Labor Day and the Biblical Work Ethic

Part 2

Tim Moore: Okay, Nathan, so let’s get to it. So what are your memories of work from an early age? What was your first job?

Nathan Jones: Well, my father was a very hard worker. He sold books and Bibles for companies. He set the example, he’d be gone five days a week, he’d be setting up his itinerary all day Sunday. We had one day usually with him. And so I grew up with a very strong work ethic. I mowed yards, I babysat, I trimmed hedges. I’d say my first job, I was 15 years old and I went to work for an office supply store, and my job was the crayon aisle. I was in charge of all the little kids supplies, and when the owner found out I was 15 and not 16, ooh, he hit the roof but…

Tim Moore: Oh, really? So you were child labor, huh? He had certain parameters he had to honor.

Nathan Jones: Yes, that’s true.

Tim Moore: Now, did you get to keep your job even though he found out you were a little bit young?

Nathan Jones: Well, I found if I was a bag boy at Kroger I could actually make 25 cents more. So I left that job and I was a bag boy at Kroger, but I worked my way up through the different years. But they were a nice job. What was your first job?

Tim Moore: So I had a lot of odd jobs like you. I mowed lawns, I pulled weeds, I did whatever I could, not just around my own home, which actually did not pay, no allowance for me, but in neighbor’s yards and other things. I think my first real job was a paper boy, and I would get up at about 4 AM, starting at age nine years old.

Nathan Jones: Oh my word.

Tim Moore: To deliver papers in the morning. Yeah, I got up early, even though I’m more of a night owl. And so that was a one-day-a-week job for that particular paper. Later it expanded. But yeah, that was my first job. And then later I worked in retail and several other roles throughout high school. And finally, of course, the military. Whether or not that’s considered a job, I worked hard at it.

Nathan Jones: It’s a hard job.

Tim Moore: And so most of you can probably remember your first job, whether it was something odd like mowing lawns or babysitting or finally, working out in the actual workforce and getting a paycheck. You know, Nathan, there was something special about getting a check and thinking, “I earned this.” But from an early age, I realized, “Wait, what happened to some of my money? It’s evaporated; it’s gone from my check.” The government took their share, and boy, I got a little bit resentful from that at an early age.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, that was funny. As when my kids got their first jobs, I was waiting for that day when they got their first check and they would look and say, “What is FICA? What am I supposed to do with this?” So yeah, the government takes its portion, but, you know, I always felt that the money I contributed and my taxes went to NASA, and got us to outer space, and that was my contribution.

Tim Moore: Well, good on you. Okay, I appreciate that. You know, we’ve had, as a society, a shift of perceptions on work. For a time, America really thrived because we prized work, and there was a Protestant work ethic. We’ll talk more about that in a moment. But we had a value for people who could work with their hands and were building this nation. And that has kind of shifted over time. And today, at least anecdotally in some of the media, you don’t get as much appreciation for people who are working with their hands, who are building, maintaining, or even repairing things.

Nathan Jones: Well, look at our grandparents’ generation, which we call the Silent or the Greatest Generation, and to think that they had to go to work as children. My grandfathers, one of them dropped out of college, or excuse me, high school at ninth grade, another at sixth grade to take care of his family during the Great Depression.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: They had to go through wars. I mean, they were taught this really solid work ethic, and we saw from the ’50s on an explosion in the United States of heavy work. But as every parent wants to do, you want to provide for your child. And the Boomers had all this provision given to them, and they started getting a little entitled. Then our generation, Gen X got in, and we got even more entitled, and so forth and so on to the point where we’re expected that its goods and services as a result of work are owed us.

Tim Moore: Yeah. Too often today we hear young people who say, “Well, the government owes us something, whether it’s an education, even through college or other benefits.” And obviously that’s a far cry from even John F. Kennedy saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Nathan, that was only 62 years ago, 64 years ago when we are talking today, and yet we’ve come a long way and sometimes not in the right direction.

There are folks who still prize work. We think of Mike Rowe. Obviously his Dirty Jobs series I think hit a nerve because some people realize that in their own background, they worked a “dirty job” or something that required hard work. I have great respect and appreciation for anybody who will put in an honest day’s work, by which I mean labor. I know a lot of folks work with their minds and their creative gifts and abilities, but there’s something to be said for putting in a full day’s work and earning a wage, just as Christ talked about in some of His parables.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, my father used to have this great advice ever since I was a little kid. He says that “I wouldn’t care if you were a garbage man, as long as you’re out there working hard and doing it for the Lord.” And that really kind of molded the perspective for me for the rest of our life because if you look at Genesis 2:15, the origin of work, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

So from the very beginning, Adam and Eve weren’t sitting in the garden, always leisure and swimming, like it’s a Great Wolf Lodge or something like that. He had a job for them to do, and He sent them out into the Garden to maintain it and take care of it, to name the animals, to cultivate it. So mankind was created to do work.

