Our materialistic, self-indulgent Adolescent Infantile, childlike culture has a warped view of the place and role. of work. Work must be viewed as a gift from God. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Scripture makes it clear, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.
Well, it's easy to see how studying the Bible or going to church or evangelizing gives God glory, but how does, for example, working cash register? digging ditches, filing paperwork, or driving a cab, how does that glorify God? How can the tasks you do to earn a living Also, be acts of praise to God. Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur shows you why work is about more than earning a paycheck, much more, as he continues his study, Wisdom for the Workplace.
So follow along now in 2 Thessalonians as John begins today's lesson. We find ourselves in the third chapter now. Verses 6 through 15 are text. And we've entitled the section, Work. A Christian duty.
Before we look at the text specifically. I felt compelled this week to do a little bit of background study and Perhaps get a broader perspective of the issue of work so that we understand the context better in which Paul writes and can apply it better in our own world. We live in a culture, frankly, that has a very skewed work ethic. On the one hand, you have workaholics. On the other hand, you have lazy, idle, and loafing people who choose not to work at all.
But in the middle, the great mass of people may work but have a very wrong concept of work. I suppose we've all seen the bumper sticker sign that says, I owe, I owe, so off to work I go. Which views work as a very crass thing. It sees work as Mercenary. Work is simply a way to pay off your debts.
To fund your lifestyle. And we've all seen those little license plate frames that. have such profound philosophy. They say things like I'd rather be fishing, I'd rather be flying, I'd rather be golfing, I'd rather be skiing, I'd rather be sailing, I'd rather be hiking, I'd rather be four-wheeling, etc., etc. In other words, whatever it is I'm doing, it certainly has no value when compared with play.
We're a very infantile, adolescent kind of society. We really don't want to grow up. In fact, I saw a bumper sticker that said, he wins who dies with the most toys. on the back of a BMW. All this sort of conveys the current idea that people would rather play than work and.
They depreciate the value of work. Work is only the way to finance pleasure.
So it's a necessary evil. It's a way to pay off the debts that you've accumulated in trying to elevate your lifestyle. Without a proper work ethic, we don't work well, we don't do quality work, we don't work with excellence, we don't. Do the things that ought to be done. Going back a little bit to our bumper sticker theology or philosophy, I I've seen a bumper sticker that says, work fascinates me.
I can sit and watch it for hours. And you've all seen the little sign that says, thank God it's Friday. I saw one that said, hard work may not kill me, but why take a chance?
Now, I want to know whether you have ever seen. A sign on the back of a speedboat that said, I'd rather be working. Or a license plate that said, Thank God it's Monday. Not likely. We really do have a warped perspective on the matter of work.
Our materialistic, self-indulgent Adolescent Infantile, childlike culture has a warped view of the place and role. Yeah. Work must be viewed as a gift from God. It is not some kind of a substandard, secondary, lesser activity which is meant to do nothing but finance pleasure. It is in itself a gift from God.
You say, and in what sense is work a gift from God? I'll give you several. One, It is a means of glorifying God, our Creator, by using the skills He gave us. It is a means of glorifying God, our Creator, by using the skills He gave us. When you work with your mind and you achieve and accomplish with the skill of your thinking and your intellect, when you work with your voice and you demonstrate leadership ability and the ability to motivate and stimulate and move people and clarify issues and give directions, you are demonstrating a divinely granted skill that came to you through the Creator.
When you use your hands to accomplish skillful things and do beautiful work by manual labor, when you use your strength to move things that are heavy, when you use the facility of a delicate touch to accomplish something that is delicately beautiful, you are demonstrating the Creator's glory as it's on display through His creation. If you think a flower shows the glory of God, look at a man or look at a woman. and see the majesty and the genius of the mind of God. Work, then, is a gift by which we glorify God as we demonstrate His creative genius manifest in our own body and mind and soul. Secondly, Work is a gift from God because it is a means of providing value or meaning or fulfillment to life.
the sense of accomplishing something. We all know that. We all know that deep soul satisfaction that we have accomplished something, that we have done something, and we've held it up and said, I've done it well. We know about the writer who's. whose wastebasket is filled With papers folded up and thrown away because they didn't achieve the level of accomplishment that he demands of himself, and finally the masterpiece comes forth.
