When we work hard at the tasks He has by His providence given us to do, we glorify Him: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23–24). That’s why we feel satisfying exhaustion and invigorating hunger at the end of a full day’s work (Eccl. 5:12). When we fail to work hard, we harm ourselves as well as others.

Here’s a quick word association test: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word work? Go ahead and think about it. Regardless of your answer, I’m guessing that few of us would respond with the word good. We don’t tend to think of work as good, but rather as difficult, frustrating, and exhausting. Perhaps that has more to do with our experience in this fallen age than it does with God’s design. The Bible helps us to change our perspective in several ways.

The goodness of work is enshrined in the pattern of creation. God worked on the first six days, creating the heavens and the earth and all its fullness (Gen. 1:1). He did that by speaking, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3); by blessing, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28); by forming (Gen. 2:7, 19); and by bringing together (Gen. 2:19, 22). Because God is good in His essence, we know that all God does is good. With creation we have an explicit superlative, telling us exactly what God thought about the work of His hands: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31, emphasis added). Both the act of creating and the finished creation itself were pleasing to God.

There are several important principles that follow. First, if God was conducting good work before the fall, then work itself is not a product of man’s fall into sin. Neither is work the curse itself. Adam was supposed to rule the earth and subdue it, but when he failed in his mission, something new was added to both Adam and Eve’s labor as a result. Pain was introduced.

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