The Value of a Good Work Ethic

My vacation account on my pay stub shows full. I should take some time off. If I wasn’t so busy I would! Sound familiar?

It is likely most employees have a positive vacation balance. The reasons for not using vacation are many. It is a given fact that we all need to step away from work, vacate the job with all its stresses, and relax for a period. It’s just that in our working years we drive ourselves for whatever reason: to make money, to fill an inner need to succeed at a profession, or just because we know we must. How we look at time away can tell us about how we see our labor in relation to a deeper relation with God.

The Bible tells us a lot about work. Six days you shall labor, God said at the beginning. Man is hard-wired to work. But God also gave man the Sabbath day to remind us each week we need to rest. Beyond the theological reasons for the Sabbath command there is the practical fact that rest should serve to renew us, therefore making us more productive when we do work.

Ask yourself whether you work to take vacation time, or do you take a break to be more productive at your work? The answer can point us to a deeper spiritual truth. In the context of faith and duty, Jesus spoke a parable about the importance of valuing the work we do:

“And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:7-11).

As workers we are to work to be profitable. Doing only what is required, normally the bare minimum to keep a job, is not enough—at least in God’s eyes. My father ran a small business. He taught me that any person who worked for him had to bring in more money than his wage. Otherwise, it was not profitable to keep him on the payroll. He would offer his employees commissions on sales of goods as an incentive to go above and beyond. But the employee had to have a legitimate need to make that sale.

Back to vacations. I have known some employees who work to take a vacation and come back the same. Then when vacation time has built up, they take those few days off. It may be owed to them, but their productivity did not increase. Time spent away from work should help us be renewed to return a more engaged, more productive worker. We can then be prepared for greater service. How we approach work tells us something about how we approach our spiritual “work” before God. God wants a profitable servant. Are you that kind of servant?

Hear more about the importance of a solid work ethic in this BT Daily: “Work Ethic.”

Until next time,