Is there any such thing as Biblical Work Ethic?
Part of reforming the market and
building prosperity in developing nations is finding a method
to generate prosperity that works “from the ground
up” and builds dignity and self-respect into people. One
of the assertions of this book is that the Protestant work
ethic combined with a solution-focused and productive
approach to generating the power to make wealth is the
answer. Max Weber’s work on the Protestant work ethic
has been much argued but, to my mind, never disproved.
Sociologically speaking the Protestant nations tend also to
be the prosperous nations. Of the ten most prosperous nations
in the 1999 Human Development Report, the top three are all
Protestant (Canada, Norway and the United States) followed by
Japan, which is not a Protestant nation but still has a
strong work ethic. Belgium is 5th and another
Catholic country Netherlands is 8th but both of
these have been substantially influenced by the Protestant
work ethic. The other three countries in the top ten are
Sweden, Australia and the UK and all are Protestant. Thus
seven of the ten most prosperous countries have a Protestant
work ethic and the other three, while not Protestant, take a
similar approach to their work. In fact of the top 20
nations, 19 are Christian nations with Japan being the only
exception. Of the poorest 20 nations, while some have
recently been well evangelized, none have developed a
Christian approach to work yet. Most are Christian on Sundays
(or Muslim on Fridays) and animistic/tribal in work life. However
as Christians while the sociological dimension is important,
the biblical dimension is vital, so lets see what Scripture
has to say about a Christian work ethic.
Work occupies about a third of
our life, is where much of our character and discipline is
formed and is the main interaction we have with society
around us. It is thus of profound importance to God. Jesus
called most of his disciples while they were at work -e.g.
fishing, or at a tax office. David and Moses were both called
when they were out with the sheep. Elisha was called while he
was plowing. Jesus seemed to like busy industrious people,
commending shrewd stewards, hard-working managers that turned
a profit, and centurions who were senior military officers
bearing considerable responsibility in tough times.
The Origin Of Work
Work originated before the fall when Adam was
given a digging stick and told to till the garden of Eden.
(Genesis 2:16). There was to be such a close relationship
between man and the land that the two words are related as
the masculine and feminine of each other. The Hebrew word for
ground or land is adamah. It is from the adamah that
Adam came. The extra “–ah” ending is the
feminine. Adam is the generic word for “mankind”
add an “ah” and you get the feminine adamah – the word for ground or earth. In Hebrew the feminine
of Adam is not Eve but "ground"! Work was
originally meant to be incredibly fulfilling and agricultural
work became arduous after the Fall (Genesis 3:17) as a result
of God cursing the adamah. Part of our redemption in
Christ is a renewing of the meaningfulness of work.
God, Work and
Craftsmanship
God is interested in our work and will supply us with
wisdom so we can do our work excellently - whether it be
sacred work such as building the tabernacle or the more
mundane tasks of farming a field. God’s wisdom is not
just speculative, philosophical or theological but practical
and craftsmanlike. God’s wisdom constructs reality and
all of creation in Proverbs 8. When it is passed onto mankind
the recipients become skilled craftsmen also: (Exodus
31:1-4 NASB) Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "See,
I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of
Hur, of the tribe of Judah. "And I have filled him with
the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge,
and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs
for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze,
So we see that the Spirit of God filled Bezalel, the
constructor of the tabernacle, with wisdom and that this
wisdom resulted in a job well done. This is the first mention
of someone being filled with the Spirit in Scripture and is
foundational of our understanding of the concept. The Spirit
does not send us off into a daydream but makes us wise, and
productive, and co-creators with God.
Neither is God’s wisdom to us confined to the
religious sphere such as building tabernacles but can be
thoroughly mundane and ordinary as this passage from Isaiah
indicates (emphasis mine).
(Isaiah 28:23-29 NASB) Give
ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my words. {24} Does
the farmer plow continually to plant seed? Does he
continually turn and harrow the ground? {25} Does he not
level its surface, And sow dill and scatter cummin, And plant
wheat in rows, Barley in its place, and rye within its area?
{26} For his God instructs and teaches him
properly. {27} For dill is not threshed with a
threshing sledge, Nor is the cartwheel driven over cummin;
But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a club.
{28} Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue
to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his
horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.
{29} This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who
has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.
The common daily farming practices regarding dill and
cummin were nevertheless implanted by God and part of His
wisdom in order that we may function practically, creatively
and wisely on earth and thus demonstrate His nature to the
world. God is not mere concept but is a pragmatic and clever
constructor of reality and He wants us to work wisely and
well with Him.
