DISCIPLESHIP AND WORK ETHIC
Charles Murray, in his book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (reviewed in Newsweek magazine January 23, 2012), calls the work ethic of the struggling class “jerk ethic.” What he means is that a person will work when forced to, draw unemployment compensation for the time allowed, become a couch potato watching TV or surfing the net, and start looking for work a week or two before unemployment payments come to an end. He is buying leisure, not contributing to a retirement account or saving for a down-payment on a house.
“Jerk ethic” labels people as being lazy, but talk with someone and you will hear something like this: “If I find temporary work, I will be making less than my unemployment compensation, I’ll have the expense of driving to and from work, and I will no longer be eligible for unemployment compensation. I can’t supplement unemployment insurance with other work. I do expect to eventually be called back to my job.”
The problem is that people cease to be productive. They, by informal conversation and by example, are also teaching their children to get by with the minimum. If it’s true that temporary employment is not economically prudent, the unemployed could dedicate some hours of what would be their normal work day to work for free, that is, volunteer time and services to those in need or to non-profit organizations. Paul wrote in Titus 3:14, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.” This develops character, teaches children how to be generous, provides opportunities to develop friends and contacts, and trains a person for a promotion or a better job. If I were interviewing a job applicant, and picked up on this, I’d be impressed!
The struggling class has learned the rules of the game. They are not stupid. They have a good mind and use it to their advantage. If they can afford it, they will get a car. If not, they will learn bus routes, schedules, and transfer points. A single mother soon learns how to access government programs to supplement rent, child care, food, and medical insurance. If she gets married and her husband has a job, she loses much of this aid. Nonetheless, the primary question is, “What pleases God?,” not, “What is economically advantageous?” We need to learn that the obedience of faith is rewarded later, after it has been tested.
In spite of the welfare system, work continues to be the dignified and respectable way of making a living. People who can’t find work or don’t have a job, especially for men, find themselves with a lack of purpose.
Atesha has a job. Her boyfriend is out of work because of illness. She is pregnant. Will she get an abortion? Probably not. She has announced her pregnancy and is quite proud of the fact. She is looking forward to motherhood. It will not be too long before she gives birth and will have to take unpaid leave to recover. She could be back on the job within a month with childcare provided by the in-laws. If that relationship sours, she could very well enter the welfare system.
In the meantime, she is working, but she is not excelling on the job. Jodi is quite frustrated with her lapses and seeming inability to learn from correction. She goes through the routine of doing what is expected of her, but that little extra that results from taking an interest in the plight of sick patients is missing. “It’s about me and my plight.” She’s feeling sorry for herself and not for others. She could excel, but as it is, she is a borderline employee. She will not get fired, but based on peer reviews she won’t get a raise. Since she begins to feel unappreciated, she is likely to quit and look for a job elsewhere.
Men do not enter the welfare system like women. They father children and are required to make child-support payments to the mother, even if they do not already do so out of love for their children. They may enter the system because of a work-related injury or other disability. Back pain and torn-muscle injury are two common ailments. It seems that a lack of joy and fulfillment in work leads to a propensity to injury. No ethically responsible doctor will tell a patient that his pain is all in his head. He will order a whole battery of tests (x-ray, CT-scan, etc.) and if the problem is still undiagnosed, he could very well prescribe opiates for pain. As a result, the man is in danger of becoming an addict.
Work is part of the way that we express our Christian faith. Paul writes about the putting off of an old way of life and putting on a new way that is characteristic of following Christ. He writes, “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28). Paul tells the new church in Thessalonica to “keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive” (2 Thessalonians 3:6). He uses himself as an example for the believers, “We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. . . . For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat’” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-10).
In Paul’s day, those who couldn’t be employed, like widows, were supposed to be supported by their children and grandchildren (1 Timothy 5:4). Work was so important that to prevent younger widows from being idle, and going about from house to house being busy bodies, Paul wrote that they should be encouraged them to marry, have children and manage their homes (1 Timothy 5:13-14). Older widows who had no family to care for them were to be put on the “list of widows,” if they had been faithful to their husbands, and were well-known for their good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, serving the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble, and devoting themselves to all kinds of good deeds (1 Timothy 5:9-10). Another calling of these widows, along with older women, was the general call to teach younger women “to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God” (Titus 2:4-5). Even those who receive charity have a calling to be useful and to serve others.
Young men can have real difficulty working if they have not experienced the example and training of a loving father. It’s hard to work through negative thoughts if the work is both a drudgery and low paying. How does a young man get up early and persist day after day doing tiring labor at a task that is non-challenging? Can the young person do well at a starter job, well enough to earn a recommendation when applying for a job that is more challenging and pays better? It’s difficult, but not impossible, if one does it for the sake of Christ.
Another area where young men can have difficulty is learning submission. Without a father, they easily could have gotten by with continued disobedience. An overworked, tired mother long ago gave up following through with her threats of punishment when her children did not heed her instructions. Dad was not there to back her up as a unified voice of authority in the home. The boy is blessed if he learns submission at school in the classroom setting or by engaging in a sports program. If the boy does not learn how to cooperate and follow instructions at home or school, he will be tempted to join a gang where he will be forced to submit to some leader on the street.
