“Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:4-6 ESV
Ouch.
Well, this isn’t very flattering, is it? To say that all of man’s labor is due to envy is one of those bold proclamations the Bible makes that fly under the radar. Atheists attack the Bible all the time but, interestingly, they lay low on statements like this. It’s easier to virtue-signal and go after, for example, alleged contradictions, or the war on Canaan. This? Nah. Pass.
But the logic of it is edifying and essential for us to consider.
Here’s the gist of it: man’s central problem isn’t economic even though the political left/Marxists far and wide caterwaul incessantly about it. If wealth made men holy, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg would be saints.
Nor is man’s central problem education. We live in a country with unprecedented levels of material wealth and access to information. None of that has fixed the great and deep problems we face.
Much to the chagrin of humanists, the foundational issue is Genesis 3:5; we don’t trust the word of the Lord. In other words, we’re unfaithful to Him. Sin is often confused with something we do rather than something we are. Sin expresses itself in action, of course, but the root is our faithlessness. The attempt to live in a world created by God in any other way than by His word/law must and always does result in calamity. Sin produces the fruits of conflict and death (Proverbs 8:36).
It’s for this reason that both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes focus so much on our labor. A God-saturated life will show itself in how we approach work.
As image-bearers of God, despite our lack of faithfulness, we still exist in His world and as His creation. Adam was created, as we are, for faithfulness and productivity. God is the original producer by virtue of His creative act (Genesis 1:1). But Adam’s sin threw the natural created order to the wind. Not only was death introduced to mankind, but the endeavors of man were also caught up in the judgment of God against sin. A fair amount of spiritual tumult results from us overlooking the plain and obvious teaching of Scripture about work. To wit:
“Then to Adam the Lord God said, “Because you have listened [attentively] to the voice of your wife, and have eaten [fruit] from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’; The ground is [now] under a curse because of you; In sorrow and toil you shall eat [the fruit] of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face You will eat bread Until you return to the ground, For from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19 AMP
God had given Adam and Eve labor in the Garden. They weren’t sitting around playing harps.
But the work wasn’t in any way hindered by the mistakes, limits, frustrations, and myriad of evils we now experience. All of these are the result of Adam grasping for the fruit from the forbidden tree despite the fact that he (Adam) could have eaten freely from every other tree in the Garden. In this way we see that lack of thankfulness and self-righteousness join hands. Work isn’t a curse, it’s a blessing. But the desire for what isn’t ours – the want of something for nothing, or the demand for what our neighbor has been given – is the doorway to a putrid hall of sin.
True naturalism is dependence upon our Creator God and labor according to His word/law. Unnaturalism, or sin, if you will, is the perversity of our attempt to provide for ourselves either on our own terms (materialism) or by “opting out” (laziness). Thorns and thistles are the symbolic representation of man’s trouble with toil. Labor is hard in this cursed world and sinners, rather than repent, try and figure out new schemes to solve the old problem. Worry about work and envy of our neighbor are direct consequences of us not trusting God with our lives. Materialism must be envious just as faithfulness must produce contentment. A handful of quietness is in trusting the goodness and sovereignty of the Lord. Fretful toil and conflict are there when we scheme against neighbor because we don’t content ourselves with the work the Lord has given.
Simply put, no one has it all under the sun. A manic work-ethic that sacrifices balance in life and laziness are flip sides of the same unfaithful coin.
Thus, repentance is the only path forward and it was for this reason that Jesus wore a crown of thorns on the cross. All of the curse was reversed in Christ. That means that our labor, no matter how much we’re rewarded materially by it, so long as it’s fruitful and faith-inspired, is redeemed. The battle for control – that crazed attempt to wrest power from God, to seize it for ourselves, to have absolute guarantees outside of God – is finished only when we lower our flag and raise that glorious flag of Jesus Christ. Over our life. Over our labor. Over our everything.
So, now our labor is intended to be, in Christ, God-centered…it’s meant to be production that glorifies Him. In the fallen world still under God’s curse upon sin, there are nevertheless great challenges at work. We all experience this. We all encounter limitations, frustrations, and even unfairness. We still live in the age of already, but not yet. But the reality of practical atheism is seen clearly in our approach to labor. Do we truly trust God? Do we submit all the work of our hands to Him or do we grumble and complain, never content?
When I was a young man building a small business, I worked at other companies to make ends meet. Throughout my 20’s I often worked a full-time job and even another part-time one because my business was losing money (as most do at first). I didn’t come from a family of wealth, so I had no savings or investment capital to throw around. Mostly, I lived paycheck to paycheck and met my bills with credit card debt when there was a shortfall.
Obviously, there was a fair degree of frustration in all that.
I regret to confess that such a challenge proved that I was little more than a practical atheist.
When life punched me in the nose, I discovered what an incredible sense of entitlement I had. In my mind I was a Mike Tyson of the faith with blazing fast hands and pulverizing power, a superstar on God’s team. In reality, once I got in the ring, I was a sniveling little fella with no chin and no punch.
I saw my desire, my sincerity of effort, my dedication to the craft, as a warrant for success. I confused sincerity and effort with productivity. Like so many, I was special and important in my own eyes and failed to soberly assess myself. Because of this theological error and lack of faithfulness I grumbled and complained against my employers. I worked hard, yes, but this work was often done with arrogance. Much of my conversation was filled with how irrational my employers were over such issues as scheduling and pay. Without ever having built a profitable business, nor having created wealth, I deemed myself an expert on how others who had done so should handle their property.
In short, I was shot-through with envy. And envy means we’re never thankful and get both ourselves and worth seriously blown out of proportion.
I was a practical atheist insofar as I concluded that all things revolved around me. I was convinced of my sincerity of labor. I wanted the best for me and anything that caused me to face limitations or frustrations brought forth the putrid fruit of my self-worship.
Fortunately, the Lord is gracious and forgiving! Fortunately, the Lord is patient! Oh, how covetous and arrogant I could be…oh, how much complaining I did! Thanks be to God that He is so very kind.
Of course, on the other hand, as countless business owners have discovered throughout history, success often brings with it strife and the envy of those who want a piece of their success. The trick in it all is to find that quietness and that peace in the Lord. To do this we must remain theologically disciplined and remind ourselves of His sovereign control of all things, His absolute goodness and wisdom, His love for us in Christ, and the gratitude of our salvation. May all the world be frowns if only Christ smiles upon us!
The foundation of our lives can’t be Christ if we don’t have a Christ-dominated work-ethic – that is, seeing all things as from Him, and through Him, and to Him (Romans 11:36). Striving for excellence in our craft in order to glorify Him is the key because the alternative is to fix our eye upon some other marker like income or title/position, which disquiets us and is sure to cause conflict with others. An old shipyard in Virginia had their mission statement written on a wall. It read:
“We will build good ships. At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but we will build good ships.”
Let us be likeminded in our pursuits and build our ships in faith, content with what He puts in our hands.
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