We all know about the the artist whose bin is full of canvases that didn't exactly express what he felt in his soul and saw with his eye. And finally, the canvas of genius emerges We know the student who comes to the end of his examination and knows that he's achieved the standard that must be achieved if he is to gain the degree. We know the one who performs at the highest level of skill in whatever it is that he does and therefore can stand back with pride and say, I made that, I did that, I accomplished that. That's a very fulfilling thing. We are very goal-oriented people, like God is a goal-oriented God who is always achieving His ultimate desires.
And we have those dreams and goals and visions, and achieving those is all a part of being fully human in the sense that we are even in the image of God. accomplishing things beneficial and fulfilling. There's a third reason why work is a gift from God, and that is because it prevents us from idleness. It prevents us from idleness, which is spiritually very deadly. It occupies It keeps us busy, and as we remember the old adage that idle hands are a Plaything for the devil, we understand that very well.
It occupies us in meaningful tasks. Rather than leaving us idle, to do those things which are harmful. Fourthly, Work is a gift from God because it is a means of providing for the needs of life. God has given work to us as a way in which we can gain wealth, which is a way in which we can purchase our food. In an agrarian culture, work was the means of getting the food.
In our culture, it's the means of getting the money to get the food, but nonetheless, it is the source of our life. God has given us food, God has given us shelter, God has given us drink and sustenance, God has given us the provision of clothing, but God has given us work as the means to acquiring all of it.
So work is a noble thing by which we sustain the necessities of life. And finally, we can say work is a gift from God because it is a means of serving mankind. It is a means of serving humanity. From the person who pumps the gas at the gas station or operates the gas station or works upon the engine of the car so that it runs, he is contributing to the well-being of the individual he serves and his ability to do his job and to meet his appointments and to be with his family and to go where he wants to go all the way to the one who builds the car in the first place, who makes transportation possible. All the way to the person who makes the roads and paves the roads and makes sure they go where they're supposed to go, and to the man who paints the signs, who enables us to get off at the right place and get back on where we're supposed to, all the way to the people working in the medical field who provide for our physical well-being, the folks who serve us food when we go out to eat or sell it to us in the market.
People who teach us in school, the folks who come and take care of our yard or fix our plumbing, all of those people render a service to mankind by which his life is made more pleasing. Work is a gift from God, and even those foolish people who want only leisure want to make sure that everybody around them is working so that they can enjoy doing nothing. Sadly, I think for many Christians, work has lost its intrinsic value. I believe that God has given you skills. to be applied in a certain kind of work which uniquely Geared to you will bring you satisfaction and bring God glory.
Work should not lose its intrinsic value. It is not simply a means to pay your debts. It is not simply a way to fund your pleasure. And to finance Your joys, it is in itself Valuable. It is a gift from God.
Not only is work a gift from God, it is a command of God. I wonder whether we really understand that. We make a lot about the command in Exodus 20, but Very often forget to emphasize the main point. You remember the command? It goes like this: six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath or a rest. for the Lord your God. We like to emphasize the Sabbath. Rarely do you hear anybody say anything about the sixth days of work. We talk about a five-day workweek in America, and some people talk about a four-day workweek.
God talks about a six-day workweek. You say, is he saying that we are commanded to be on our job six days? No, you know how it works. You're on the job five days, and the sixth day you fix the house, and the car and the yard, and you run all the errands, and that's work. That's all part of sustenance.
The seventh day is to be devoted to the Lord. You understand then that God has commanded us to work. That is a command. Six days You are to labor. God designs for man work.
We can't have a low view of work if God has such a high view of it. I mean, it's right in there in that list with other things like. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. It's in there with, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Pretty serious list. It's one of those things we owe to God. Work. He gave us the gift of work. We owe him the use of the gift he gave.