Understanding authority, using it wisely and submitting to it is clearly taught as part of the new life in Christ. Paul begins Chapter 5 of Ephesians urging his readers to “Follow God’s example . . . as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (5:1,2). We are not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 4:18). Therefore, disciples of Christ, enjoying the filling of the Holy Spirit and reflecting Christ’s love in all of their relationships, are being urged to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21). Based on this principle Paul instructs wives to submit to their husbands, and for husbands to give up themselves in love to their wives, which is also a type of submission to wives. (Ephesians 5:22-28). Developing this same theme, Paul addresses children and parents, especially fathers, and slaves (employees) and their masters (employers). He writes,
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him” (Ephesians 6:5-9).
Paul also writes, “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Romans 13:1-2).
Paul is saying that if we are believers, we are submissive to Christ. He is our Teacher, Lord and Master. He saved us for this very purpose, to learn from and follow our Teacher and Lord. God our Father provides for us and cares for us in both life and death. At the same time, as a loving father, he expects and demands respect and obedience. In our service to him, he disciplines us to conform us to the likeness of his Son, for our good and for his glory (Hebrews 12:4-11). It is he who sent his Son to be with us, to be submissive even to the point of death, to pay for our guilt on the cross, and earn for us eternal life though the resurrection. With such sacrificial and loving care, God puts us in relation to his Son who is both our example and Lord.
Masters, employers, and managers, even when they give orders, must treat employees and servants with dignity, respect and fairness. Abusive and degrading language and vindictive and harsh punishment should never be part of a Christian manager’s style of leadership. Employers can also foster a healthy work environment by offering training on the job or outside of it, to help the employee become a better person.
Employees who are believers should serve customers and employers as though they are serving Jesus Christ himself. This is not easy, especially if the customer is unreasonable, angry, tired and mouthy. How can the server at the deli or meat counter see Jesus and serve him if the physical human being in front of him is unreasonably demanding and verbally insulting? How can he obey cheerfully if the order was given in a demeaning way? It is only by faith and by the grace of God. We have faith to trust in God for eternal life, we need faith to see Jesus as we work in the world. Our work is service to him.
People would do well to ponder on what the book of Proverbs says about the relationship of sloth, laziness and poverty. For example, in Proverbs 20:4 the teacher writes: “Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing.”
Moreover, in chapter 6:6-11 the wise father instructs the son to examine the life of the ant and warns him about laziness because it leads to poverty.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Interestingly, verses 10-11 are used again in Proverbs 24:33-34 to support the example story in verses 30-31, in which the teacher observes:
30 I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;
31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
Moreover, Proverbs 26:13-16 teaches us that the lazy person comes up with outrageous excuses to avoid work.
13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
14 As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.
15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.[1]
16 A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven people who answer discreetly.
In fact, in connection with laziness and sleep in Proverbs 6:9-10 and 6:14, Solomon writes in Proverbs 19:15:Laziness bring on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry. However, in sharp contrast to laziness, diligent labor brings its just reward. In Proverbs 10:4, for example, Solomon observes: Lazy hands make a man poor; But diligent hands bring wealth. Similarly, in Proverbs 13:4 Solomon makes a similar contrast. A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
Some wonder why the owner of a company does not appreciate their labor by giving them a promotion or pay raise. The boss may be an ungrateful tightwad, but the problem might also be with the worker. Proverbs 10:26 suggests that laziness may be the problem: “As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send [hire] them.”
Unless our teaching is coupled with the student’s willingness to learn, our efforts will be in vain. How will teaching about financial management, about marriage and about the value of work be of any value unless a person has a desire to change? Teaching is worthwhile but results in no beneficial effect unless it is put into practice. As Theodore Dalrymple writes in his book, Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001), “the worst poverty . . . is not material poverty but poverty of soul” (p. 143). Discussing the case of a certain woman in his hospital in England with a colleague from India, Dalrymple concludes that her problem was not poverty. “Her problem was that she accepted no limits to her own behavior, that she did not fear the possibility of hunger, the condemnation of her own parents or neighbors, or God. In other words, the squalor of England was not economic but spiritual, moral, and cultural” (p. 139).
In his report The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, 1965, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan explains how Jim Crow discrimination in the South and lack of jobs for black males in the North, exacerbated by the post-war welfare program of aid to dependent children was destroying the African-American family. Influenced by these findings President Clinton pushed through welfare reform. In Michigan, the name for the welfare agency was changed to the Family Independence Council. Single mothers are now required to work, and instead of a stay-at-home mother caring for her children, she brings them to childcare, which is then subsidized by the government. And this is done for the sake of the children. The program has changed somewhat, but not the net effect. The infection of broken homes and welfare has spread to the white community and is increasing from one generation to the next.
[1] Cf. Prov 19:24.