Psalm 62:11-12
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.
Work is a big deal. It seems to be the primary ingredient of manhood since Piltdown Man. “Me, man. Me, work. Me want pick-up truck.”
There is something primeval about work -- grunting, hard-hitting, exhausting – and especially then having something to haul it around. I’m teasing a little. But without work what are we worth? Good for nothing. A cardinal maxim says: take away a man’s work and you strip him of dignity.
A first question in casual conversation between strangers is always, “What do you do?” How often do you ask a total stranger how much money he makes? It’s impolite and irrelevant. A person’s real worth is far more than their net worth.
An old gag hung on ministers is, “Whazit like to work only one day a’week?” The cheekiness in this tired canard is that ministry isn't real work.
Believe me, I know some guys who work a whole lot harder than I do. I concede there are many whose employment is far more difficult or dangerous than any of my exertions, and many men and women are compensated far less for doing much more.
I once wrote years ago in a research paper, “We, in America live in a production centered culture. Ours is an activist society in which devotions give the appearance of inactivity. The spiritual exercises of a pastor are not considered by most people to be part of his “employment.” If anything, the devotional life is likely to put him behind in his work – functionally a waste of time. Lest we be too hard on the laity, however, what might be the reaction of ecclesiastical superiors to the subsidized urban missionary who must account for his time if he spends much of it in prayer and meditation?”
The big deal is work, production, and achievement.
The Bible says, “… power belongs to God, and … [He] will render to a man according to his work.” Must we think work is not only a primary ingredient of manhood -- but the primary component of sainthood?
If work is such a big deal, why do we so often grumble about it and take pleasure in retiring from it? I can think of two possible reasons. One, the work isn't satisfying in itself. Or, secondly, it doesn’t seem worth it. The pay could be better, the hours shorter, the responsibilities lessened. We consider those lucky who are well compensated for jobs they love to do. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. But if finding and keeping a decent job that more or less suits us isn't a big enough headache, must we now consider God the ultimate Paymaster who renders to man according to his work.
Solomon despaired of this. He wrote, "All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” (Eccl. 1:2-3) He came to detest work. "I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun … I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me." (2:11,18)
Solomon didn’t like work simply for work's sake. Moreover, work that isn't enjoyable but is instead harsh or distasteful is not what God intended when he gave Adam the privilege of godly employment in the Garden of Eden.
Solomon's difficulty was that he worked as a means of gain only to see everything vainly slip through his fingers. The work itself was unsatisfying because it produced nothing enduring. No work of man renders anything lasting. So, if God rewards work only to the extent of my labor, the wage will be downright puny and gone before I know it.
Still, God promises to render to a man according to his work. For God's children this is not fearful. It is an assurance coupled to the fact of God's steadfast love.
Consider for a moment Christ's work. We assume He would have developed skills in carpentry, but we don’t really think of this as His essential work. His real work and vocation was that of a true man living out life under the Law, working and serving in whatever way God set before him. In Jesus' case, the work God gave him was the toil of atonement, living and working as we should do and enduring the damages we incurred by our defective work.
Yet, we are told Jesus took joy in his calling, “that my joy may be in you." (John 15:11)
The book of Hebrews encourages us in joyful vocation, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1b-2)
We rightly understand work if we regard it not an end in itself but a divine gift of God's making (Eph. 2:10) through which we glory in God and benefit our neighbor. Work is satisfying not because it makes us manly nor by any means saintly. It is satisfying because it is not for securing profit but for giving service. It is out of the abundance of God that we work. We don’t work to acquire abundance.
God’s steadfast love defines His work, and it defines the Christian's work: done out of love, not of obligation or greed.
God renders to man according to his work. If work is knocked out without faith, to bring in benefit for oneself, the work will turn to dust. However, if living out our Christian vocation and calling is by faith, God will render us the privilege of even greater usefulness and work. Two talents employed become four. Five talents employed become ten. And the multiplication of joys and pleasure in glorifying God and serving others will never end.
Work is a big deal, not because it makes one manly or produces sainthood. It is a big deal because it is the joyful living out of our humanity as a gift from God and because the end of saintly labors is not exhaustion and emptiness (Solomon's meaninglessness), but refreshment, rest, gratification, and joy of continuing the value of work.
Revelation says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!'"
"Their deeds follow them." Not only is the value of that Christian's faithful work preserved, the joy of continuing to work will follow as a virtue of God-given sainthood into eternity.