And I really believe that your vocation should suit you and the way God has designed you so that it is satisfying and fulfilling. And I believe if you're living in the will of God, God will provide that. expression of his giftedness in you. You cannot have a low view of work when you understand that it is a gift from God and that it is a command of God.
Furthermore, you can't have a low view of work when you understand that God has even given us the example. of work. The greatest worker in the universe is God. The truth of the matter is, if he ever took a day off, we'd all be done. God is a worker.
Scripture talks about the work of God. The works of God. Often the Bible describes his works, and I suppose you could sum them up maybe with five categories. Whenever you see in Scripture the work of God, it usually falls into these categories: one, the work of creation. God is a worker, and He worked in creation, and there's still a sense in which He continues to pro-create that creation.
And there may even be an ongoing creative work as the Lord Jesus said he was going to heaven to prepare a place for us.
So, God is the creator, and that's one category of his work. Secondly, he is the controller. And he continues in the preservation of all that he has created. He upholds it by the word of his power. And so God works in preservation, sustaining everything.
The reason that little tiny atoms don't fly apart isn't because there is some glue in them that can be identified. The scientists can't identify it. What it is is the power of God. God has to hold them together, and He does that by His sustaining power. That's His work.
We see also the work of God in Providence. God's work can be seen in Providence. As he orchestrates all of the various factors of his entire universe to accomplish his purpose sovereignly. Occasionally, we see God's work in miraculous ways, the category of miracle, where God suspends natural law and does something that has no natural explanation. And then the last two, we see God's work in judgment and God's work in redemption.
God is a worker. He works in creation. He works in controlling and sustaining his universe. He works in providence and miracle. And he works in judgment and he works in redemption.
God is a worker. Furthermore, Jesus is a worker. Jesus, we would expect being a worker because he is God and he said himself in John 9:4, I must work the works of him who sent me. In John 4, 34, he said, It was his food, to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. And in John 5, 17, he said, My father is working.
Still And I am working. Jesus Christ is right now doing a redeeming work in the hearts of people across the world. He's doing the work of building his church. He's doing the work of sitting at the right hand of the Father and sustaining his church through his high priestly intercession. He's doing the work of preparing a place for us.
He's doing the work of dispatching angels to be ministering spirits to his church. He's doing the work of indwelling and energizing his people. He's doing all these things and will continue until the work of the final redemption of the universe. And even then, he will work forever and ever in enterprises divine, as will you and I, praising and glorifying and serving God for all eternity. You cannot have a low view of work when you understand Jesus is a worker and God is a worker, and work is commanded.
And work is a gift from God.
Now somebody's going to jump in and say, now wait a minute. Isn't work a result of the curse?
Well, let's go back to Genesis and find out. Don't we work because we were cursed? I mean, if there had never been a fall, wouldn't we just be playing around in the garden? We wouldn't be working, would we?
Well, let's find out. Genesis chapter 3, verse 17. To Adam, God said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, It's not always a good thing to do, men. That's in the Bible. I mean, I didn't say that, right?
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it. In other words, because you've sinned, watch this, cursed is the ground because of you.
So, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you. You will eat. The plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.
Some would read that and say, well Seems like toil and sweat. And work. is a result of a cursed earth. And so that work is the product of the fall. It's not true.
Go back to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Verse 15. Before the fall, The Lord God took the man. and put him into the Garden of Eden.
to cultivate it. And keep it. That's work. This is noble work. Exalted work.
Work of a man unstained with sin, work. On an earth unstained with sin.
Somebody put it this way, God designed man to be a gardener, but the fall made him a farmer. I don't know that that quite says it, but that's close. God designed man Simply did to care for it. to reap its benefits. To harvest it as it were, to enjoy it.
To make it flourish. Then the fall. caused thorns and thistles and briars and weeds. to make it difficult. The fall did not Invent work.
didn't introduce work. It just cursed it. Always man was designed to be a worker because he was made in the image of God. Go back to chapter 1 of Genesis. Verse 26.
Then God said, Let us make man in our image. According to our likeness. Go down to verse 27. And God created man in his image. In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.
