“If we are going to spend this much time at work, shouldn’t we have a reason for doing so beyond the accumulation of money? In addition, don’t we need to understand why we need to work hard at work instead of frittering away our time?”

In 1928, English economist John Maynard Keynes delivered a lecture titled “The Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” in which he argued that by 2028 would we be so prosperous that most people would only have to work fifteen hours a week. As he looked at the coming century, his concern was what people would do with all of their free time.

Many of us read Keynes’ thesis and let out a hardy laugh, but he was half right. Both the gross domestic product and per capita gross domestic product grew at the rate Keynes envisioned, but he scored a colossal miss on his forecast for our future work hours.

Many of us spend more time working and commuting to work than we do on any activity. We work more than we sleep and more than we spend time with friends and family.

If we are going to spend this much time at work, shouldn’t we have a reason for doing so beyond the accumulation of money? In addition, don’t we need to understand why we need to work hard at work instead of frittering away our time?

Here are four reasons we should work hard at the work God has given us to do.

We Work Hard Because God Created Work

Sometimes work feels like an imposition into our world. Why should I have to go work for someone else so I can provide for my family? Then, we I get home, why are there endless piles of laundry? Why does the grass need to be mowed again even though I just did it last week?

The writer of Genesis tells us that God created all mankind, both men and women, in his image and after his likeness (Genesis 1:26-27.) Then, he placed them in the Garden and commanded them to fill the earth with people and to cultivate the earth as the bearers of the Creator’s image (Genesis 2:15.) God invented work. He has been at work for all eternity and calls us to work as well.

Work takes on a different meaning when we recognize that God made work. It is not a meaningless punishment, but a divine gift. We image God through our hard work and bring glory to him when we put our hand to the work that he gave us to do in his providence.

Paul Helm captured our tendency to not see work as a spiritual exercise when he said in his book The Callings that, “We have become accustomed to thinking of ourselves as having a ‘spiritual life’ which is sharply distinct from the every-day life in the family, and from work and leisure. A “spiritual life” is a life of prayer and watchfulness, of Bible-reading and church-going. As a result of this distortion, instead of the Christian life being thought of as an integrated whole, it is artificially broken up into compartments which have little or nothing to do with one another….It is as if Christian responsibility ceases at the church porch, as if the Christian gospel has nothing to do with the pavement outside and the roads and motorways beyond.”

We Work Hard Because There is Value in Hard Work

Few biblical writers had more to say about the value of hard work than Solomon in the book of Proverbs. In this collection of wisdom for his son, Solomon shows the value and beauty of hard work and the folly of not working hard.

In Proverbs 22:29, he told his son, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” In Proverbs 14:29, he said, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”

In these two sayings, Solomon helps us to see that good things come to us because of our hard work. We gain from an honest day’s work, not just a wage, but also honor. The person who approaches their work like a craftsman, developing skill in what he does, gains honor from great men and contributes to the good of the people around him.

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