Worshipful Labor

Morning again.

As we gather for worship on this Labor Day weekend, I would like to direct your attention for a few moments to the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, to consider God's intention for labor.

So we consider God's intention for labor.

I'd like to read from Genesis chapter 1 into Genesis chapter 2, and then a separate verse from the second chapter as well.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Genesis 2 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bible, I encourage you to open it.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 is where we will begin.

Genesis 1:26

Genesis chapter 1, beginning in verse 26.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

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 that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God he created them.

Male and female he created them, and God blessed them.

And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Now look down at verse 15 of chapter two.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.

Let's pray.

Our Lord God, we thank you for your word.

Thank you that it is here to instruct us, to guide us, and to lead us on the way in which we should go.

Lord, sometimes we get caught up in living life from day to day, and we fail to think about how your word needs to impact our everyday actions, even how our how your word is to impact how we do our work, whatever kind of work that might be.

So open our hearts to hear you speak this morning, and may your spirit open your word to us.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

How are God's people to think about their labor?

I realize that we are in the midst of a four-day weekend, and you don't want to be thinking about work when all you want to do is rest or play.

Sorry, three-day weekend.

I can't even count.

I get that you don't want to be thinking about your work, you don't want to be thinking about labor, and I can appreciate that feeling, but I don't want us to necessarily think about our work.

Instead, I want us to think about how we think about our work.

Our mindset about our work is established before we ever get to work.

It's established before our feet hit the floor in the morning.

In fact, each of us here has a philosophy of work that drives our actions and drives our behavior.

Each of us has a theology of work that impacts our place in the workforce, for better or for worse.

Our philosophies are not generally worked out and clearly defined statements of logical arguments, but we nevertheless have philosophies and theology of work.

In fact, it was a philosophy of work that led to the establishment of the National Holiday recognizing the labor force.

According to the Department of Labor, we can't decide for sure or determine for sure how Labor Day actually began, but some records indicate it was begun by Peter Maguire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, sometime around 1880.

But it's also reported that someone else started it, a Matthew Maguire, who organized the first holiday as a machinist who was serving as the secretary of the Central Labor Union.

He appointed a committee to form a demonstration and a picnic to recognize laborers.

And as more states began to follow that practice, Congress, under the leadership of President Grover Cleveland, passed a bill establishing a national holiday in 1894.

Now, according to the Department of Labor website, this holiday is, and I quote, dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.

It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions that workers have made.

This may be an oversimplification, but we could restate the purpose, the intended purpose of Labor Day in this way.

It is a look at us and what we've done holiday.

Now, I'm not opposed to government setting aside a time to recognize those who have worked hard and contributed to the well-being of our country.

There's no problem there.

What I am concerned about is how we, God's people, think about our work.

Do we consider our efforts, our labors, as something for which we should be honored and recognized?

For which we should be rewarded?

Do we view it as maybe a necessary evil in our world, something we have to do in order to survive?

Do we view our work as a joy or a hardship?

Are we looking for a handout or are we seeking honest labor?

As is always the case, our philosophy of work and our theology of labor ought to be founded in the revealed Word of God.

And the clearest statement of how God's people are expected to view their work is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31.

1 Corinthians 10:31

It's probably a familiar verse to many of you.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

That may be the clearest statement about a theology of work to be found in the scriptures.

It's echoed a little differently in Colossians 3, 17.

And whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

I'm sorry, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So in Colossians, instead of giving glory, it's giving thanks.

That sounds quite a bit different from the intention of the Labor Day holiday, don't you think?

Labor Day holiday says, look at your work and feel good about yourself.

Look at your work and praise what you've been able to accomplish.

Pat yourself on the back.

But these two passages in the New Testament say, look at your work and give praise to God.

Thanks, Pastor.

You've just taken the joy out of Labor Day.

Alright?

We're feeling good about the time off, now this.

I hope you don't think that way.

God tells us to rest and to enjoy our time, doesn't He?

There is good in enjoying the time He gives us to rest from our labors, but what we're talking about here is the bigger picture.

How do you think about your work?

Do you see it as the result of sin in this world, as a necessary evil and therefore worth pointing out when you succeed in it?

