Audio Transcript

We fight against the love of money here. We talk about inordinate shopping, how to live out wartime simplicity and financial contentment, and how to enjoy the gifts God gives us. This question is back in that stream of thought because in the first half of October we’re reading Ecclesiastes together in the Navigators Bible Reading Plan, and that leads us to a question about work and the fruit of our work over texts in our current reading. Here’s today’s question from a listener named Brian.

“Hello, Pastor John! I hope you’re doing well! I’ve been reflecting on a few verses in Ecclesiastes lately, particularly Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:13, 3:22, and 5:19” — which we read from October 3rd to the 7th, which will be tomorrow. “Those texts repeatedly speak about enjoying the fruit of our labor as a gift from God to be enjoyed. But I struggle a bit to know exactly what that looks like in real life.

“The idea that ‘There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil’ (Ecclesiastes 2:24) and that it is God’s gift ‘that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil’ (Ecclesiastes 3:13) is something I want to understand and live out better. As a businessman, I want to honor God with fair dealings, honesty, and trustworthiness, and I think I get that part, even if I don’t live up to it flawlessly. But I’m unsure how to process my work when it’s finished — in the evenings and weekends. What does it look like to reflect on work done well and to find joy in it as a gift from God, as our readings encourage us to do?”

Cautions in Ecclesiastes

Let me start with two cautions that we should take when reading Ecclesiastes, and then I’ll go straight to answer that last question. Reading Ecclesiastes requires a careful distinction between, on the one hand, the author’s description of the futility of life without reference to God — often called “life under the sun” — and, on the other hand, his description of life with reference to God that snatches, so to speak, from the futility of this world a purposeful way of living that honors God and is generous toward others and brings some measure of happiness in this world that is rooted in God and not just in earthly pleasures.

The second caution is that Ecclesiastes is part of the Old Testament, during which God did not foreground the Great Commission the way he does in the New Testament, when the church exists to make disciples of all the peoples of the world.

This is significant. This has huge implications. The Old Testament was, in general, a “come see” religion, not a “go tell” religion (which, Christianity most definitely is a “go tell” religion), meaning that the wealth and prosperity and health and civic well-being of Israel in the Old Testament was by and large a testimony to the nations of God’s kindness to Israel, which the nations could come and see and be a part of, if they believed, but which missionaries did not take to the surrounding peoples in the Old Testament.

Unlike Old Testament Israel, Christianity has no geographic center, no material temple, no national identity, no military, no earthly ruler. We are an exiled people, scattered among the nations. We’re not building a home on this earth but are sojourners living simply, maximizing our impact for the sake of the peoples who have no gospel witness. We are a “go tell” religion, and we do what we do to maximize the finishing of that “go tell” purpose.

And I mention this because it means that we will not simply draw a straight line from an Old Testament conception of the good life to the Christian conception of the good life. They’re not always the same.

Work as a Blessing

So, with those cautions in place, let me affirm Ecclesiastes 2:24–26. It says we “should eat and drink and find enjoyment in [our] 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 has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.” And I affirm Ecclesiastes 3:12–13: We should “be joyful and do good as long as [we] live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil — this is God’s gift to man.” One more, Ecclesiastes 5:19: that if “God has given [us] wealth and possessions and power,” we should use it to enjoy him. We should “accept [our] lot and rejoice in [our] toil — this is the gift of God.”

Now, the common denominator in each of those texts is that the work of our hands or mind is a gift of God, and that we should rejoice in it, be thankful for it. And one of those texts, Ecclesiastes 3:12, makes explicit that the overflow of this joy should be doing good to others. In other words, the toil of our hands is directed not only to our own prosperity but to the good of others.

Now, here’s the New Testament version of that exhortation and celebration of God’s goodness.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

You can see the shift in emphasis from Ecclesiastes. Paul focuses our attention on eternity, not merely this earth. He warns about the dangers of pride in riches. He pleads for trust in God, not money. He gives a fourfold emphasis: Do good, do good, do good. You can’t think of enough ways: “Do good,” “be rich in good works,” “be generous,” and be “ready to share.” That’s amazing. You can’t miss the message.

“Be ever praying to God and open to others for how your work could be more beneficial to others and a glory to God.”

This is the “go tell” (or “show tell”) to the nations. Go to the nations. This is New Testament Christianity, maximizing our lives and our resources, especially for the sake of good, especially eternal good — taking hold of life, which is life indeed. And then, he solidly lines up with Ecclesiastes by saying God has given us what we have for our enjoyment. You don’t have to be ashamed of being a successful businessman or having food on your table.

Reflecting on Good Work

So, with that backdrop, let me mention a few things that try to get at an answer to Brian’s essential question. Namely, what does it look like, having done a good day or a good decade’s work, to step back and think about it?

Three Reminders

Here’s number one. When you reflect on your work, give thanks that every breath you took, all the intelligence you applied, all the strength you exerted, was a gift of God (the Bible says it in Ecclesiastes and numerous places in the New Testament), so that your working becomes an occasion of happy, thankful worship as you think about it.

Number two, when you reflect upon your work, realize not only that the causes of its excellence are from God, but the fruit of it, in the future for good, will depend upon God’s decisive grace. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord” (Proverbs 21:31). “God [has made] all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). So, be amazed at God’s grace in your work, both its causes and its fruit.

Number three, no matter how prosperous or how excellent your work is, always admit that there may be blind spots of how you could do better. Be ever praying to God and open to others for how your work could be even more beneficial to others and a glory to God.

Five Questions

Number four, answer the question honestly: Has my work become my god, or is God himself the one that I love above all, so that, if my work were taken away from me, I would still treasure Christ above all as totally sufficient in my life (Philippians 3:8)?

Number five, is my heart and my mind set on doing as much good for others as I can possibly do — especially eternal good but also this-worldly good?

Number six, does my work fit into the totality of my family and community and worship life in a way that contributes to the overall impact of my life as a pointer to the greatness of Christ?

Number seven, is my lifestyle shaped by Christ or shaped by the worldly expectations of someone in my position?

And finally, number eight, do I recognize my finitude and fallibility and sinfulness, and trust in the gospel for the forgiveness of my personal and business shortcomings (Romans 3:23–24), so that I can indeed delight in my work without becoming presumptuous?