Martin Luther deserves credit for dignifying the work of common laborers. He taught that the farmer shoveling manure and the maid milking her cow please God as much as the minister preaching or praying. Workers are the “masks of God,” he often said. “God gives every good thing, but not just by waving a hand.”

As we pass Labor Day and settle into the fall, I want to label a few of the most influential ideas about work in Western thought and invite you, my reader, to see which thoughts might be informing you and supplanting more biblical ideas about work. Without further ado

Most Greeks thought work was a curse. They especially despised manual labor. Leaders tried to foist it on servants or slaves, so they would have time for philosophy and friendship. To this day, many follow the Greeks in thinking of work as an evil to avoid, if possible.

Ancient and medieval Christians merged Greek and biblical ideas about work. They knew that farmers and artisans “contribute to the common good.”[1] Like Greeks, however, they believed that contemplation is the highest human activity. So they respected farming, trade, and raising a family, but they exalted priests and monks because they could devote themselves to “the contemplation of divine truth [which] is the goal… of human life.”[2] This led to the distinction between sacred and secular work. The notion that spiritual work is superior has led millions of Christians to diminish the value of their work. It can also keep us from praying “Your kingdom come” and striving for that in our work.

Renaissance thinkers, by contrast, praised the active life. Not only could humans be like God, by working creatively, they could mold and make themselves, either by descending to a brute-like life or by soaring to the divine.[3] At best, mankind worked both for God and as God, through creativity. Existentialists still believe that humans have no fixed nature and can therefore mold or create themselves. Technology enthusiasts dare to dream that genetic engineering can fashion ageless bodies or that our minds may one day be transferred into refined, body-like machines.

Martin Luther deserves credit for dignifying the work of common laborers. He taught that the farmer shoveling manure and the maid milking her cow please God as much as the minister preaching or praying. Workers are the “masks of God,” he often said. “God gives every good thing, but not just by waving a hand.”[4] Instead, God feeds and clothes the world through our labor. He answers our prayers for “our daily bread” through farmers, millers, and bakers. Luther thought God places every believer in a station. Whatever one’s station may be, faith transforms it into a vocation. All work pleases God equally.[5] It is a great consolation to hear this, but there is a problem. If all work is a God-given call, how can anyone seek a new position? If all work is a divine appointment, how can anyone reform brutal working conditions?

Luther chided Christians who chafe against boredom and sigh for someone else’s work. Luther urged believers to change their attitudes, not their work. “Cast aside… the boredom” and you will “realize that you neither needed nor wished a change.”[6] So Luther stressed the need to work faithfully where we are. Luther could appeal to Paul, who said “Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you…” But Luther forgot Paul’s next line: “If you can gain your freedom, do so” (7:20-21, NIV).

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