Or do you view your labor, your work, your effort as the gift of God's grace in order that you might glorify Him through it?

Do you see the difference?

Now I said that we are going to be spending some time in Genesis, so let's go there for a few moments.

I want to set the stage for us a bit in Genesis 2.

Then we're going to back up to chapter 1 for a bit.

As we do this, let's remember the context of Genesis 2.

Genesis 2 comes before Genesis 3.

Astounding, right?

That's about the extent of my profundity.

But really, we need to remember that simple fact because it makes a massive impact on our understanding of this part of Genesis.

What takes place in Genesis 3?

Adam and Eve rebel against God by eating from the forbidden tree, right?

We often refer to that as the fall of man, where sin entered into God's good creation.

And then God cursed his good world because of that rebellion.

Over in chapter 3 and verse 17, he told Adam, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I have commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you.

In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Thanks, Adam.

The common view of labor comes from that passage in Genesis 3.

Work is Adam's fault.

Work is the result of the curse of God in this world because of sin.

Therefore, work is hard.

We sweat when we work.

Work is bad.

Work is anti-God.

We only have to work because of sin.

That prevalent view of labor comes from an understanding of Genesis 3 out of its context.

That's why we have to remember that two comes before three.

Look back at chapter 2 and verse 15.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to do what?

To work it and to keep it.

If you keep reading, you will see that God's command regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil comes after God put Adam in the garden.

So this is all before we get to the entrance of sin in chapter 3.

Sin has not yet entered the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve have not yet rebelled against God's command.

So before sin came into this world, God's intention was that Adam work.

Do you see what that means?

Work, labor, effort, as God intended from the very beginning, is part of his very good creation.

To put it differently, work is pre-sin.

It is pre-curse.

God's intention, God's good intention for Adam and for all humanity was to work.

Now that alone ought to impact our view of labor, shouldn't it?

If we are to have a proper theology of work, then we must see it as part of God's goodness to his creation.

Can work or labor be abused?

Can it be twisted for evil intentions?

Of course.

Anything that God created good can be abused and misused and twisted.

But if we are to see our labor through God's eyes, we must begin here.

God intended it for our good.

And for the good of his creation.

I want to point out briefly seven principles of work that we find here in the beginning of Genesis.

And this is the first.

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 that creeps over all the earth.

Later in verse 28, God said that same thing as a command to Adam.

Understand this.

Exercising dominion over creation is a form of work.

That is included in God's good intention in chapter 2, 15, where Adam was to work the garden.

God didn't just make creation, create everything perfectly, and put a man in a garden full of creatures that were there to serve him.

That's not what God did.

Adam was to work God's creation and to exercise dominion over it through his labors.

Work was established for us by God as part of his grace in the goodness of creation.

Before sin ever entered in.

That must be the foundation of our theology of labor.

Whatever your work is, whether that's some form of employment, whether that's school, whether that's ministry, or even things that you might put out effort in in your retirement.

Whatever your work, your labor, your effort is, it must start here.

It was given as part of God's sinless creation.

The second principle is this: our labor is tied to our beginning.

It's tied to our beginning.

God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

Now we don't have time this morning to unpack that statement in its entirety.

But I do want to point out the implication it has on our labor.

And to do that, we need to understand two ancient historical points to get what's going on here.

First, in the ancient Mesopotamian and Middle Eastern cultures, it was believed that gods, with a little g, that gods created human beings as their slaves to do the labor that they needed to have done.

Kings, though, were a little different.

Kings were made, it was believed, in the image of the gods.

Being made in the image of the gods meant that the king ruled over the rest of the human beings on behalf of the gods.

That's the first thing we need to understand.

The second thing was that it is possible that the word in here in verse 26, in our image, it's possible that that should be translated as.

Let me point out the difference.

To translate this word in points to the manner in which mankind was created.

That is, we were created in some way like God.

We image him, we we reflect him in some way, because in some form, in some fashion, we are made to be like him.

On the other hand, to say that we are created as his image is to say that we were created to do something.

That is, we serve as a representative, as an image of God in his world.

This is attested in ancient documents.