Tim Moore: He certainly was, and you know, God Himself, as you’re indicating, modeled that because in the first six days of Creation, God worked. Now, we don’t believe it was laborious in the way we think about it, but it is described in Scripture, for six days, God did the work of Creation with the breath of His mouth, with the will that He expressed through the Living Word, Jesus Christ. And yet after those six days of creative work, it says that God rested. It wasn’t like He was tired or worn out, but He modeled that on that seventh day He would do no work.

And so as we celebrate Labor Day, it’s going to be a day of little work for some, although there are others who have to work 24/7, or at least their job is around the clock. We think of nurses and farmers, they don’t get a day off. Moms and dads who are raising children. There are a lot of folks who will be working even on Labor Day. And yet this description of God’s working and then resting is a model for us even today.

Nathan Jones: Oh yeah, and it’s even a command. If you go to Exodus 34:21 or even 12:16, “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and harvest, you shall rest.” So here’s God of the universe, and if anyone did the most work, He made a universe, a planet, and even the greatest of all His Creation, women. And He did all that. And then He decided He needed a day of rest.

Now, God is all powerful. He doesn’t need a day of rest, but you’re absolutely right. He set the example and that’s why I found it so important to honor the Lord’s day. Now, it doesn’t mean there aren’t work things to do around the house or take care, but it’s supposed to break from the routine. And it’s a refreshing time to get us to when we get back into the office or the truck or wherever we’re at to refocus and helps us be more creative.

Tim Moore: It certainly does. I think that there are times when, again, if a nurse, a doctor, I can think of many, policemen, firemen, et cetera, they have to work on certain holidays. Some of them have to work on Sundays. But it is very important that we do set aside one day in seven, and even on the Lord’s day, that we prioritize focusing our minds and our hearts toward Him but that we take a downtime.

Arguably, there are a lot of folks who emphasize the downtime and minimize the work, but it does say in the 10 Commandments that “six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work.” And so again, the Jews take this to the extreme on the Sabbath. They won’t even push an elevator button. They won’t turn a key in a lock to open a door. And so they’ll get somebody else to come and push the button and open the door for them.

Nathan Jones: I remember that.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

Nathan Jones: The Sabbath elevator that the Jews sit there waiting for you to come in, like, “You, Gentile, push that button.”

Tim Moore: You push the button; you’re going to a bad place anyway but that way I’ll just get to ride along.

Nathan Jones: But you bring up a good point that that’s when we take what God wants us to do and legalize it. And we’ve seen that not just for the Jewish people, but the Church. My grandmother would get on us if we were playing cards on Sunday. The Puritans were, if a child was born on a day, they assumed that was also the day of conception. So Jonathan Edwards, for instance, had six children all born on Sunday, and he got chided for procreating on Sundays. That was a work.

And so we can take what God wants for our good and legalize it. And that’s the point, folks. We’re not trying to say a legalism here that you have to take Sunday off. Pastors can never take a Sunday off. They take Monday or my buddy Steve Howell, Thursday. So there are days that we take off, but what the point is is that there is work that God ordained us to do, but there’s also rest that God ordained us to do, hence Labor Day.

Tim Moore: Hence Labor Day. Well, let’s talk a little bit about what I mentioned earlier, this Christian respect for honest work. I always respect those who are working, those who are laboring. And so I want to show great appreciation, whether it’s to the folks cooking or serving if I go out to eat, those providing housekeeping services at a hotel.

But this idea of the Protestant work ethic is kind of a contrast, even when I used that phrasing, to the culture of not working or in the more Latin or Catholic nations in Europe, there became sort of a relaxed attitude toward work, long siestas in the afternoon, it would be hot, and so I understand that. But it was almost a que sera-sera, which is a Spanish phrase, meaning whatever will be, will be. And so there was almost an attitude ingrained of not working because what’s the point?

And yet the Protestant work ethic from the beginning of the Reformation really valued work, and not just spiritual work. So Martin Luther and the other reformers valued all kinds of work and this created a great creativity, a great industriousness that we have benefited for, for many generations.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I think Europe, is losing its Protestant work ethic, as you say. I remember a number of years back where in France they were rioting in the streets because they wanted to increase the work week from 32 hours, I think, to 34 or something like that. Again, we’ve become too entitled. We expect that we are now supposed to live for pleasure rather than live for work. But mankind was created to work. And if we’re not doing the works that God created us to do, then we’re not truly living. And there’s an attitude too that comes with it.

