God is a worker. He worked for six days to create the world and then contentedly rested on the seventh day, delighting in a complete and perfect work. Although the initial creation work is complete, God has continued to work on other projects, including the conservation and redemption of the cosmos (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3). The Lord Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (Joh 5:17).1 In praying to His Father, the Son further stated, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (17:4).
Since God works, work is part of His character; since God is good, work is good (Psa 25:8; Eph 4:28). Before He even created Adam, God said that He made man for work: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing’” (Gen 1:26). God expects His people to work as He did: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work” (Exo 20:9). He gave work as a gift. When we work, we demonstrate the likeness we bear to God, the model Worker, and please Him.
Dominion requires work – taking responsibility for the creation and carrying out the tasks needed to administer it. To subdue the earth means to exert control and discipline. God brought the animals and birds to Adam to see what names he would assign to them (Gen 2:19). Since names have meaning in Scripture, Adam had to size up each animal and perceive its unique abilities and purpose. By naming the animals, Adam also claimed responsibility for them, since naming (or renaming) in Scripture signifies authority (17:5,15; 32:28). Thus dominion includes classification, organization and domestication of the animals. It implies cultivating the ground, extracting resources, creating tools, establishing processes and creating efficiencies.
In Genesis 2, God ordained agriculture: He expected man to cultivate the ground, and to work and keep the garden (2:15). To cultivate means to foster growth and to improve. To keep means to preserve from failure or decline. Although food was plentiful, Adam was granted the pleasure not only of maintaining the garden but of arranging it for order and beauty. As a taxonomist, Adam was the first scientist; as an arranger, he was the first artist. His work involved creativity, originality, beauty, quality and benefit. And God gave Eve to Adam to help him with all of this; there would now be a committee to plan things and a team to carry them out (2:18).
But what is work? In physics, work is applying force over a distance. So work gets things done. But work is much more than the mechanics. Work is engaging in mental and physical activity in order to achieve a desired result. The worker sets up and carries out the tasks needed to create a product. And once he has successfully conceived, organized, executed and finished his creation, work compensates the worker. Its best compensations are not financial; work rewards the worker with satisfaction, fulfillment and purpose – and for the Christian, the knowledge that he has glorified God – whether or not he receives a paycheck. Good work brings pleasure, and a job well done yields satisfaction that is worth more than wages. Good work is its own reward.
Many people consider work a curse, an unwelcome and unpleasant consequence of the Fall. This is false, although it is true that the Fall altered the character of work. Before Adam sinned, he worked in a garden paradise, God’s special enclosure of order and purity and innocence. After the Fall, however, Adam was expelled to the field – a wild and unfenced place without any innocence or inhibition. Instead of being helpful, the work environment became hostile. In the field, the pleasure of work was now mixed with pain, and Adam had to struggle against a resisting earth to the point of sweaty exhaustion (3:17-19). Beside the crops, thorns and thistles now sprang up, symbolizing frustration and failure. Things no longer went as planned, hard labor did not guarantee success, and whatever could go wrong did. To work no longer simply meant to be joyfully productive; it meant to struggle to be productive in the face of opposition and hardship.
Not only did the Fall change work, but it also changed the worker. Man’s innate love for work became infected with selfishness. Sluggards and thieves began to surface. So did tyrannical masters, and most of humanity eventually fell into slavery. Countries that abolished slavery nevertheless succumbed to industrialization. Magnates still regarded human beings as expendable commodities. In many cases, workers were deprived of the thrill of conceiving projects and the satisfaction of seeing them completed. They were reduced instead to dehumanized stiffs who were expected to insert a certain quota of pegs into holes hour after hour.
Despite the effects of the Fall, however, work still retains its inherent dignity, and still rewards honest workers with satisfaction. Hard work continues to please God, and the persistence of His people in the face of onerous work conditions and unreasonable masters doubly pleases Him. Although God’s original design was perverted by sin, He will one day relieve work of the burdens that sin placed on it (Isa 65:17-25; Rev 22:1-11). Meanwhile, Paul writes that work is service to God (Eph 6:6-8; Col 3:22), makes a person self-sufficient (2Th 3:12), enables him to provide for his family (1Ti 5:8), presents a good testimony to others (1Th 4:12), and enables him to give generously (Eph 4:28).
For the Christian, there is no such thing as secular work. All legitimate work is the Lord’s work. Spiritual life cannot be confined to some “sacred” space; it is everywhere we are, and in every place we work. A.W. Tozer stated, “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, but why he does it.” William Tyndale said that if we look externally, “there is a difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the Word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all.” Work is worship – a way to express our devotion to Christ (Eph 6:5-7). Since every work assignment is from God, then every completed project is for God. This gives great purpose and joy even to the most menial tasks, and it means an eternal reward, not just an earthly paycheck.
When God viewed His own work, He pronounced it excellent (Gen 1:31). God deserves our best, and He expects us to strive for excellence in everything. Excellence is not perfection; it is doing the best we can with the time and resources we have. As imitators of God, we make sturdy and attractive furniture, deliver reliable reports, write well-argued papers, and give flawless customer service. We faithfully keep the home and attentively raise the children. We exceed expectations and leave every place and project better than we found it. We are to be excellent for His glory, stay humble, and make sure that the praise flows to Him (1Co 10:31).
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the ESV.
