “My father’s working still and I am working.”The Father has entered the seventh day. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have entered the seventh day with regard to the creation, but they still have work to do.

One of my favorite parables is Matthew Chapter 20, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. In the parable, Jesus compares Himself to a landowner who hires laborers to work in his vineyard, and he pays them a wage. So in the early morning, at 6:00 AM, he goes and hires laborers to go work in his vineyard. Then at the third hour, at 9:00 AM, he goes into the marketplace and hires more laborers to go work in his vineyard. He promises the same wage of a denarius. Then at noon he hires more laborers from the marketplace to go work in his vineyard. Then at three in the afternoon he hires more laborers to work in his vineyard. Then at five in the afternoon (and the day was completed at 6:00 PM and by Jewish law you had to pay the wage of a day laborer at 6:00 PM), one hour before the end of the labor day, he went into the marketplace and hired more laborers to go into the vineyard.

So they all went into the vineyard. Then at 6:00 PM he gives them their wage and he pays them all the same. He gives them all a denarius. So some of them had worked 12 hours, from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, some one hour, from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, and they received the same wage. There are people who say, well, what’s that parable about? Some people say, well, it’s socialism. The Bible’s teaching socialism. No, it’s not about socialism. The Bible is very clear, and in many different passages the Bible clearly tells us that wages should be commensurate with the quality of service rendered and performed. The Bible does not teach socialism. Some have said, well, maybe the parable is about the fact that our rewards in heaven do not vary. In heaven, all of our rewards will be the same. No, it can’t be that because there are many other parables which clearly teach that rewards do vary in heaven. So what is going on in this parable?

Well, it’s all about salvation. I mean, what the denarius represents is salvation. The message is it’s Christ’s gift to give. It is grace. It is mercy. We are saved by grace. It doesn’t matter whether you enter the vineyard at 6:00 AM or whether you enter the vineyard at 5:00 PM. Understand, I entered the vineyard at 6:00 AM. I accepted Jesus Christ early in the day. I was five years old. You know the story. I knelt in the living room with my mom and asked Jesus into my heart to be my Lord and Savior. It was 59 years ago, and almost two months from now it will have been 60 years ago.

The day is coming to an end. I came into the vineyard early in the day. Some of you have accepted Christ just this year. Some of you have just come to Jesus this year and you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior. And you’ve entered the vineyard too. We all have eternal life. The eternal life I have is the eternal life you have. We’re all saved, and that salvation is equal. It’s grace.

Do you understand? But many people look at this parable and they don’t take a deeper look because there’s kind of a subtle teaching in the parable that if you are saved and you receive that wage from Christ, by grace you’ve entered the vineyard. You’ve entered the vineyard, and everybody’s laboring in the vineyard. Some labor from early in the day, and some late in the day. But no matter how late in the day they labor in the vineyard, when you come to Christ it doesn’t matter whether you’re late in life or whether you’re early in life. You begin to labor in the vineyard. That’s the call of Christ. You never retire from the cause of Christ. You never retire from the work of Christ.

So you have all the parables, including the parable of the talents, and they clearly teach that. At the end of the day, the question’s going to be, have I sought His increase? Have I sought the increase of the Master? Have I sought the increase of Christ? Have I used my talents, my time, and my treasure in His service? Or have I retired? And you want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Sometimes it’s asked, will we work in heaven? You hear that question a lot. Will there still be work in heaven or do we just float around on clouds and sing in the choir? I love our choir, but I don’t think… most of us hope heaven is a little more than singing in the choir. Do we play the harp? These views of heaven that are cultural and subcultural are almost comedic. The Bible makes it very clear that in heaven we’re going to have work to do.

God has crafted a heavenly city, majestic and glorious and massive. God will make a new universe. “Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, wherein righteousness dwell and you’ll rejoice and be glad in what I create.” He’ll create a new universe, perhaps a new multiverse, and He will call us to it. The Bible says we will reign and rule with Christ forever and ever and ever, because all who are saved by Christ, it is the will of Christ that they labor with Him forever and ever. As we were once given dominion on the earth and that dominion has surely been abused, we will be given dominion over all the works of His hands. And the responsibilities will be great. There’ll be mysteries and beautiful things to do. I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like, but I know there’ll be work to do. It won’t be cursed. It won’t be ponos. It won’t be kopos. But there’ll be ergas; there’ll be work to do in heaven.

What a beautiful and wonderful eternity is promised and laid up for all who believe. This closes our Labor day thoughts, and I hope that tomorrow, as you celebrate Labor Day, you will seek to move from a view of labor that is cursed to a view of labor that is blessed. I hope that you know, whether you retire or not, you’ll still seek to enjoy the labor you do today. And I hope that while you look forward to the blessed hope of eternity itself, you’ll be faithful and understand you never retire from serving the kingdom of Christ. We need you here. We need you in the Sunday schools. We need you in the choir. We need you to lead a small group. We need you to go on a mission assignment. We need you to go into the inner city with one of our inner-city ministries. We’ve got work to do. There’s a battle for the souls, the lives, of men, women, and children. There’s so much to do. Jesus said, “The fields are white for harvest. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the field.” We’ve got work to do and retirement is not an option. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.