This past Monday, January 20th, 2025, was certainly a momentous day in the history of our nation. With the new year, we now have a new presidential administration officially in command and with that peaceful transfer of power complete, there is much enthusiasm and energy to, as they say, “get to work!” And as the new leaders take office, there is already conflict regarding the work requirements for federal employees over whether they can continue working from home or not. Moreover, there is also now a backlash effect over the failed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies that many believe have led to wholesale failures in our government agency mission accomplishment.

All of this got me thinking about the Bible’s wisdom regarding work. What does Scripture have to say about why we work, about who we work for and why that matters, or about accountability as people are called to work.

The wisdom of the world leads to dead ends in answering these fundamental questions. Some argue that work is a means-to-an-end only, and is thus singularly important merely to help someone achieve personal goals. The logic here can lead to so-called “life hacks,” work-arounds, nefarious endeavors, or out-of-balance pay for services rendered. Tik Tok influencers come to mind as do twenty-somethings failing to launch or disloyal job-hoppers.

Another worldly wisdom “hot take” on work is that it is the sole source for a person’s meaning and identity in this life. Here people chase fame and fortune without counting the collateral costs in life. Ambition and high achievement can often result in failed marriages, rebellious children, or stress-related illnesses.

A third worldly culture idea comes in the form of over valuing human wisdom. The idea is that progressive thinking—new ideas—can solve for a work and play balance that promises earthly utopia. A professional definition of work-life balance from the folks who are trained in matters of Human Resources (HR) is this:

“Work-life balance refers to the level of prioritization between personal and professional activities in an individual’s life and the level to which activities related to their job are present in the home.”

This somewhat tortured definition seems awfully “me-centered.” Selfish measuring of a person’s work-life balance has emerged over the last few decades in response to the idea that many people are simply miserable, so perhaps it must be because we either work too hard of their own accord, or their employer is making them work too hard.

The logic argues that people do not have enough balance of things other than work to keep them from being miserable. Therefore, solving one’s work-life balance becomes a holy grail of temporal happiness because finding a “right” work-life balance is touted as the path to a stress-free life. The goal for the wise 21^st-century person is to strive for that balance, and once one finds it, wham! you have your utopia!

Of course, no one can define with any sense of credibility or authority the “right” work-life balance, which means each individual person then gets to define, or even demand, the “right” work-life balance for themselves. It is then no surprise that conflict erupts between employer and employee as they are now forced to negotiate on this utterly subjective point.

Sadly, like so many ideas that rise from within the culture and apart from biblical wisdom, striving for the right work-life balance is a fool’s errand. The search will never yield the results promised. A “right” work-life balance cannot save a loveless marriage, nor rescue catastrophic communication breakdowns between poorly prioritizing parents and their rebellious kids.

Well, any good pastor’s blog is going to point you to the Bible for answers regarding this important topic of human work, and indeed, the Bible does give timeless wisdom on work throughout its pages regarding work. I want to emphasize three texts to show you this: Colossians 3:23; Ephesians 6:5-8; and Hebrews 4:12-13. These verses are going to give us the mission of work; the Master over our work; and the mechanism for constant accountability in our work.

Let’s look at our mission: Colossians 3:23 says,“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” As created beings made in the image of God, we are supposed to do work as we live our lives in obedience to our sovereign Lord. God designed purpose and capacity to work into us. God is a working being. God made us. We are made to work….imago dei!

So if we are made to work, what should our view of authority be in pursuing that work? Ephesians 6:5-8 says: “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as tothe Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”

This passage tells us that God Himself is our boss, and as our boss, He will sovereignly and providentially set us in a work situation designed for us if we are His and we are sincerely following Him in this life. 

God is always challenging the motivations of our hearts. Great behavior emanating from less than honorable motives will not produce the good result a person may want, nor will it in any way please God. However, a rightly-oriented heart….one that is humbly choosing to act from a serious motivation of love for God…..will bear both temporal and eternal fruit. 

A sincere for-the-love-of-God motivation means recognizing that God did indeed design us to work and to work for Him! Moreover, working for him means we are not putting conditions on the work he providentially provides, whether in quality, quantity, or level of effort. 

We are to do the task at hand to the very best of our gifting and ability, which means sometimes we must work overtime, or work harder than anyone else around us, or labor thanklessly, or even fruitlessly for a time.

If we are living by faith, we trust that we are where we are supposed to be, and we give it our all. Then we trust the results to God! If we are loving the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might, as Deuteronomy 6:5 commands, we can work in an unfettered way and trust the Sovereign of the universe to arrange for the “right” work-life balance.

Finally, how are we accountable to our boss, the eternal Triune God? Hebrews 4:12-13 gives us a very sobering reminder that God is always present as we go about our work! ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

God is always there knowing our every thought and observing our every action. I don’t know about you, but this is both an incredibly comforting thought, while also terrifying at the same time. If we fully realize that we never “get away” with anything, we should be very motivated to never even try.

In my own work-life of now forty-five years, I have seen God move me through seasons wherein there have been times of maximum intensity and arguably, unforgivably bad work-life balances, interspersed with times of less job demand, but far more family needs to attend to.

And I must confess that even as God was graciously leading me, I succumbed to varying levels of anxiety throughout. But as He has grown me in Christian maturity, I have become more comfortable trusting God. I have become much better at not trying to make a situation something other than what He desired for me.

In so doing, I have more clearly seen His goodness and trustworthiness regarding the mission, the master, and the accountability mechanism of work. God loves healthy marriages, and He loves parenting that honors Him. So, He will make a way for your work-life balance if you totally trust Him first and foremost, and “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”