When a king conquered a new territory in the ancient world and established his rule over that territory, he would order that a little image, a little statue of him, be made, whether that was out of wood or stone, covered with gold, silver, whatever.

And that image would be placed in the new territory that he had conquered to demonstrate that he was king, that he was the one who now ruled over this territory.

In that way, mankind was created as God's image, placed in God's creation to declare to all of creation, God is king.

Now I think it's very difficult to translate that word.

The word in Hebrew can be translated either way legitimately.

But I think both meanings are found here.

I think both ideas are present in the text.

We were created in God's likeness.

That is, in some way, we were created to be like God.

Now that image was distorted by sin.

That's why we're told in Colossians 3.10 to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Being made in God's likeness serves to enhance our duty to be God's image.

We exist to reflect the one who made us.

And we serve as images of the King of the universe, as representatives in this world who exercise dominion over creation.

So when God says, let us make man in our image or as our image, he is expressing both who we are, our being, and what we do, our work.

And notice that this is the very first statement in all of Scripture about humanity.

That's very early.

There's not much that comes before it.

But this is the very first thing said.

This is the first recorded reason why God created human beings.

He wants us to be like him and to be his image that people can see him through in this world.

Now, how do we do that?

How do we image God in His world.

We do so through our labor.

We do so by displaying God to a watching world and by exercising wise dominion over the areas that He has entrusted to us.

Our labor is tied to our beginnings as human beings.

There's a third principle as well.

Our labor is tied to our identity.

Our labor is tied to our identity.

Now, this is not what you might think.

So often we connect our identity with what we do.

In other words, I shepherd a church, an assembly of God's people.

Therefore, I am a pastor.

That's who I am.

You might be a carpenter, a doctor, or a nurse, or a clerk, or an electrician, or a mechanic, or a secretary, or a homemaker.

Who we are is too often connected with what we do.

So much so that what we do becomes who we are to an unhealthy degree.

But as I heard someone so wisely state, we are not human doings.

We are human beings.

We are not what we do.

We are not nurses or cab drivers or checkers or managers or anything else that we might do.

We are not human doings, we are human beings.

And as human beings, we were created as the pinnacle of God's creation.

So who are we?

According to verse 26, we are the image of God in his world.

That's what we were created to be.

Now, there's a key clarification we must understand here.

That is who we are.

We are human beings.

The now broken images of God who, when we come to Christ, are being renewed after the image of our Creator.

But we display who we are by what we do.

Or to flip that around, what we do declares to a greater or lesser extent that God is king.

Let me give you an example.

The first two chapters of Genesis show us who God is.

Think about that for a minute.

You just have Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, who would you say God is?

They show us that God's identity is that of Creator.

He made everything.

We know that he is the creator by what he does.

God reveals himself in what he does.

We know that he is the creator because he created.

In a similar way, God intends that we image him, that we represent him, that we serve as ambassadors to his creation, so that all of creation might see him when they look at us.

God declared that his image-bearers show their image-bearing identity through what they do.

So as we labor in this world, as we put out effort and we do our work, as we exercise dominion as he intended, we then display him.

That's who we are, expressed in what we do.

Now the fourth principle is that God ordains and commands our labor for his glory.

There are a couple of conspicuous elements in the creation account.

One we've already we've already touched on.

Only human beings are said to be created in the image of God.

No other part of creation is said to be the image of God.

That's why only human beings are capable of being renewed after the image of the Creator through Christ.

No other creature, no other created thing was made in the image and likeness of God.

That's one conspicuous item.

The second is this.

Only human beings were given the command to work.

Now we could argue that other elements of creation also work.

For example, we could say that plants work to take carbon dioxide out of the air and to put oxygen back into it.

And that would be true.

But that is not a conscious work.

No other part of God's creation is commanded to consciously labor.

Now we already know that work, labor, effort, whatever term you want to put there, is part of God's good creation, since it was included before sin came into the world.

Therefore, it is good that mankind is the only creature, the only creation commanded to work.

Why?

Is it because God is some kind of old ogre who just wanted someone to order around to make him comfortable?

No.

God created us as his image to represent him, to show his greatness and his power and his goodness and his grace.

