When God Instructs Us to ‘Do Nothing’

Many of us are products of the so-called Protestant work ethic which puts a high premium on productivity and personal initiative. It’s an oversimplification, I know, but we learned that if you need or want something, the best method for getting it is to work for it. 

 

This overall philosophy of work and its rewards still holds true today, although it’s not as widely embraced as it once was. This “work ethic” long ago filtered its way into the spiritual realm, prompting many seekers to wonder if they’ve done enough, if they’re good enough, to earn God’s favor. 

 

However, working, we might even call it performing, to gain God’s approval runs counter to New Testament teachings. Many passages affirm the concept of grace – the Lord’s undeserved, unmerited favor – but the first one I always think off is Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

 

By God’s grace, we respond to Him in faith and receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. But what about our works? Are they unimportant? The next verse, Ephesians 2:10 elaborates, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Yes, the Lord wants and expects us to do good works, but not to receive salvation. Our works should be motivated by the reality and recognition that we have received salvation – we respond out of love and gratitude for what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. As Titus 3:5 asserts, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

 

When we read in Philippians 2:12, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” it’s not a command to work for God’s acceptance but an admonition to work out what God has already put into us. The next verse clarifies, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” What a blessing and a privilege it is to be used by the Lord to accomplish His perfect plan.

 

So, we can rest in the knowledge that if we’re His children, there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more – and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. We can point to one passage that actually seems to instruct followers of Christ to do nothing.

 

Those verses are Philippians 2:3-4, in which we’re told, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

 

Okay, this passage isn’t directing us to literally do nothing, to sit idly on a stump. It’s more about the motivation behind whatever we’re doing and the spirit in which we’re doing it. In our actions, words and thoughts, God desires for us to put Him and others first. 

 

This can be challenging in our contemporary society that often promotes self above all things. Even some of the popular Christian praise songs these days seem more about “me” and “I” than they are about the God of all creation and Jesus Christ, His Son. We could say they’re more about “me-ology” than theology.

 

What if we started each day and reminded ourselves repeatedly during the course of each day to “do nothing” – to check ourselves by evaluating whether we’re acting out of “selfishness or empty conceit,” or “in humility regarding others as more important that ourselves,” as another translation expresses Philippians 2:3?

 

Humility might seem like a vanishing virtue in today’s world when pride is placed on a pedestal. But imagine the difference we could make by consciously seeking to “look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others,” as the following verse admonishes.

Such a radical approach to life and the personal encounters we have each day, even more than the best conceived evangelistic strategies, could enable us to fit the description of being “blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15). Wouldn’t that be worth a try? 

Since When Did the Work Ethic Become Unethical?

Walking into a restaurant last week, my wife and I were greeted by a sign that read, “We are short staffed. Please be patient with the staff that did show up. No one wants to work anymore.” Evidently, this is not an exaggeration. A recent newspaper article quoted other restaurant owners making the same complaint. An increasing number can’t find enough workers to keep their doors open.

Some people attribute this to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, but in many parts of the country, life is returning to a semblance of sanity. Restaurants and other retail establishments are resuming regular hours and activities, and people are venturing out of their homes. But workers are staying away in droves. Why? 

 

It appears unemployment benefits and several rounds of Covid-19 stimulus payments have convinced some folks it’s no longer necessary to work to generate income. Months ago, a friend who owns several service franchises told me it has become difficult to find workers. Often, his help-wanted ads receive little or no response. Even previous employees are reluctant to return to work, satisfied to collect government payments while not working. 

 

Is this “the American dream”? As one wag has termed it, “Payday every day – and no work on payday.” Our society has come a long way; but that doesn’t mean it’s a good way.

 

In the early 1900s, German sociologist Max Weber wrote The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which embraced values such as diligence, discipline, hard work, innovation and frugality. While his discussion encompassed theology, sociology, economics and history, this work ethic is firmly anchored in teachings from the Bible.

 

The book of Proverbs in particular affirms the virtues of enterprise, initiative, determination and the use of one’s unique skills for the benefit of others. It says things such as:

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Proverbs 10:4).

“He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment” (Proverbs 12:11).

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

“The laborer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him one” (Proverbs 16:26).

“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men” (Proverbs 22:29).

“He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored” (Proverbs 27:18).

 

Granted, most of these proverbs are couched in an agricultural context, but the principles fit any field of vocational endeavor: Hard work, diligence and the proper utilization of talents and abilities usually reap a tangible reward. 

 

Work obviously isn’t a concept that developed over the past few centuries. Its origin traces to the Creation account, recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. After creating humankind “in His own image,” the Lord gave Adam and Eve their job description: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it…. I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food…’” (Genesis 1:27-29).

