Biblical View of Work and Labor

In this part of the sermon: Martin opens by reading Psalm 1 and Romans 12:1-2, setting the stage for a sermon on the biblical view of work and labor, prompted by Labor Day weekend. He highlights the…

Martin shares his personal ignorance of Labor Day's origins until research, highlighting that many celebrate holidays without understanding their historical context, which is crucial for a biblical perspective.

Well, don't feel so bad if you don't know, because I didn't know until I did some research in preparation for today's message. I was fascinated by the thought, I've been celebrating this thing for six decades, and I don't have a clue how it got started. Well, it doesn't have the most glamorous origins. If you were to look up the smallest article in your Encarta encyclopedia with your Microsoft software, you'd find out that this holiday, a legal holiday, celebrated on the first Monday in September, in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, and the Virgin Islands, it is supposedly in ho...

4:17 - 5:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin opens by reading Psalm 1 and Romans 12:1-2, setting the stage for a sermon on the biblical view of work and labor, prompted by Labor Day weekend. He highlights the…

He uses the image of a knight as a warrior to explain the militant nature and socialistic philosophy of the Knights of Labor, the group that initiated Labor Day, contrasting their views with biblical principles.

Whatever that class is, the rest of you, I don't know what you are if you're not part of the working class. And it was initiated in 1882 by a group called the Knights of Labor, N-I-G-H-T, but K-N-I-G-H-T-S. Knights of Labor. Now, when you think of a knight, kids, what do you think about?

5:01 - 5:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15, demonstrating that work was a pre-fall mandate from God, involving fruitfulness, subduing the earth, exercising dominion, and…

Martin uses the example of his oak tree's abundant acorns and polynoses to illustrate the 'exuberant disorder' or 'prodigality of productivity' of God's creation, even in a cursed world, implying the need for Adam's labor to manage it.

And I never cease to be amazed at this even in a cursed world. When I see all of the little polynoses that fall down from our oak tree and all of the tens tens of not tens of yeah probably if not tens of thousands thousands upon thousands of acorns that fall from our one tree it's losing business to try to keep a neat lawn under that oak tree. I mean the squirrels are burying stuff all summer digging stuff up all the next winter and into the next fall. It's amazing.

21:36 - 22:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15, demonstrating that work was a pre-fall mandate from God, involving fruitfulness, subduing the earth, exercising dominion, and…

He imagines Adam and Eve arranging flowers, with Eve bringing her 'unique aesthetic sensitivities' to Adam's task, illustrating the complementary nature of their labor and Eve's role as a helper.

To work it and to take care of it. The flowers would not be self-arranging. I like to think of Eve over his shoulder help answering to his need. And Adam scratching his head and saying I just don't think that those quite and she said honey the way they fit is oh that's right the woman's touch.

22:47 - 23:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Work and labor in the original creation. And one thing, to be clear to us from this cursory examination of these passages, that Adam and Eve were not only made that they might, in the place of God's appointment, look up …

Martin uses Jesus' response to questions about divorce ('from the beginning it was not so') to argue that understanding work requires going back to God's original intention in creation, not just its present fallen state.

I'm going to labor. I'm going to labor. I'm going to labor. He said, from the beginning, it was not so. They were saying, look, if marriage is such a wonderful institution, what about divorce? And what about infidelity? And what about the disruption of relationships? Jesus took them where? Back to creation. He said, have you never read, in the beginning? Go back to Genesis. See what God intended the institution to be. We need to do the same thing with the subject of work and of labor.

28:11 - 28:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Adopt a biblical work ethic, not merely a 'Protestant work ethic,' to stand out in a generation that largely views labor as a necessary evil.

Martin recounts a personal story from 1954 when he cleaned urinals and sifted cigarette butts 'as unto the Lord,' singing hymns and finding joy, which provided an opportunity to witness to others about his faith and the dignity of all labor done for Christ.

You'll be light and salt in this crooked and perverse generation. I don't often share personal incidents. When I do, a number of you usually say, please do that more. But I shall never forget in the summer of 1954 when Dad moved the family from Stanford, Connecticut to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

59:01 - 59:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not buy into the notion that unless something is 'fun,' it is 'dirty'; embrace the reality that life involves sweat and unyielding elements in a cursed world.

When asked why he was happy doing mundane work, Martin says it was 'like saying, Sick him to a bulldog,' implying his eagerness to share his faith and the reason for his joy in labor.

It was the most mundane form of labor. But I used to go around singing hymns, and I used to sift out the cigarette butts as unto the Lord, and seek to get out those butts as thoroughly as though the Lord Jesus were going to expect the sand can when I was done, and clean the urinals that if the Son of God came in to use one, it would be that He would not be offended. Often, singing a hymn to myself, humming a hymn, I'd have people say, What in the world are you so happy for doing this kind of work? Well, that's like saying, Sick him to a bulldog.

60:13 - 60:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that learning requires bending your brain and hard work, not just 'fun,' to become educated and count for something.

He uses the examples of learning grammar (subjunctive vs. past tense) and multiplication tables (7x7=49) to illustrate that not all learning can be 'fun,' and hard mental labor is necessary for education, challenging the modern emphasis on making everything entertaining.

And I plead with you children to thank God for parents who seek to inculcate in you a biblical perspective about the nobility of work and of labor. And as you think of going back to school, sure your teachers want to make the subject as interesting as possible. They want to get you enthusiastic about the subject but at the end of the day you've got to learn the difference between a subjunctive and a past tense. It's not if I was a rich man even Octavian knew better.

63:21 - 63:58 Read in full sermon