Or to put it in a shorter way, God created us and commanded us to work so that we might show his glory.

That we might bring him glory.

That's why Isaiah 43:7 says that God created everyone for his glory.

Isaiah 43:7

Nothing else in all of creation was made like you, like me.

We are the only creatures commanded to consciously work, and as we work in that way, we glorify the Creator.

The fifth principle is found in the first three verses of Genesis 2.

God intended our labor to be limited.

Or, if you want to say it in a different way, God expects you to rest.

Think of all the ways that sin distorts work.

We could make quite the list.

Because of sin, we have laziness.

Because of sin, we have workaholics.

Sin brings in misplaced priorities.

We become takers rather than producers.

We become consumers rather than providers.

We develop an air of entitlement rather than carrying out our identity to be an image of God in a sin-cursed world.

Perhaps one of the most popular, maybe I should say one of the most prevalent ways that we display our idolatry is that we fail to rest.

We get it in our heads that we can just keep going and going and going like the energizer bunny and never face the consequences for not resting.

Sometimes we even hold up our workaholism as a badge of honor, don't we?

You know who you are.

But just as a proper theology of labor rejects laziness, it also rejects working incessantly.

We are image bearers.

We display God to a working world.

And one of the ways we display God well is by resting.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

One of the ways we display God well is by resting.

Unfortunately, I think we have developed a twisted theology of rest as well.

We have come to believe that playing hard instead of working hard is equivalent to resting.

Now there's nothing wrong with playing hard.

I think we would be hard-pressed, though, to say that's what God meant when it says he rested.

But that's a sermon for another day.

If we are to be people with a biblical view of labor, we must see that God intended for labor to have some limitations.

That he expected a day of rest every week.

And if we are to be his images in his world, we must imitate him and his rest.

And by taking that rest, we image him.

We represent him to a watching world.

Sixth, and this needs careful clarification, as God's image bearers, a portion of our fulfillment should be found in our work.

Now, by this, I do not mean that we find fulfillment in what we do.

I don't mean that we find fulfillment in what we do.

That is, I am not saying that I ought to find fulfillment in preaching, or that you should find fulfillment in binding up wounds or taking care of customers or fixing cars or checking groceries.

What I mean is that we should find fulfillment in our work as we've already described it.

We find our fulfillment in our work of being God's image bearers.

Now that has its outworking in practical ways.

Because we are image bearers in all of our various workplaces.

We are image bearers every time we extend effort in something.

And we should find a part of our fulfillment in expressing through our work that God is king.

For a few short months during college, I worked for a guy splitting wood.

Everyone, including myself, who had that job, hated it.

Couldn't wait for the day it would end.

We would do just about anything else if we could.

Maybe you are in a job that you wish you could get out of.

Maybe you are working in a job in which you think I would do just about anything else.

How do we find fulfillment in those situations?

Is it in escaping?

Is it in finding another job?

Well, that might work for a while.

But eventually that's going to come around and we're going to hate that too.

The only true lasting way to find fulfillment in what you do is to see your labor as part of who you are.

You are God's image in your workplace.

And do your work for Him because you point to Him.

You are showing everyone around that God is king.

So we do all for what?

The glory of God.

And as you do it, as you do all of your work for the glory of God, you will begin to find fulfillment in what God has called you to be that is then expressed in what you do.

But the ultimate fulfillment in our labor will come through the seventh principle.

And I wish I had time to really develop this, but we'll just have to cover it briefly.

Our labor must be worshipful service to God.

Go back to chapter 2, verse 15.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.

Two key words are included here that apply to our subject.

They are work and keep.

What does it mean that Adam was to work and to keep the garden?

It doesn't mean that he had the difficult, backbreaking labor of pulling weeds and fighting off mosquitoes.

That didn't come until chapter 3 with the entrance of sin.

I don't know about the mosquitoes, but the backbreaking labor came.

And apparently Adam didn't even have to water the garden because in chapter 2, verse 10, God said a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.

Maybe there was some irrigation, but we don't know.

What is work and keep?

The problem is here that we don't have any detail in our context.

We are not given anything here to know the exact way that Adam worked and kept the garden.