 

For the six days of Creation, God Himself had been diligently, ambitiously and imaginatively working. And He desired for the people created in His own image to do likewise. Sadly, following the first man and woman’s sinful disobedience against God, disregarding the one taboo He had given them, one of the curses of their rebellion was that work became hard. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…” (Genesis 3:17-19).

 

But that doesn’t diminish the fact that work was ordained and mandated by God, a form of sacred service to Him and His creation. In fact, the apostle Paul noted this in a letter to a first-century church: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat’" (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

 

[Interesting side note: These words had significance even for Vladimir Lenin, a founder of Communism. He referred to them in his 1917 work, “The State and Revolution,” and later they were incorporated into the Russian Constitution of 1918: “He who does not work shall not eat.” We don’t offer hear this cited by voices heralding the supposed virtues of socialism.]

 

Getting back to the claim that “no one wants to work anymore,” even if not intended, this reflects an affront to God. Because the Scriptures declare work is much more than physical and mental labor expended in return for a paycheck. 

 

From the beginning, working was designed as a form of worship and reverence for the Creator. As it declares in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” 

 

Some may disagree, but refusing to work simply because a check from the government will arrive without the investment of any time or effort is to say, in effect, “God, I don’t want to serve you. I have no desire to use the strength and abilities you’ve given me to honor You or to be of benefit to others.” One reason we were created is to work. To intentionally not work when we’re able to do so rejects a key part of God’s plan and purpose for us all.

Are We Going to Belabor the Value of Labor Day?

Like every other holiday over the course of this craziest of crazy years, Labor Day 2020 is different from any we’ve had in the past. In fact, if we follow the emerging thinking of our current age, some might contend it’s not even be a day that should be celebrated.

The intrinsic and noble value of work is at the heart of the “Protestant work ethic,” a term popularized in the early 1900s by Max Weber in his book, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (I remember reading it as a college freshman.) A concept in theology, sociology, economics and history, it places high value in hard work, discipline and frugality. It views work as a commendable duty that benefits both the individual and society as a whole.

 

There are voices, however, that lump this long-revered philosophy of work with so-called “whiteness,” and are therefore seeking to discredit its principles. Without launching into a political debate, let me just say I find such thinking unfortunate. Especially because from the very beginning, hard work – and the rewards from it – have been God’s idea. And so it remains today.

We see it in the opening chapters of the Bible’s first book. One may choose to discount the Scriptures, but if you believe the Bible, you have no option but to accept the ethic of work. 

 

In chapter 1 of Genesis, we see God actively involved in the work of creation, the entire universe: light; the earth and the seas: vegetation; sun, moon and stars; all living creatures, and then mankind. We read in Genesis 2:1-2, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”

 

Whether we interpret the Creation process as six literal 24-hour days or a longer period – since there were no clocks, watches or calendars for charting time – is irrelevant for this discussion. God engaged in work, the greatest work of all time, and then paused from His labors.

 

Soon He delegated the work responsibilities to His prized creations, man and woman. The Lord didn’t present Adam and Eve with video games or puzzles to occupy their time. He entrusted them with the maintenance of the garden of Eden and the new world He had established.

 

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female…. Then the Lord blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.’” (Genesis 1:27:29).

 

 In the next chapter we see Adam and Eve’s “job description” being affirmed: “Then the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of to tend it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15).

 

Then came the “oops” moment, however, when the first couple were enticed into eating of the one tree in the garden that God had told them was off limits – the first sin of disobedience. As a consequence, work became hard. The Lord declared, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…. In the seat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground…” (Genesis 3:17-19).

 

This did not diminish the importance of work in God’s eyes. It just became more challenging, frustrating, and sometimes fruitless. Throughout the Scriptures we see the virtues of hard work being extolled. The book of Proverbs, for example, has much to say about it:

 

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Proverbs 10:4).

“He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son” (Proverbs 10:5).

He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment” (Proverbs 12:11)

“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor” (Proverbs 12:24).

“The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Proverbs 13:4).

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

“One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys” (Proverbs 18:9).

“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men” (Proverbs 22:29).

 

There are dozens of other similar verses, but the message is clear: Hard work and diligence eventually reap a worthwhile reward, while failure to work or unwillingness to put forth a determined effort will result in failure and want.

 

When Jesus was selecting His followers, among them were hard-working fishermen, individuals who understood the truth of the adage, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” If they didn’t take their boats out to sea and cast their nets, there would be nothing to eat – or to sell.