Now it's pretty clear there. Verse 26 and 27, that we're talking about the image of God. But how is the image of God to be defined? And theologians have debated this since the go. This is an age-old discussion.
But it seems to me that there's a simple answer to this initially. If God says in verse 26, let's make man in our image. And in verse 27, and God made man in his image, what comes between those two things should somehow define that image. And what does it say? Let them rule over the fish of the sea.
Over the birds of the air, and over the cattle. Over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. What is the image of God? What does it mean to be created in the image of God? It means that man is given.
Dominion. Authority. Rule. He is given the responsibility to care for and to use all the rest of the creation. All of it.
It was all there for him to enjoy, to smell, and to touch, and to eat. and to prepare for others. There was work involved in dominion. There was work involved in ruling and tending to all of these creatures. It's not a kind of work we can understand, really, because we don't know the kind of work.
That Adam did then because we don't know what it is to live in an uncursed world, right? But it was nonetheless his job, it says in 2:15, to cultivate. to tend, to care for. To nurture into flourishing the earth. And that the image of God in him was that he would be a worker.
Why God was a worker. Just as the Trinity is involved in ruling and authority and dominion and tending and caring for this whole creation, man is as well. to work. In harnessing, as it were, the wonders of all of this creation for his own joy and goodness.
So work. wasn't initiated by the fall, it was just cursed. It became a burden. It is now a punishment, just like Women having pain in childbearing. There would have been children prior to the fall.
There would have been children. No question about that. But there wouldn't have been any pain in having them. The fall didn't introduce childbearing, it just brought the pain into it. And there was work before the fall, though the fall didn't introduce work, it just brought the pain to it.
But there's still a benefit. Even with the pain, a baby is a joy. And even with the pain, the product of the work is a joy. Even with the pain, the baby can be to the glory of God. Even with the pain, the work can be to the glory of God, and it should be.
So work neither began nor ceased. With the fall, it just took a different shape. It became a curse rather than an unmitigated blessing.
Now follow this. As Christians then. We, by the power of Christ operating in our lives, have the opportunity to elevate work back to its point of dignity. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians and the Colossians, Ephesians 6, Colossians 3, and said, In your work. Do it unto the Lord and not to men.
Ephesians 6, 5 to 9, and then over Colossians chapter 3, do your work as unto the Lord. It is a product, it is a result of a spirit-filled life. And the Christian, just like we can bring the dignity back into marriage. can bring dignity back into work. We can see it for what it is: a gift of God, a means to glorifying God, a means to having value and significance and fulfillment in life, a means to keeping us away from sin, a means to providing our needs and serving mankind.
We restore the dignity. And the glory, as it were, to work. We take it out of the category of being a drudgery or a mercenary means by which we finance our pleasure. We make work valuable. To God and to us, and our family, and others.
The biblical viewpoint is the viewpoint that we must have. Human work is a part of the divine plan for history, but only Christians really understand its true glory. Because we do it as unto the Lord and not unto men. We have to regard work then as a creation mandate. As a component of the image of God.
as a natural law invested with inherent dignity. It's just God's way for man. It's our part in the creation. And we can do it to his praise. Father, we thank you this morning for your word to us, and what a reminder it is.
of the wonderful responsibilities that you give us. in our work. To glorify you. May we see it. as you see it.
And may we work. Gladly. As a part of a creation mandate, and more than that. a recreation mandate as Christians doing everything we do. not to please men, but to please the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doing what we do is a way to glorify you, to put our skills on display, the things you've given us by your creative power. Doing what we do is a way to fulfill our life and benefit our family. the world around us. Doing what we do is a means of keeping us apart from idleness, which leads to sin. Give us back the dignity of work, give us back the honor, of that creative intention.
when you put man in the garden to cultivate and till it and to rule it. May we work six days and May the fruit of our labor be pleasing to you. that we might enjoy the rest. of days like this. For Christ's sake.
Amen. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called Wisdom for the Workplace.
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Now, for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow as John MacArthur continues to help you honor God with your work, whether you're in an office. bussing tables, or working from home. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. on Race to You.