Look at Colossians 3:23, for instance. “Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.” So here we’re told that, you know, maybe the secular world wouldn’t relate to this, but as Christians, we’ve got to realize that even the smallest works that we do have a purpose. We could be digging ditches as my father used say or driving dump trucks or preaching the Gospel or being a secretary or being a stay-at-home mother or a CEO, whatever it is, we do it for the glory of Lord.

It might not seem like you’re doing actual preaching and evangelism and all, but you’re living a Christian, godly life. And when people see that, they say, “Hey, something’s different about that guy. What is different?” And it’s an opportunity to share the Gospel.

Tim Moore: It is an opportunity to share the Gospel. It is demonstrating that we are serving others. You know, two of the people that struck me as the most industrious, I have been around in a long time in recent years, one was a team of guys who changed the tire on my car. I literally had two flat tires, couldn’t even drive on the spare, had to call somebody. A team showed up very late at night and they were the most industrious, the most energetic in terms of changing my tire. And I realized they took great pride in that role, just changing a tire. It was like an Indy pit crew showing up near the Dallas Airport.

Another guy that really impressed me drove a septic truck and did some work on my septic system. But he took great pride in his work and I realized I was very grateful for him for taking care of a problem that I really didn’t have the skills to do. But he took great pride in serving in that regard. And I had absolute respect for him.

You know, Paul in the book of 2 Thessalonians had this to say regarding work in chapter three, and I’ll begin reading in verse seven. He says, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example,” this being Paul and his fellow evangelists, “because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it but with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.” So Paul models this attitude of work. He was a tent maker, even to pay his own way as an evangelist.

And then he says, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either.” And so in this book that we point to many times for his great insights on so many things, especially his letters to the Thessalonians talking about Jesus’ return, he’s giving an admonition that work is to be valued, respected, and quite frankly, there are consequences for those who refuse to work. I think our society would be much better off if we would adhere to Paul’s admonishment.

Nathan Jones: Well, think about how we used to be a manufacturing society and now we’re a service society. And how often we can go into a restaurant or a hotel or something and how bad the service is, and you never go back. They lose the business.

Tim Moore: Yes, they do.

Nathan Jones: So as Christians, and if everything we’re doing is for the glory of God, it elevates even the places where we work, if they’re secular, and there’s rewards for it, too. Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” And that’s just not talking about a financial harvest. Certainly you get a paycheck, you get promotions if you’re a good worker, but we are storing up treasures in Heaven.

Tim Moore: Amen.

Nathan Jones: Whether the good works that we do will be translated in some respects into heavenly rewards. The Bible talks about new names, acknowledged before the father, different types of crowns, different kinds of robes, different types of positions. So I tend to think like that little old lady who shows up to church every week and fills the communion cups, she’s going to be staggering around Heaven with this massive crown, and she’s going to be in charge of all of us preachers and evangelists because she was faithful to her work.

Tim Moore: She was faithful to her work, and she did it selflessly and sacrificially at times.

Nathan Jones: Yes, absolutely.

Tim Moore: Whereas Dr. Reagan used to talk about, you know, a famous evangelist who sometimes did it for their own glory or for their own reputation. And so as the Lord might say, “You already got your reward,” but the little old lady will get a reward that is eternal. You know, I have long advocated a saying I heard years ago that as important as prayer is, and we’re not minimizing the role of prayer and being spiritually attuned, but someone gave great advice. They said, “If you’re going to pray for God to remove the weeds in your garden, do so at the end of a hoe.” In other words, be engaged.

Nathan Jones: That’s good.

Tim Moore: And it’s not a matter of God helps those who help themselves. That’s not what we’re preaching. But we’re saying God expects us to be co-laboring with each other and with Him. You know, we are given works to do in this life because we’re saved. In other words, we are saved in order to do good works. Or we work, in other words, because we are saved.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I mean, Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared that we should do.” Sometimes it’s translated “walk in them” or “prepared ahead of time.” In other words, just think, 6,000 years before we were born, God knew that we were coming and He had works for us to do. And we, not on our own merit, by allowing the Holy Spirit to do those works through us, generates the work that contribute. It might not be as big as Billy Graham, for instance. It might be something really tiny, but it contributes to that beautiful tapestry of salvation that the Lord is weaving before us.