So to figure out what this means, we have to go to the rest of Scripture and see if there's more that helps us understand what it meant for Adam to work and keep the garden.

If you'll turn over a page or two in chapter 3, verse 23, we see this word work again.

Therefore, the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden after they sinned, and it says that Adam was to work the ground.

Now that sounds like physical labor, doesn't it?

It sounds like agricultural work.

Then later in chapter 4, verse 2, it says Cain was a worker of the ground, and from that working in the ground he brought forth fruit and vegetables.

The use of this word changes a bit later in Genesis, in chapter 14, verse 4, speaking of the peoples that settled in the plains of Palestine, says twelve years they had served Kedor Laomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

That word served is the same word translated work in Genesis 2.15.

So we see there that work can include the idea of working for someone else who has authority over you, who is greater than you, in a sense of servitude.

In fact, it is used for slave labor.

In Genesis 15, verse 13, God said to Abraham, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

Genesis 15:13

That word servants, it's the word work.

They will be workers there.

This word for work can cover all kinds of labor, from free willing labor to forced labor.

But beginning in Exodus and beyond, these two words, work and keep, begin to take on a different nature.

The kind that appears to be hinted at in Genesis 2.15.

I'm going to share some examples with you of what I mean.

We find both words, work and keep, in Exodus 2.25.

Now God is speaking about the Passover celebration here.

And he says, when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, you shall keep this service.

Again, service is the word for work.

You shall keep this service.

The word for keep is used later in Leviticus 8.35 of the work of priests at the tabernacle, and it's translated there as performing in the ESV.

At the entrance of the tent of meeting, you shall remain performing, working what the Lord has charged.

Later, Deuteronomy 6.

It is the Lord your God you shall fear.

Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.

Again, the word serve is the word keep.

Later on in Deuteronomy 10.

What does the Lord your God require of you, speaking to Israel, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God, serving or working and keeping.

Trust you're getting the picture.

Deuteronomy 11, 16.

Take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

One more.

Deuteronomy 12.

Take care that you do not inquire about other gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?

That I also may go and do the same.

Beyond the book of Genesis, the words for work and keep are tied to worship.

Let's put this together.

The very first people to hear the words of Genesis was the second generation of people coming out of the land of Egypt.

The first generation all died off in the 40 years.

Remember that?

Moses, near the end of his life, is recording Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

So they are the first people to hear these words.

What would they have heard?

What would have gone through their minds?

Well, they would have heard and likely connected God's purpose for Adam in the Garden of Eden with their purpose as God's people.

Adam was to work and to keep the garden.

They are to work and to keep God's service, God's worship.

Adam was to work and to keep the garden in obedience to God as an aspect of his worship of the God whose image he was.

To work the garden was to worship the God who created the garden.

To keep the garden was to worship the God who formed the garden.

And in the same way, more than a millennium later, the priests would work at the tent of meeting, keeping and serving as an act of worship.

The people of Israel were commanded to keep the Passover service as an act of worshipful remembrance.

They were called to enter the land of promise to work it and to keep it as an act of worship of the God who brought them out of Egypt.

See, everything that we do is to be done to the glory of God.

And in order for that to occur, we must see every aspect of our labor, every aspect of life, as an act of worship of the one who made us as his image and in his likeness.

Yes, our labor is cursed now because of sin.

It's hard.

Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's long, sometimes we work with sweat, sometimes it's backbreaking, and sometimes it's hard to be joyful in it.

That's all true.

But that's all because of sin.

But as the Spirit of God works within his people, within us, that Spirit of God begins to renew us day by day into the image of the one who called us.

So that our work, our labor, even our rest can be done in joyful, servant-minded worship of the Creator who is our King.

Let's pray.

Our Lord God, we confess to you our sin of failing to image you in our work.

I've been there myself, Lord God.

It is so easy to be self-centered, to be self-focused in every aspect of our life.

Renew us.

Recreate us.

As David would say, create in us a new heart, that we might be in your likeness.

That the brokenness of our image because of sin is restored, and we your people might stand in your world as a reflection of your kingship.

Because we want all that we do and all that we say to be to the glory of our great God and King.

In whose name we pray.

Amen.