 

A number of Christ’s parables dealt with farming metaphors, incorporating the essentials of cultivating, sowing and harvesting into His spiritual truths. Being a carpenter Himself for most of His adult life, Jesus was no stranger to hard labor.

 

When I try to understand God’s perspective of work, one other passage comes to mind: “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). The context refers primarily to evangelism and spiritual growth, but as we have seen from the start, we are all part of the Lord’s divine and eternal plan, whatever form our work happens to take.

 

Whether we’re black, white, brown, Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern or Caucasian, male or female, God has work for us to do. Therefore, we celebrate Labor Day.

 

Truth About ‘Overnight Success’

The beautifully painted ceiling is a jaw-dropping feature of this palace in Wurzburg, Germany, the result of many years of proud and diligent craftsmanship.

Have you ever met a true overnight success? Someone who was an absolute nobody doing absolutely nothing one day, then the talk of the town – in a good way – the next? I haven’t. The transition from “who’s he” to “Who’s Who” can happen overnight, but in reality the process of reaching that point takes years.

Unfortunately, it seems many people don’t understand that. I had a friend who used to say, “I love work – I can spend all day watching other people do it!” That’s the perspective some folks share these days: “I want success, and everything that comes with it – but not if I have to work for it.”

We hear talk about how we’ve “evolved” as a society. We’ve definitely made strides in some areas, including race relations, gender equality, and appreciation for different cultures. But in other areas, I’m afraid we’ve “de-volved.”

Work ethic, for instance. German sociologist Max Weber coined the term “Protestant work ethic” in the early 1900s. However, for many centuries the virtues of hard work, frugality and diligence have been central to the Christian faith, as well as some other belief systems. Working well and working hard can reflect one’s desire to honor God and serve others, part of our human calling.

But one needn’t be Protestant – or even a person of faith – to find worth in hard work. Inventor Thomas Edison stated, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” And poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Without ambition one starts nothing; without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

In today’s fast-food, microwave, “gotta have it now” world, fewer and fewer people seem willing to expend the effort necessary to succeed. They ask for silver platters, expecting to have everything handed to them. Where’s the fun, the fulfillment in that?

Writer and speaker Bill Hendricks reminded me of this when he observed: “Success is not an Egg McMuffin, delivered to us for a $3, three-minute investment. No, success is the Sistine Chapel – it takes years, pain, frustration, thousands of brushes, colors and crumpled up sketches before you have your masterpiece.”

My late uncle, Joe Tamasy, stands beside
an exquisite work of porcelain in Herend,
Hungary featuring the image of the
Hungarian Parliament.

Years ago during my first trip to Europe I marveled at glorious, exquisitely conceived and painstakingly created cathedrals, houses of government and palaces in Hungary, Austria and Germany. These structures all were centuries old, their longevity attributable to the many years required to construct them. Because they weren’t erected hastily and haphazardly, they stand today as living memorials to the blood, sweat and tears spilled to bring them to reality.

The pace of life today, of course, is faster. We feel pulled in multiple directions. As a result, many of us seek maximum returns with minimum investments. We find “get rich quick” enticing. We want “overnight success,” whether at work or at home, in our relationships or personal pursuits. If it requires time, initiative and energy, forget it.

This is sad, because much of the joy is in the journey, not just the destination. Having a dream, formulating plans and goals for realizing it, then investing whatever it takes to achieve it – that’s where you can find the joy.

Whether it’s the virtuoso musician, accomplished innovator, gifted speaker, acclaimed surgeon, or master craftsman, none of them achieved success overnight in their fields of endeavor. It took many years of study, practice, honing of skills, trial and error, risk taking and sacrifice making.

Maybe that’s why some young celebrities find notoriety quickly eclipsing their fame. Thrust into the spotlight too early, still green as performers, they don’t appreciate what it takes not only to attain success – but also to sustain it over the long term.

My favorite book, the Bible, speaks a lot about hard work and personal enterprise. The book of Proverbs itself serves as an excellent primer on the topic.

For example, “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Proverbs 13:4). It also warns against all talk and no action: “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23).

Another passage paints a vivid picture: “I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 24:30-34).

We’re living in an age of “entitlement,” when some segments of society view the poor and disadvantaged with pity, convinced their problems can be solved with handouts. What they really need, however, is a hand up – being offered the education, training and practical skills necessary for succeeding in the workplace.

At the same time, we need to re-embrace the virtues of hard work, the belief that determination, commitment and initiative will reap rewards as we persevere toward hopes and aspirations. It may take years, but if willing to work hard, anyone is entitled to become an “overnight success.