Solomon and The Power To Make Wealth Through Work
In this book we have continually
emphasized “the power to make wealth” which is a
gift from God. The person that God gave the greatest power to
make wealth to was Solomon, however God did not drop gold
bars from heaven on Solomon, rather He gave Solomon deep
business acumen and “wisdom”. It was this wisdom
that enabled Solomon to rule wisely, judge accurately, and
make a profit. Solomon, not Calvin, is really the first
advocate of what has come to be known as “the Protestant
work ethic”. Jews and Protestant are both wealthy
because they take their financial attitudes from this great
Old Testament king. In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes Solomon
writes a great deal about work and wealth. Lest see what he
had to say in addition to what we saw earlier in the section
on “the power to make wealth”:
Solomon sees work as a good thing that gives meaning and
purpose to life: (Eccl 3:22 NRSV) So I saw that there is
nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for
that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be
after them? For Solomon, doing one’s work well and
being satisfied with it was a central human satisfaction.
This is in contrast to the Greek view of work as a burden for
slaves and commoners and aristocratic leisure as the ideal
estate. Or Solomon God is a God at work and so work is good
and when we work we become co-creators with God. Work is thus
a noble and an ennobling activity. Work is to be done
vigorously and diligently because the only time to attain
prosperity is now. (Eccl 9:10 NRSV) Whatever your hand
finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or
thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are
going.
On the other hand work is not an
absolute good, it has to be balanced with the rest of life
and to be in context as a source of prosperity not a
treadmill. (Eccl 4:6 NRSV) Better is a handful with quiet
than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind. Again,
I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals,
without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their
toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches.
"For whom am I toiling," they ask, "and
depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and
an unhappy business.
Enjoyment of work is a gift from
God and while the sinner can be an accumulator of wealth such
wealth will ultimately be distributed to others. (Ecclesiastes
2:24-26 NRSV) There is nothing better for mortals than to eat
and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I
saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat
or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God
gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he
gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one
who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after
wind. True lasting prosperity and enjoyment of work is
thus grounded in a solid relationship with God.
Solomon is particularly scathing
on laziness with his portraits of the sluggard and the fool
which we saw in a previous chapter. Solomon’s view is
that entropy will take over unless disorder is kept at bay
through work. {Entropy is the natural tendency of a system to
ever increasing disorder.] The unworked field will soon be
filled with thorns and thistles, the wall that is not
maintained will soon become rubble, poverty will come
“like an armed man”(Proverbs 24:30-34) For Solomon
it takes effort just to keep things working, let alone to
press ahead. Life consumes the lazy (Eccl 4:5 NRSV)
Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh and
can even kill them (Proverbs 21:25).
For Solomon diligence, wisdom and
pursuit of excellence are the secrets of success along with a
craftsman’s pride in one’s work and a being a good
judge of people especially those used for a vital task such
as sending an important message. The righteous man and the
good wife are both highly productive people. The good wife is
able to sum a field and buy it, make goods and market them
and to instruct and guide her staff (Proverbs 31). She is not
an idle or merely decorative attachment to the powerful
husband but is a productive and independent person with a
judicious and practical mind. Proverbs advocates all members
of the household being productive and household income,
rather than personal income is seen as the true measure of
wealth. The application of this principle by Chinese families
in Asia has caused them to prosper.
Solomon is insistent on
productivity. It is what we take the time and trouble to
build that rewards us, not the fantasies we dream about
(Proverbs 12:14 ) it is always better to get stuck into a
project than waste production time by sitting around talking
about doing it “one day”. (Proverbs 14:23 NKJV)
In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to
poverty. Work needs to be taken very seriously and
professionally indeed as a little slackness can cause much
trouble. For instance leaving the farm gate open can mean you
lose all your livestock. For Solomon slackness is not akin to
leisure but to destruction and is to be avoided at al costs. (Prov
18:9 NKJV) He who is slothful in his work Is a brother to him
who is a great destroyer. Excellence however creates
wealth and honor. (Prov 22:29 NKJV) Do you see a man who
excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not
stand before unknown men. It is easy to see this
principle at work among sportsmen and artists where the most
excellent 1% of sportspersons earn 95% of the money! Solomon
sees productivity is a higher priority than domestic comfort
or prestige and the wise person attends to their means of
production, their power to make wealth, before anything else. (Prov 24:27 NKJV) Prepare your outside work, Make it fit
for yourself in the field; And afterward build your house.
Finally, Solomon enjoins the
value of synergy in partnerships where 1 plus 1 equals more
than 2 and where three or more people add strength to the
productive unit (Eccl 4:9-11). For Solomon work is a
cooperative and productive activity guided by God’s
wisdom and rewarded by His blessing and producing the power
to make wealth. Work is the engine of prosperity in a world
that will quickly send you broke if you fail to master it -
through the concentrated application of specific and applied
wisdom in a spirit of excellence.
