Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

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The beginning of an essay penned by Bob Black in 1985 entitled “The Abolition of Work” read, “No one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you’d care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.”¹

Written nearly 40 years ago, this anarchy of not working has seemingly become the norm for our youth and many others in America. We have become a nation dependent upon others to care for our well being. Unfortuneately this is wholly UNBIBLICAL.

to dress it, and to keep it;
so that it seems man was not to live an idle life, in a state of innocence; but this could not be attended with toil and labour, with fatigue and trouble, with sorrow and sweat, as after his fall; but was rather for his recreation and pleasure; though what by nature was left to be improved by art, and what there was for Adam to do, is not easy to say: at present there needed no ploughing, nor sowing, nor planting, nor watering, since God had made every tree pleasant to the sight, good for food, to grow out of it; and a river ran through it to water it: hence in a Jewish tract ^F21, before referred to, it is said, that his work in the garden was nothing else but to study in the words of the law, and to keep or observe the way of the tree of life: and to this agree the Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem,

“and he placed him in the garden of Eden, to serve in the law, and keep the commands of it.”

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

DEVOTIONAL

Holy Work

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 25:14–30

Moses now says that the earth was given to man with the condition that he cultivate it. It follows, then, that man was created to employ himself in work and not to lie down in idleness. Labor, truly, was created pleasant and full of delight, entirely exempt from all trouble and weariness. Since God ordained that man should cultivate the ground, he also condemned all indolent repose. Nothing is more contrary to the order of nature than to spend life eating, drinking, and sleeping while having no work to do. Moses says Adam was given the custody of the garden. That shows us that we possess the things that God has given to us on the condition that we be content with a frugal and moderate use of them and that we also take care of what remains.

Let him who possesses a field so partake of its yearly fruits that he does not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence. Let him labor to hand it down to posterity, either as he received it or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its fruits that he neither dissipates it by luxury nor permits it to be marred or ruined by neglect. Moreover, so that economy and diligence with those good things which God has given us to enjoy may flourish among us, let every one regard himself as the steward of God in all things that he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.

FOR MEDITATION: Hard work is a gift from God, not a curse of sin; therefore, let us joy in work well done. Diligent and conscientious work brings glory to our Creator as we fulfill an important aspect of his will for humanity. Do you work “as unto God” or “as unto men”?

John Calvin and Joel R. Beeke, 365 Days with Calvin (Leominster; Grand Rapids, MI: Day One Publications; Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 21.

1. What does the Bible say about work? ↩︎

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