Why Do You Work?
I went to the park on the edge of town and had lunch with my fiancée just a few days ago. It was a cold day, so we enjoyed our fast-food lunches in the comfort of my car when all of the sudden two blue birds landed on the iron fence in front of us. They were small and beautiful birds. I wondered how they were surviving the cold temperatures when a verse from the Bible came to my mind.
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” - Matthew 6:26
Everyone thinks about the future. We worry if we’re going to have enough to pay the bills, to help our kids go to college/buy them a car. We worry about financial security and having the new and best things. We have absolutely no idea what the bare minimum to live off of is because our financial standards require us to own a house with a spare bedroom. We worry about finances.
Blue Birds…
In the grand scheme of things, those two blue birds will not have a big impact on this world. They will not build a Fortune 500 company, never create great works of art, never score a touchdown, and never teach people to come to Jesus. They won’t even have one meaningful conversation in their lifetime. Yet, God takes care of blue birds. Why do we worry so much about money when God promises to provide us what we need? Perhaps we have a wrong perspective of the value of our money and even why we work in the first place.
The Wisest Fool
King Solomon, other than having over 300 wives, was most known for being the wisest man on earth. Even with that wisdom, however, he made many mistakes. One mistake was believing earthly possessions would truly make his life happy and fulfilled. After working and toiling for possessions this is what he had to say:
“So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.” - Ecclesiastes 2:20-23
Solomon realized that working to gather and collect things is vain and useless. This idea of loving wealth is also presented in Matthew 6:24 saying, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The Purpose Of Our Work
Gaining material things for our own personal pleasure is useless and actually defiant towards God. But what if I aim to be wealthy so I can provide my family with a bunch of nice things? The Bible says we’re supposed to provide for our realities or else we’re worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8) so this goal to be wealthy is justified, right? Not really. Being wealthy for the purpose of sharing with your family a bunch of nice things is not a viable reason according to the scriptures.
To test this idea, let’s look at some examples and instructions from scripture about our possessions and working.
1. The Newborn Church. On the day of Pentecost after 3000 souls were added to the church, these new Christians devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowshipped, broke bread, prayed, and believed all the same things together. Regarding their wealth, the scriptures tell us:
“And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” - Acts 2:45
Those who had more possessions willingly helped those who were in need.
2. Jesus’ Command to His Disciples. The action of distributing wealth to the poor was also a command that Jesus gave His disciples in Luke 12:33.
“Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
3. The Purpose of Working According to Paul. It was no secret that Paul didn’t work for personal gain but to help others. Let’s consider his work and what he has to say on the subject.
i) Paul worked to support his ministry. “And because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.” - Acts 18:3
ii) To the Ephesian Elders he said, “I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” - Acts 20:33-35
iii) Paul helped distribute to those in need. “Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. 30 This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.” - Acts 11:29-30 (See also Rom 15:27-29)
iv) Paul told us the purpose of working: “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” - Eph 4:28
That’s a scary verse for a materialistic world. “…doing honest work, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”
Why Is That You Work?
Do you work to fulfill the needs of others or for personal gain? Do you work so that your family has nice things? Would God be satisfied with the relationship you have with His money?
This is His world and we are to use what we have to help those who are a need both physically and spiritually. We gain so that we can give, and we give for His glory. Please consider your reasons for working and look into the kind of life you are pursuing. Working for personal gain is vain and useless. Work instead to provide for those in need.
Yours in Christ,
Zack