MEN AT WORK

God created men to work, and to find fulfillment and joy in it.  How else do we understand Moses’ divinely inspired report:  “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  This is not to say that work is the only thing he created man for.  Most importantly, God created man to have a relationship with Him.  But it is certainly clear that God had purpose for man in the Garden of Eden:  work that honored God by taking care of His creation. 

Men are hardwired to find fulfillment and purpose in work.  One of the first questions men of working age will ask each other upon meeting is, “So, what do you do?”  Guys who can’t work because they can’t find a job or because they have a disability that prevents them working wish they could, and are often frustrated at the lack of opportunity to work or the physical inability to work.

Since Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, however, work isn’t all joy and purpose and fulfillment, is it?  Our world is subject to decay.  It, too, is frustrated because it can’t and doesn’t work perfectly as God intended when he created it new and without sin.  Just read Romans 8:18-25.  Want proof of that? - witness the recent hurricane/tropical storm that ravaged the South Atlantic coast and Haiti.  But even though work is now accomplished amidst such “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 2:17) and accomplishes results only “by the seat of your brow,” (Genesis 3:19) men still want to work.

Or do they?  A recent article I read indicates that that is by no means universally true.  According to the article the work rate for men has plunged 13% in the last 50 years.  Since 1948, the proportion of men 20 and older without paid work has more than doubled, to almost 32%.  Only about 15% of men 25-54 who did not work at all in 2014 said they were unemployed because they could not find work.  For 50 years, the number of men in that age group who are neither working nor looking for work has grown nearly four times faster than the number who are working or seeking work – and the pace of this has been almost totally uninfluenced by the business cycle.

I’m not going to go into all the political and economic reasons that are cited to account for this.  I’m just going to say that this is not a good trend and I will leave it to each individual man to look at this own situation.  Are you disabled and for that reason unable to work?  That’s hard, harder than anyone not in that situation can know.  It’s good to have a safety net to help in that situation, and God’s people do well to be the first people to help.  After all, Paul urges us, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Galatians 6:2)  Do you live in an area where there are just no jobs or too few jobs to be had?  That’s frustrating, and the decision to wait out the business cycle until things improve or uproot family to move where job prospects are better or find the mean and opportunity to retrain for some other kind of work is not easy.  May God you strength to work through that!

But for those who are physically able to work and could, but choose not to, that’s not a good choice.  And there are spiritual reasons for saying so.  Paul had a couple of things to say about that:  “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  (1 Timothy 5:8)  Paul’s point is this:  In His good and wise plan, one of the ways God chooses to provide for our families is through work.  A guy who says, “I can and I could but I won’t” is rebelling against God’s plan.  That’s not just bad decision making, it’s sin.  That’s the negative reason Paul cites regarding those who can and could work but won’t.  He also cites a positive one:  “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”  (Ephesians 4:28)  Work is also the way that God enables us to share with those in need, thus showing love to our neighbor.

One thing has not changed since God introduced man to work before the fall into sin:  work is still a way we can honor God, no matter what work we do.  Paul put it this way:  “Obey them [that is, employers] not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.”  (Galatians 6:6).  I willingly give my employer my best and do my best at my job because it’s a way I serve Jesus who served me with his best work all during his life and on the cross.  The result of that excellent work is eternal life for me.  Men, working hard and working at it to the best of our ability is a way of thanking God for the eternal life we have.

There’s another reason for work that comes to mind, too.  The writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25)  God provides us with the opportunity to work, blesses our sweat, and brings us enjoyment through it.  Working as I can because I can is a way we show appreciation to God for blessings us with work.

The trend in the article I read can be turned around.  Perhaps the choice we make on November 8th will help.  But the real power to turn that trend around lies in the individual choices men make and God’s blessing on that choice.