Now, Tim, the Lord also has much to say in the Bible about lazy people or people that don’t work. I think of Proverbs 10:4, “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” We live in a society, everybody wants to win the lottery and hope, you know, just to make it big, real fast.

Tim Moore: Get rich quick, yes.

Nathan Jones: We also have this one: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” which you read in 2 Thessalonians. And so I’ve got passages all over here. “Those who work their land will have abundant food but those who chase fantasies,” in other words, the dreamers, “have no sense.” Proverbs 12:11. “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23. In the wisdom books, God again reiterates over and over the importance of labor, not just rest, but labor, too. And when you don’t do those labors, you’re letting your family down, you’re letting your community down, you’re letting God down.

Tim Moore: I tell you what, there’s such an important aspect to maintaining this balance. I find that if I rest too much, I actually get more lethargic.

Nathan Jones: I do that, too.

Tim Moore: And so if I sleep too long at night, there’s a point sometimes of catching up if you’ve had a sleep deficit, but if you sleep too much, you wake up groggy and you’re really not much good for the rest of that particular day. And so there is a right balance. God has made us to be a creature that is balanced in all different aspects, balancing the physical, the mental, the spiritual, and yes, the relational with the Lord God, and with each other. All those things have to be maintained in balance. But this work-rest balance, well, let’s just say 6/7 of the time, the Lord intended for us to be working in some way, shape, or form, and only about 1/7 to be truly resting.

Now, in our own culture, we have weekends that last two days, some of us longer. These three-day weekends as we’re going to experience around Labor Day is a great time of family and recreation. But we need to be intentional about getting back to work, even if we are so-called retired. I don’t actually look forward to ever being fully retired because even when I don’t have a regular job, I intend to still be working for the Lord in whatever way He allows me.

Nathan Jones: Oh yeah, and folks, if you don’t know, this guy works 24/7. So you’ve been built for work. I think retirement would not suit you. But the Lord has promised that in the kingdom to come, we as Christians have been promised to rule and reign with Jesus Christ.

Tim Moore: Yes.

Nathan Jones: And when I tell that to audiences of retirees, they’ll be like, you could hear the groan in the audience. “Oh really?” But no, if you were built with certain skills, certain talents that in your glorified eternal body, we are going to get the opportunity to max out our abilities and we’re going to serve the Lord during His kingdom, and on into eternity as administrators, mayors, teachers, we’re going to do law enforcement, we’re going to do all this stuff that serves the Lord. So we’re not retiring. The Lord is… I think this is like a training ground. He’s training us to prepare us for our future jobs.

Tim Moore: And I think it’s important to realize that even in the Garden of Eden, before the fall, before sin had entered the world, God assigned man work to do. He was to cultivate the garden, he was to name the animals, he was to be the head of the created order. And so there was meaningful work for Adam, for Eve to be engaged in. I think in the Millennial Kingdom and throughout eternity there will be meaningful work for us to do.

If you are a gardener, you’ll be able to garden without any bugs and thorns, and all those kind of things, no weeds. If you love to deal with animals, then you’ll be able to deal with animals and interact with them in a way that you can’t even imagine working with your hands. All the gifts and talents God gives us today, I think will be manifest in glory, even in our glorified bodies.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely, and that’s why I love 1 Peter 4:10. “Each of you should use whatever gift.” In other words, the ability to do work is a gift. The talents, the natural talents, as well as the learned talents to receive to do what? Serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. I think we forget as a church that He is the head that makes us the hands and feet. We’re the body.

Tim Moore: Great analogy.

Nathan Jones: And so if we are out there, we are doing the actual works that the Holy Spirit means for us to do on behalf of God. And when you have that perspective on what your work is, it takes a doldrum day of, “Oh, I don’t want to go into work” to something special because you know you’re doing it for Him.

Tim Moore: That is beautifully said. You know, it is 1 Corinthians 10:31 that says, “Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, whatever you’re engaged in, do all for the glory of God.” And as we already hinted earlier, when we are saved, the Lord leads us into works that He has already prepared beforehand for us to accomplish on His behalf. I think of Mike Huckabee, who now is serving as the ambassador to Israel. He is an ambassador of the United States, obviously of the President of the United States in a foreign place.

We are left here on the Earth after being saved so that we can be ongoing ambassadors for our king, who is coming again, but that we can be, as you said, His hands and His feet here doing the work He has prepared for us so that He gets the glory so that others are edified and encouraged, and actually so that we are honed, and refined to become more Christ-like who modeled this attitude of being a servant, even when He was on the Earth. He could have lorded over everyone. He didn’t. He worked, He labored and He served others.