Solomon’s Secrets of Success
Some of Solomon’s other secrets of success can be summarized in the following 12 simple formulas:
1. Stop Chasing Fantasies – Start Working Productively (Proverbs 12:11, 28:19).
2. Stop Scheming For Quick Money – Start Honest Diligent Planning (Proverbs 1:30-33)
3. Stop Sleeping - Start Working (Proverbs 6:6-11)
4. Stop Borrowing – Start Earning (Proverbs 22:7)
5. Stop Spending On Little Luxuries – Start Saving For The Future (Proverbs 21:17)
6.Don’t think of distant future success – make it happen here and now. (Proverbs 17:24)
7. Diversify your enterprises. (Eccl 11:2)
8 When making plans get good advice from many sources (Proverbs 15:22, 20:18)
9 Plan your work and work your plan. (Proverbs 21:5)
10 But don’t fall for the paralysis of analysis. (Eccl 11:4)
11.When dealing with governments follow the procedures even if you are upset. (Eccl 8:6)
12 No matter how keen you are on your project Work steadily and carefully, do not be hasty. (Proverbs 19:2, 21:5)
Jesus and Work
Work seems to have been very
important for Jesus. Nearly all the people that Jesus praises
are hard-working middle managers or other people with a clear
sense of priorities - such as the widow with her small copper
coin. Muddle-headed, ineffective and lazy people end up being
called "wicked" and cast into the outer darkness,
foolish virgins are shut out of the wedding feast, and poor
managers who rule unjustly are "cut in pieces" and
assigned a place with the hypocrites.
At the other end of the spectrum
James says oppressive masters that withhold wages will face
severe judgment, Paul tells the day-dreaming busy-bodies in
Thessalonica "if any man will not work, neither let him
eat.”
The New Testament was when the practical Hebrew culture
encountered Greek culture with its dislike of work and manual
labour. Whether it was "spiritual" to work hard was
a real issue for many Christians. The Christian answer was a
renewed emphasis on hard work and diligence. However a new
emphasis appears in the NT - an emphasis on the motive for
work.
Christians are not to work for "food which
perishes" (John 6:27) or to fix their mind on
"earthly things" (Colossians 3:1-3) anxiously
worrying about food, shelter and clothing (Matt 6:19-34).
They are not to love the world or the things of the world. (
1 John 2:15-17). Rather Christians are to work "as unto
the Lord" not pleasing men but God.(Colossians 3:23,24)
They are to work hard and diligently and ethically.
Those who do so are rewarded with
authority and receive God's approval. Faithful stewards
(managers) are often commended (Luke 12:42). Christians are
to work with their hands (1 Corinthians 4:12, Ephesians 4:28,
1 Thess 4:11) and they are to provide for their families. Not
to do so is a denial of the faith and makes a Christian
"worse than an unbeliever". (1 Timothy 5:8
NRSV) And whoever does not provide for relatives, and
especially for family members, has denied the faith and is
worse than an unbeliever.
If a Christian does not work then
he or she is not to eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). Work is
defined to include preaching the gospel and Christian
ministry providing that it is done diligently.( 1Thess
5:12,13) Support of Christian workers is commended and not
seen as them merely indulging their religious sentiments.
Jesus and the disciples (Luke 8:3) and Paul were supported by
others. (2 Corinthians 11:7-9) and elders who taught and
ruled well were to be given "double honor" - that
is adequate financial support ( 1Timothy 5:17).
There is a great wisdom in
the NT approach which is only now (and unwittingly), being
realised in the secular literature such as Rich Dad, Poor
Dad. If we work to satisfy earthly desires we become
enslaved and never have enough. We become ruled by fear and
desire. Those who desire to become rich wander from the faith
and pierce themselves with many a pang (1 Timothy 6:6-10). By
working for something external to the economic process (for
wisdom and for God) we gain a leverage point to control our
life and in the end we gain greater prosperity - both
financially and spiritually. (Matt 6:19-34)
Application
When we see that the top ten nations have developed a
strong and biblically based work ethic and that secular
proponents have adopted many of the same principles we can be
sure that we are onto a good thing. Part of what we as
Christians in the developing world can do is to teach and to
model a truly biblical work ethic. Instead of inviting people
to become victims of a speculative, unpredictable and lawless
market we can impart to them the power to make wealth through
wok and wisdom. If you are a pastor or a bible study leader
you can teach these principles so that people truly gain
lasting prosperity.
At this point it may be worth saying that many of the
Christian prosperity teachers are simply superstitious
Christian animists. They do not impart the responsible power
to make wealth to those they speak to but give them a believe
in a “blessing” that will magically make them rich
or a “hundred-fold anointing” that the evangelist
possesses. God is interested in us becoming wise, mature,
co-creators and rulers with Him not immature and greedy
followers of gurus. There is a right and responsible
prosperity teaching and I believe I have given it to you in
this book. As we teach it to the nations we will greatly
assist them in their development, maturity and wisdom.
Ok, the Church can help the poor
with work ethics – but isn’t that just blaming the
victim? What are we going to do about the excesses of the big
end of town? Well its not just blaming the victim, its giving
people part of the secret of success. But we also have to
liberate them so that they can pursue that success in a
rational and just environment where they stand a chance of
making ends meet. Hence the next
chapter – what the Church can do about the
big end of town.