Nathan Jones: Amen.

Tim Moore: Well, folks, we hope that you obviously have things that you’re looking forward to regarding Labor Day, but that after a season of rest, you’ll get back to work. So Nathan, what do you have planned for Labor Day? What do you typically do on this special holiday?

Nathan Jones: Well, my son is in the Coast Guard and he’s been stationed down near Houston. And so our family, last year we took an Airbnb and that’s one of the rare times that he gets to have off and he knows he’s got the weekend off. So we’re going to get another Airbnb, and we’re going to go down to Labor Day, and we’re going to spend it with our son. See what it’s like living in the Coast Guard and see a different part of the world where it’s all green, as well as filled with giant oil refineries everywhere. How about yourself?

Tim Moore: Well, you know, back in the day, Labor Day marked the beginning of school. Now they seem to have moved school backward and backward. But on Labor Day, we will usually get together as a family. So it has become yet another family gathering time with those who can make it. I will say that I typically am not engaged in work here at the Ministry, but usually I have some honey-do list items that my wife has ensured that I always have something productive to do, so that even during the downtime I can show myself a workman worthy of some kind of wage on her behalf.

Nathan Jones: It’s probably nice too, you get to do all your refinishing and your woodworking projects.

Tim Moore: Sometimes. I will tell, you Nathan, as much as we write, as much as we’re engaged in this aspect of our ministry, I love working with my hands. Sometimes I’ve just got to get out and do something with my hands. I think there’s something to be said for manual labor.

You know, here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, our work is to proclaim the soon return of Jesus Christ. That’s the calling that we have. And so we do that through Christ In Prophecy television, the program you’re seeing right now, through Christ In Prophecy radio, through our tremendous website, through our Lamplighter magazine, through a host of other publications and ways that we reach out to the entire world. Nathan, your calling, your labor here is as the internet evangelist. And boy, what a powerful tool that is to share the Gospel with the world.

Nathan Jones: Well, one of the things that the Lord gave us to help us work in this day and age, and get the Gospel out is the fact this new Romans Road, the internet where we can reach people all over the planet with the Gospel through media, and it’s just all integrating together. I think it’s a sign of the times that the Lord’s coming soon.

Tim Moore: It is a sign of the times.

Closing

Tim Moore: Well, folks, as you can see, there’s much more to consider with regard to work than sometimes meets the eye. And although we enjoy resting from our labors, just as much as anyone else, we think it’s important that Christians grapple with and annunciate what the Bible has to say about topics like work.

Nathan Jones: And many of you will be off from work on Labor Day, but others will have to work that day, you know, folks like farmers and firefighters and police officers, transportation, hospitality workers, and many in retail, goodness knows. Many stores will hope to expand their sales on Labor Day with special sales.

Tim Moore: So whether you’re off on Labor Day itself or not, we hope that you both work in the calling God has given you and that you follow His example by resting one day out of seven, or more. Even as I say that I realize that moms and dads don’t get a day off every week from raising children and managing a household. But we’ll pray that those responsibilities are labors of love.

Nathan Jones: And Tim and I have worked in other roles and other careers, but we are grateful to be co-laboring here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, proclaiming the soon return of Jesus Christ. And for each of us, this really is a labor of love.

Tim Moore: We’re grateful that many of you share this same passion and a calling to share both the Gospel and the good news that Jesus is coming soon with as many people as possible. Our labor to that end will continue until He comes or calls us home.

And if you have not already partnered with us to co-labor, to share that good news about our Blessed Hope, we’d encourage you to become a Prophecy Partner. Just call the number on the screen or visit our website at christinprophecy.org and commit to co-laboring with us while it is still day.

Nathan Jones: And as you visit our website or app, please check out the vast assortment of articles and videos we’ve amassed over the past 45 years to help you grow in your knowledge of God’s Word. We labored tirelessly to provide a wealth of resources and want to help you as you prepare to do the work of an evangelist, sharing Jesus Christ and heralding His soon return.

Tim Moore: Here’s the encouraging truth revealed in God’s Word. All we have to do is commit to working for the Lord of the harvest. Our reward for doing so is already assured, and He guarantees that our labors will never be in vain. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Christians are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

So with that in mind, Happy Labor Day and let’s get to work! Godspeed!

Nathan Jones: Christ In Prophecy is made possible through the faithful and generous support of viewers like you. Please consider making a donation to Lamb & Lion Ministries so that we can continue broadcasting the message of Jesus’ soon return. Thank you and God bless you!

End of Program